Ring Dog. Or not.

I was never really one to dream about my wedding day. But once I got engaged, the one thing I knew I wanted was a Ring Dog. Yes, that's right, Ring Dog. As in, furry ring bearer.

I grew up with dogs and my parents currently have three:

from l to r: Sherman, Jake, Archie

Archie doesn't do well with crowds (he was abused so you can't really blame him) and Sherman is sort of spacey (if you can't already tell from the picture), so Jake was always my main Ring Dog contender. Plus, I've known him the longest.

I'm not kidding when I say these three are a major part of our family. To say we love our dogs is a complete understatement. And I loved the idea of including them in our wedding day. Other people have used dogs in their weddings to great effect. Check out this montage posted by the always fantastic Green Wedding Shoes.

My mom was unmoved by such delightful pics (love the pug in the tux!) and remained firmly anti Ring Dog.

Then I stumbled across this in Etsy seller reggieana's shop:


Is that not the most amazing thing you've ever seen?

I persisted with my Ring Dog campaign, but my mom was still worried about, um, behavior issues. She peppered me with questions. What if a cat walks by? What if Frisky walks by? (Frisky Kennedy, cat nemesis extraordinaire). What if Jake whines during the ceremony? She reminded me of the time they brought Jake to college to visit me and he ran in the dorm and promptly pooped on the floor from nervousness. Maybe I could just rent a well-behaved wiener dog like the picture?

Then, I went home a few weeks ago to find that my Mom had uncovered the ring pillow she used in her wedding, which was made by my great-grandmother, who passed away just last year at the age of 99. I couldn't fathom not using it and I also couldn't really picture strapping my new-found heirloom to Jake's back.

So we arrived at a compromise: I'll buy bow ties for the dogs and take pictures with them beforehand, and use the ring pillow (carried by FH's adorable nephew) for the ceremony.

Has anyone else thought about incorporating pets into their wedding day?