As a mother of 2 kids and also a dog, and 2 rabbits, but I think we will leave them out of the wedding ceremony for now. I love including kids and animals in the wedding day. Kids are total winners when it comes to the cute factor, but also if it is a blended family then it is really lovely to include all of them in the process and on your wedding day.
If you have children or pets, either your own, or nieces and nephews, chosen or otherwise that you would like to include in the ceremony, then here are some ideas of how to include kids and dogs in your wedding.
- Have the kids do a combined reading. This could be something they have chosen or that I can recommend, or something they have written themselves.
- You can choose to give ‘surprise gifts’ to the kids in the ceremony, similar to you both exchanging rings, but you give a gift to the kids. An example may be, for one wedding the older son, a teenager, was gifted a watch and the young daughter was gifted a beautiful necklace.
- You could say vows to the kids, if you are a ‘step’ parent then perhaps saying some vows to your step children, or alternatively, maybe you already have kids together, you could say some special words to them.
- The kids could do a performance, a song, a dance, a recital of some sort, this can happen when you are signing the paperwork.
- The kids could lead a ritual, perhaps a *ring warming or ask questions to all of the guests, rather than the wedding celebrant do that.
- The kids could write some ‘surprise’ vows for their parents to read, either to them or to each other.
- The kids could lead the ‘walk-in’ this is a more common way to include them, as they walk out they throw petals or shoot a bubble gun. A bubble guard at the end of the ceremony for the photos is also lovely.
- If your dog is well behaved (said everyone haha) you could have the rings on the collar of your favourite furry friend.
- You could have your vow cards delivered by your favourite furry friend.
- If your dog is super well behaved, they could lead the procession with a flower in their mouth.
The one thing to remember is that kids will do what they want during the ceremony, so be open to that, as sometimes it is easier to just go with the flow and let them feel comfortable. They may choose to read and then freak out on the day and you need to be ok with that. I remember once a bride had to breastfeed during her vows and we just went with it and that was ok.
