Best friend, best man but not always a good boy at a wedding
THE new wedding trend is dogs becoming part of the wedding party. But things don’t always go to plan when the fur baby of the family is running the show.
NSW
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HE might have had the duties of a Best Man but he wasn’t really a good boy.
Basil had one job — to walk down the aisle and deliver the rings but instead he went walkies through the crowd.
Still, it’s hard to remember what to do at a wedding when you’re nine years old — and a dachshund.
It’s all part of a modern wedding trend that now has its own Instagram hashtag #dogwedding, where canine companions perform the duties of best men, flower girls and ring bearers.
Belle and Matt Hurley were happy to let Basil steal their big moment.
“Basil was Matt’s 21st birthday present so it would have been weird for him not to be there, but he didn’t behave, it was very funny,” Mrs Hurley told The Sunday Telegraph.
“When the celebrant announced him as our ring bearer he had to say hello to everyone first.”
Wedding celebrant Heidi Robertson from Byron Bay said it was a fun trend.
“I recently did one at Bilongil beach where the pug Wiggy was the ring bearer. I know as a dog owner myself that dogs are just part of the family, the dog is the furry child and people want them to be involved,” she said.
There is even a business that caters for the canine companion at weddings. Amy Christie runs Wedding Paws out at Emu Plains and got the idea after her own dog-filled wedding.
“I pick up their pets, dress them for the ceremony, walk them down the aisle and care for them while the ceremony is taking place,” Mrs Christie said.
Catelyn and Gary Bergin from Kings Park married at Long Reef Golf Club last month. “Kassie was our flower girl and Tank was our ring bearer,” Mrs Bergin, 27.
“Gary bought Tank off me as a puppy and we just hit it off and the rest is history, so Tank was a big part of us being together,” she said.
In Celia Lee and George Hsu’s official wedding party photo, Berkeley the cavoodle takes centre position.
“We treat him like our son. We don’t have children, so he is an integral part of our family so there was no question, he had to be at the wedding,” Ms Lee told The Sunday Telegraph.
Zeppelin the bulldog is so much a part of the Heath family, he walked the bride down the aisle at their Easter Saturday wedding in Wootton last month.
Brooke and Ben Heath have a six-month-old baby girl but Zeppelin came first.
“He is part of our family, he is more human than dog, we have a child but he was our first baby, he just had to be part of it,” Mrs Heath said.