Wedding Dogs: A Celebration of Holy Muttrimony

Dogs attend weddings, often making up the bridal party, in this lighthearted catalogue of four-legged matrimonial revelers. Toepfer writes: "When my parents were married, my dad's best man was a Labrador and my mum's maid-of-honor was a Dalmatian." A broad range of weddings, breeds, and locations are covered. Each wedding features a canine photograph and comments from the newlyweds. An "exuberant kiss" is planted on a bride in Montreal, a lathering, in fact. Bride Casi in Virginia recalls, "The dogs totally outshined me at my own wedding!" Kelly, whose pugs couldn't make the ceremony, made pug cake toppers, had pug buttons hidden in her bouquet, and included pix of the three pugs on the wedding announcement. Outdoor weddings show a more appropriate environment for the shaggy guests, being amenable to common complaints of barks and rowdiness. A great picture of a hulking mastiff mix shows him absconding with the bride's bouquet; perhaps a greater infraction occurs when "Romeo, enthralled by his mistress's dress, immediately grabbed a mouthful and commenced a one-sided game of tug-of-war." Chipper captions work in tandem with precious pictures of dapper canines: "While other guests shed tears of joy, Addie merely shed." 75 photos. (Apr.)