How To Incorporate Your Dog In Your Wedding Photos

Your wedding day is approaching, and you’re considering allowing your four-legged baby to join you for some of your South Carolina wedding photographs. Look! I get it! They are part of the family and who wouldn’t want photographs with their pup, right? So let’s break down how to incorporate your dogs into your wedding photographs safely and effectively. 

South Carolina Wedding Pups

The first thing you have to consider when it comes to incorporating the dogs into your wedding photographs is the coordination with your South Carolina wedding photographer when your dog needs to be at your venue for your photos and when your dog should head on home.

As a wedding photographer of over nine years, I suggest that all of my couples plan a specific time during their day for their photos with their pup. Prior to their wedding day, I made all of my couples a customized timeline for photography, so when it comes to couples with dogs a timeline makes it super easy to plan for when the pup should arrive.

Let Your Pup Get Used To Your South Carolina Venue

I suggest that all couples who want their dogs in their wedding photographs to plan to have your dog arrive 30 minutes before when your photographer will begin taking photos with them. This allows your dog to get used to the venue, walk around and do a few sniffs, and get out any nervous energy they may have. This will also allow for a little bit of wiggle room during your day should something run over or you be a bit late to those photos, your dog will be ready when you are!

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The Pup Handler

The next thing to keep in mind when planning to incorporate your dogs into your South Carolina wedding photos is making sure that you have a dedicated handler for your pups for the wedding day. This dedicated pup-handler should be at your wedding day’s to only take care of what your dog may need. I suggest that this person arrives with your dogs 30 minutes before you begin your photos, and that they bring the pups back into a safe and steady environment once your images are complete.

I would absolutely not suggest that the person who handles the dogs be one of your wedding party members! Your dog handler for your wedding day should be someone who is only there to take care of your dogs and facilitate wedding photographs with your dogs. Juggling tasks between being a wedding party member and your pups handler could be very stressful for someone and could result in less photos of you and your pup!

Can Your Venue Incorporate Your Wedding Dog?

Another thing to keep in mind when deciding if you would like wedding photos with your dog are the rules of your wedding venue. I would suggest reaching out to your contact at your wedding venue and making sure that having your dog along for a few minutes on your wedding day is totally okay with your venue.. You never know what safety concerns might come up for your pup, and it is important that your venue and the planning and coordination team know if there is going to be a four-legged baby in the vicinity. For Austin and Holley’s wedding at 701 Whaley, they made sure it was A-Okay to have their pup brought with their handler for their South Carolina wedding photos.

This is especially important when it comes to venues with ponds or lakes, as large predators may be hiding underneath the water that could target dogs. We want to make sure that both you, your family, and your pup have a wonderful South Carolina wedding day and a part of that is informing your venue beforehand of your plans to incorporate your dog in your wedding photos.

How To Incorporate Your Dog In Your Wedding Photos

Ensuring your dog arrives at your venue early to get comfortable, having a dedicated dog handler for your wedding day, and getting permission from your venue to invite your dog for a few minutes for photos are the three main things to keep in mind if you plan to have your dogs in your wedding photographs. Incorporating your pups into your wedding photographs will result in timeless images with your furry family members.

Ready To Incorporate Your Dog Into Your Wedding Photos? Click Here!

If you’re looking for a photographer in the Columbia South Carolina area who has experience photographing dogs at weddings, you found your team! Whenever you’re ready, reach out via our contact page, and we will help you plan and incorporate your dogs into your wedding photos flawlessly.