Pets and Weddings
As the 70 wedding guests of Sandra Elor and David Williams gathered at Stonehaven Farm in Harrow, ON, they had no idea what was in store.
They had been told they would be attending a garden wedding, but nobody said anything about horses.
Even the parents of the bride and groom were caught off guard when they saw their children make their grand entrance at the ceremony on horseback.
"The guests were shocked," says Sandra. "We kept it all a big secret."
Visions of Camelot surely danced through their heads, as the guests watched David, in full dressage, enter the arena on the back of a gorgeous black gelding named Lazaar.
When his beaming bride followed, riding sidesaddle on Freespirit, a gentle Arabian mare, a hush fell over the audience.
Without as much as a nay from the horses, the couple calmly said their vows, making official, their status as husband and wife. It was only when the two newlyweds leaned over to give each other a kiss, that the horses got restless.
"Lazaar tried to kiss Freespirit, but she nipped him," says Sandra.
Sandra and David decided to get married on horseback for obvious reasons: they both love horses, and they both enjoy equestrian riding.
"Basically, we wanted to incorporate something that we really enjoy doing together, and that was riding horses," she explains, adding that they had been taking English riding lessons together for a year prior to the wedding, and that each of them owned a horse.
The horses that participated in the wedding, however, were borrowed from friends.
"They were experienced being around crowds because both had competed in a lot of shows," says Sandra.
Amazingly, it took the couple only three days to plan the entire wedding.
"We decided on Monday to have the wedding on Thursday," says David.
After hearing about the couple's plans, friends and fellow horse-lovers immediately got to work decorating Stonehaven, and preparing the horses for the big day.
"The horses had to be bathed the morning of the wedding, their manes had to be braided, and their hooves had to be polished," says Sandra.
Both Sandra and David have fond memories of their wedding day.
"It was a success," says Sandra. "And we couldn't have done it without everybody's help."
Although they didn't arrive at their wedding ceremony on horseback, Deanne and Andy Vetor also involved a four-legged friend on their big day.
Because the Vetors, who were married on September 12, 1998 in Amherstburg's Navy Yard Park, had no young nieces, nephews or cousins, the couple bestowed the honour of ringbearer on their beloved Staffordshire bull terrier, Scotch.
With a ring-filled satchel tied around her collar, the good natured canine was led by leash to the altar, where she patiently waited for her cue.
"She was really good. She just sat there, and watched what was going on," says Deanne, a veterinary assistant at Brack Animal Hospital.
When the time came to offer up the rings, the groom's best man knelt to retrieve the rings from Scotch, who obliged without even a bark.
"It worked out great," says Deanne. "She just looked at everybody and wagged her tail all excited."
Gloria Steacy, an ordained minister and owner of Royal Wedding Gardens & Chapel in LaSalle, says that although it is not the norm for couples to include pets in their weddings, the Williams and Vetors are far from being the only ones.
Steacy recalls a wedding ceremony at the Ciociaro Club, where Ten Labrador retrievers were in attendance.
Steacy explains that the dogs, which were all from the same litter and owned by various members of the bride and groom's family, sat quietly together near the altar as the couple said their vows.
"There were all these dogs sitting there all prim and proper. They just sat there like they had been trained to do that forever," she says.
Steacy says she has also conducted weddings that have included other cherished pets, including cats.
She recalls a medieval theme wedding where the bride and groom's two cats sat in cages near the altar during the ceremony.
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