Bride Choosee Her Dog Over Her Nephew for Ring Bearer and Now There's Drama

When you are getting married, you should have the day you want. It's easy to get caught up in other people's expectations for your big day, but if you remember that it's your celebration, your love fest, then you can't go wrong. And that includes having your dog as your ring bearer. 

Listen, it's always adorable to include your pet in your wedding ceremony. Especially if it's a pet who you've had since day one of your relationship. And that's exactly the case for the couple who recently took to Reddit to ask if they were wrong for choosing their dog to be the ring bearer for their wedding over their human nephew. 

Fatherofthedog explains that he and his girlfriend have been dating for four years, engaged for one year, and that their wedding is in one month. They started dating right when he got his dog, Shelley, and the three of them have been together ever since. 

Shelley is super well-behaved, knows a bunch of tricks, and they "thought it would be funny and memorable if she was the ring bearer for our wedding ceremony." And I agree! They got her a funny t-shirt, and are teaching her to hold the ring basket and everything!

I think this is an adorable idea. Anyone who has lived with pets knows that they truly are part of your family. When we were planning our wedding, it was never a question that our dog would be there with us for the big day. It just had to happen, so I get it.  

But they've run into an issue. Both of their families are very excited about the wedding, including his fiancée's 10-year-old nephew. When they were at a family BBQ one day, her sister came up to them with the nephew and told them he had a question for them. He quietly asked if he could be the ring bearer for their wedding. 

They thought it was really adorable, but they told him they'd already picked out someone to be the ring bearer, which is very reasonable. They offered to let him help in another way, which he agreed to, "but he definitely looked like he was about to cry." 

Later, when his fiancée was talking to her sister, it came out that their dog was going to be the ring bearer, and "Things got pretty uncomfortable. There was no shouting or anything but we both could tell her sister and her sister's husband were pissed so we left."

Both he and his fiancée want Shelley to be the ring bearer, and they know that this is their wedding, a day for the two of them, and most other family members are supportive of them doing what they want. But they're still concerned that this decision will cause a rift in their family. 

When you consider the whole scope of things, he thinks not having Shelley as their ring bearer is "kind of a small thing to sacrifice to smooth things over with the family, and it's not like Shelley is going to care." 

While that may be true, if this is the thing that causes a rift in your family, that's absurd. It's not like they refused their nephew a role in the wedding altogether. He clearly wanted to be involved, they thought that was cute, and they offered to find him something to do! That should have been totally enough, and luckily, most commenters agreed. 

One commenter wrote that it honestly sounded like the nephew's parents set him up to be disappointed and then got mad, which sounds accurate to me. They also said, "Being in someone's wedding isn't something you ask to do, it's something you're asked to do. You're not doing anything wrong by choosing your dog. It's cute." Amen. Seriously. 

It's very nice that they are concerned about including their family members in their wedding. But their unit is the two of them and Shelley the dog. Even though Shelley might not know what's going on that day, they will, and that's what matters.