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Published by admin on January 11, 2019

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If you love your pets, when searching for a wedding venue the number one deciding factor may be whether they will allow your babies to come with you. It’s much easier these days to find pet-friendly lodging, but what about a place to get married? Your fur baby sure won’t want to sit all alone back at your hotel or cabin during your ceremony and reception.

Here are a few things to ask wedding venues during your research:

1) Do you allow pets?
2) Do you allow all types of pets, or are there restrictions?
3) Are all sizes of pets allowed?
4) Are my pets allowed both inside and outside the venue?
5) Can my pets participate in the wedding ceremony?
6) Do you provide bowls of water?
7) Is there a safe, quiet room for a crate if needed?
8) Is there plenty of room for my dogs to run and play?
9) Is your staff friendly toward animals?

Our Honeysuckle Hills venue will answer “YES” to every question above! When we say we allow animals, we truly mean it. After all, our little red barn used to be a working farm for black angus cattle. We now have two horses we use for wedding photography, a black lab named Daisy in the office, and Regina has two rescued squirrels living in her wooded backyard at home.

Squirrel!

Pardon me… I was distracted there for a minute.

Most people coming to the Smoky Mountains to get married travel here for a reason. We have natural beauty all around us with a safe place set aside for God’s wild kingdom in the National Park. Deer, bear and raccoons are just a few of the fuzzy creatures you may encounter. Just don’t feed the bears. Seriously, it is literally lethal to them.

Melissa and Stephen chose the Tennessee mountains for their destination wedding vow renewal this past fall. Married for fifteen years, their little dog, “Sherlock,” is their baby. Since Sherlock goes everywhere with them, it was a must to include him in the ceremony. He made me laugh so many times, but especially when he licked Melissa square on the lips during the photography!

Betty and Charles brought an entirely different breed of dog to their wedding. Ha! They didn’t actually bring dogs at all, they brought two miniature pygmy goats! I’ll never forget that first phone call Charles made to me asking sheepishly, “Do you allow goats in weddings?” I sat straight up in my chair when answering, “Absolutely!” This made Charles happy, too, because Betty refused to marry him unless he found a place the goats could go, too. They arrived just like dogs, in the front seat of the truck with their humans. Betty walked them down the aisle to their ceremony location on our arched bridge, and if that doesn’t make you go, “Awwwww” then nothing will!

Apparently, cats don’t like to travel, which makes a challenging predicament for a kitty lover who decides on a destination wedding. Yes, we have had a cat before… but I have to be honest by saying at times he looked grumpy. Since cats aren’t the most common pet we see at Honeysuckle Hills, maybe I just misunderstood his resting cat face. I’ve watched plenty of crazy videos about swimming cats, ones who flush the potty, and ones who sit on their owner’s shoulder everywhere they go.

But if you can’t bring your super kitty with you when you get married, here’s a genius idea! Consider super cute kitty cardboard cut-outs. That’s what Sandi did for her summer wedding with reception here at the barn! She also let her sister bring her sweet little puppy, who was included in the ceremony, dancing, and wedding photographs.

Our coordinator’s daughter and my assistant secretly photographed the kitty cutouts in different locations at our venue. With the utmost attention to detail, they even put headphones on one kitty at the DJ’s station in our covered pavilion.

Now you know there’s really no excuse to leave your pets at home when you get married. Our wedding venue welcomes your pets with open arms. Book a wedding here and your critter babies will jump for joy and make the day unforgettable!