OWL ATTACK!

Do you need an owl as a ringbearer? It’s just one of the animals (humans included in costumes) that I’ve seen bring a ring to the ceremony table. But do you need an owl?

Well… not really.

You can have an owl. You can also have a mariachi band, a confetti cannon operated by a dog, and your cousin Garry reading poetry from a kayak in the pond behind the ceremony arch. But the question isn’t whether you can. It’s whether you should, or need to.

Let’s take ring-bearing birds for example.

Owls are majestic. Wise, even. But when they don’t fancy flying on cue, or they mistake grandma for prey, you quickly learn that nature doesn’t always follow the running order. If you really do need a bird, owls are generally, for some reason, the best winged creatures for this task. By experience. Most seem a little scatty to me, you might as well employ a seagull.

We had a beautiful hawk at an outdoor ceremony I was photographing in 2018, so it was a while ago, granted. I do remember though that it set off down the aisle, missed the outstretched arm of the best man, whose job it was to take the ring box from said hawk, somehow connected to a leg, only he couldn’t because the true aim of the bird was to go and sit 30 or so feet up in a tree, and then look down, for the rest of the ceremony. With ring.

This isn’t a ban on birds or a judgment on creativity. It’s a gentle nudge to think beyond the trend. Ask yourself: Is this going to help make the moment better, or is it going to become the moment?

Because your vows, your guests' emotion, the toast where someone finally holds it together just long enough to get the words out, those are the bits you’ll come back to.

Spend your money on stuff that matters. Like, hint hint, photography, just saying.

So, can I just offer a little nudge of calm?

You see, weddings already come with enough moving parts. There are timelines. There are guests who think RSVP is a suggestion, and of course, there’s Uncle Derek, who’s managed to lose both his tie and his dignity before the canapés have even been brought out. So when you add an exotic animal to the mix, you’re not just adding charm and Instagrammability. You're also adding unpredictability. The thing is, simplicity often wins the day. When the focus stays on you, your partner, and the reason you're both there, not on whether the falcon will follow stage directions, you’ll remember the feeling more than the spectacle.

Of course, if a creature feature is part of your plan, by all means go ahead. Just make sure you’re asking the right questions. Is there a Plan B? Does the handler know weddings? And perhaps most important of all: have you run it past the registrar?

Sometimes, the best “wow” moments aren’t the ones you hired. They’re the spontaneous glances, the tears caught just before they fall, or the just-married kiss that gets a little too enthusiastic and knocks over the mic stand.

You don’t need an out-of-control bird of prey to have a wedding with character. You’re bringing that already, the character that is.