By the time anyone gets married at this point, there are hundreds if not thousands of years of wedding traditions behind them.
And if planning a wedding wasn’t already stressful enough, living up to those traditions can be an alienating and costly enterprise since the industry at large knows them just as well as any family does.
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But who said a couple needs those traditions anyway? They’re the ones getting married and as such, it’s up to them what they want to emphasize and celebrate. So we’re seeing an increasing number of brides do things their way and that can mean showing up in their favorite footwear or getting more creative and swapping out the flowers for donuts .
For one bride, however, there was one thing that needed to happen before her wedding could possibly be considered a success. And it involved a very special member of the family.
When Hana Brickman was still getting to know her now-husband Jared, it quickly became clear how much they had in common.
As they expressed in their vows , both are Disney fanatics who promised to never lose their senses of childlike wonder as they go through life together.
But just as important to them is their love of dogs. According to Insider , they met at a service dog training program and quickly bonded over their pets.
So it’s not exactly a surprise to hear that they incorporated their beloved pooches into their wedding, but we also shouldn’t underestimate how much one moment mattered to Hana in particular.
As she said , “My only request for my wedding was to have a first look with my dog.”
Specifically, she meant her golden retriever named Gumbo, who she considers her “soul” dog.
And it seems Gumbo gained this special role for her after the passing of her beloved dog Pancakes.
Indeed, Jared mentioned in his vows that Hana considered Pancakes her “favorite valentine” in the 14 years they shared together.
But while the prospect of capturing such an important moment for Hana seemed a little uncertain because animals can be hard to plan video projects around, we can see that it couldn’t have gone smoother.
As videographer Ben Leisman said, that was partially because someone was able to take Gumbo for a run and use up enough of its energy that it kept still.
It also helped that Gumbo was at the rehearsal dinner, which helped the dog acclimate to both the environment the shoot would take place in and the number of people who would be there.
And while it was a little more chaotic when the couple involved their other dogs Maple and Aslan, the fact that they wandered off to say hello to random guests was well worth having them there.
As the couple told Insider, “Their presence made us happier, but also just helped to put a stamp of ‘us-ness’ on the day we otherwise wouldn’t have had.”
h/t: Insider , Instagram | @ pacificnorthwestimagery
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