An Iowa dog lover found an adorable way to integrate puppies into her wedding.
Samantha Clark, 23, always imagined her wedding day would involve puppies.
On Saturday, Samantha borrowed six adorable puppies from a local shelter for the wedding party to carry instead of bouquets.
The Chiweenie puppies – which is a chihuahua and dachshund mix – will turn eight weeks old this week.
Other than the cuteness overload in photographs and videos from the ceremony, Samantha wanted try and raise awareness for rescue dogs and AHeinz57 Pet Rescue and Transport.
Samantha and Kendel Clark used puppies instead of bouquets at their wedding on Saturday
Samantha, 23, told Daily Mail she always imagined her wedding day would involve puppies
Samantha credits Pinterest with the idea. ‘I think I saw a picture once of bridesmaids holding puppies and from there everything just fell into place,’ she said
Samantha has loved dogs for all of her life. She and her husband have three
The Chiweenie puppies – a chihuahua and dachshund mix – will turn eight weeks old this week
Samantha and her new husband Kendel Clark live in Pleasantville, Iowa, where Kendel is a foreman and Samantha is a neonatal intensive care nurse.
They have three dogs named Bella, Wilson and Millie.
‘We are obliviously huge animal lovers, but especially dog lovers,’ Samantha told DailyMail.com. ‘So far we have not adopted a wedding puppy…but I’m working on it.’
Samantha credits Pinterest with the idea.
‘I think I saw a picture once of bridesmaids holding puppies and from there everything just fell into place,’ she said.
‘It was always a dream of mine to have puppies at my wedding, but never thought it would actually come true!’
Samantha said the couple have not adopted one of the wedding puppy but she’s ‘working on it’
The puppies were provided by AHeinz57 Pet Rescue and Transport from DeSoto, Iowa
Samantha said that they were the most well-behaved puppies she’d ever interacted with
When asked if there were any potty accidents at the wedding Samantha said the dogs were ‘perfect’.
‘They were the most well-behaved puppies I’ve ever interacted with,’ she said. ‘It was like they knew they were there for business.’
When the bridesmaids made their way down the aisle with the little dogs in hand, everyone gasped and ‘loved it’.
When the bridesmaids walked down the aisle with the puppies in hand, everyone gasped
None of the puppies had any potty accidents at the event, thankfully
Samantha’s husband Kendel skeptical of the idea at first.
‘He expected the puppies to be bigger, louder and assumed they would squirm and cry,’ she said. ‘But they did none of that.
‘At some point in the night he told me it went perfectly, better than he could have imagined.’
Samantha said Kendel ‘knew what he was getting himself into’ when he married her.
In his vows he said: ‘…and that all baby animals need you as their mother.’
Samantha said the puppies’ foster mom attended the ceremony and took them home after the event. They will be up for adoption soon.
Earlier this month, the animal shelter traveled to Texas and saved 96 dogs and five cats displaced by Hurricane Harvey. One of the dogs from Texas had nine puppies on Labor Day.
At the reception there was also a binder with photos of adoptable dogs.
AHeinz57 provided a binder with adoptable dogs at the reception next to a sign that reads: ‘You can’t buy love but you can rescue it’
Samantha said that the shelter has an adoption process so no dogs could be taken home directly from the wedding.
She said one of her photographers is waiting to hear if her application has been approved. She plans to name the pup Ruby.
All of the proceeds raised from the dollar dance, where guests throw money at the couple on the dance floor, will go to AHeinz57.
On Sunday the shelter shared photos of Samantha and her bridesmaids holding the puppies on Facebook. The post went viral and has over 3,000 interactions and more than 300 shares as of midday Tuesday.
Samantha did not expect to get so much attention.
‘This is all really incredible,’ she said. ‘My goal with this was to raise awareness to the rescue and get some pups adopted.’
Samantha said her wedding day was a ‘flawless’ dream come true