Animals in the Wedding party?

Tangled Ever After

or

79 good reasons not to include animals in your ceremony!

Gotta love some Disney...and yes this is 6 minutes and 29 seconds of your life you won't get back if you click, but there is a slightly serious side to this post too...

I am very happy to have family dogs involved in ceremonies...and last weekend I had a 'Best Pug' and 'Brides Pug' for the first time! But I really am not keen on the birds of prey bringing the rings thing.

There are lots of celebrants who are very happy to do this, so I can easily put you in touch with someone who will, but I'd like to explain my reasoning.

I have only done this once, I was very unsure about the whole idea and to my mind it did not go well...but maybe not in the way you'd expect...

The owl didn't actually have the rings (the best man had them, so that side of it was fake) and it did fly down to the Best man, Grab the chickens foot he was holding, and as he didn't catch the straps to keep it on the glove quickly enough, it promptly flew up to the chandelier and stayed there...

In a cartoon like the one above, this is properly funny, but in real life? Not so much.

The bride, groom and guests were in kinks – except for the few who were genuinely shaking in terror as they hated birds, and especially birds indoors. Despite having been told to be super quiet and not to use flash photography while the wee owl was in the room, everyone soon forgot in the hilarity, and folk were leaning around trying to get a shot of the owl up on high, as the handler tried to lure it down again.

We eventually managed to restore a bit of calm, and a new chickens foot was found, and the owl returned to the handlers glove…only for a huge spontaneous round of applause to start at her success. That was the last straw for the owl, the noise bouncing off the stone walls, and it was actually shrieking in distress as it was taken back outside.

So, all in all not my cup of tea.

Is it animal cruelty? Possibly. Circus act? Heading that way…and unless I find myself conducting the wedding of an actual falconer, next to a mews, with only 5 guests, who is having their pet raptor join in, in a ceremony that is guaranteed to be outside – no matter what the weather does -  I’ll stick with enjoying the Disney version, and not be trying that again!