Marley May, our seven-year-old rescue pitbull-whippet mix has offered her services as Dog of Honor for our upcoming nuptials. She wanted a special necklace to let our guests know her important status, so I made her one with burlap, ribbon, and silk flowers. It took about an hour to make and she's so goshdarn adorable with it on, I can hardly stand it!
Our wedding will be outdoors at a private yoga retreat in East Texas, so we're going for a rustic, laid back vibe. For Marley's necklace, I decided to use burlap and turquoise ribbon, but any fabric would work. Here's how you can recreate this Dog of Honor necklace for your own pooch…
Materials
- Burlap, or any fabric you want to use. (Side note: burlap likes to fray when cut so you might want to use some sort of non-fraying stuff. I didn't, but I know that it exists and is most likely available at any craft store.)
- Rotary cutter, or scissors
- Ribbon, long enough to tie around your pup's neck
- Fake flowers
- Wire cutters, or pliers
- Glue gun
- Acrylic paint
- Small paintbrush
Step 1: Using your rotary cutter, cut out a triangle of fabric. Marley is medium-sized, so my triangle was about six inches wide by seven inches long.
Step 2: Practice your lettering on a scrap piece of paper that's the same size as your triangle to make sure your spacing is good. You could use stencils if you have them, but I just did it free-hand. Using your acrylic paint and paintbrush, paint your letters on your burlap. I did one coat, let it dry, then came back for a second coat. Drying time took about 30 minutes each coat.
Step 3: Measure out your ribbon by chasing your dog around the house for 10 minutes. Make sure to leave enough ribbon to tie it around your dog's neck. Alternatively, you could measure out enough ribbon to go around your dog's collar and hot glue it to the collar if you wanted. Lucky for us, Marley doesn't stray too far off leash, so we're not worried about the collar situation on the wedding day.
How to dye your crinoline
This is a fabulous how-to from Tales of Female Husband, who offers her tips on dying your own colorful crinoline.
Step 4: Hot glue your burlap triangle to the ribbon.
Step 5: Grab your flowers. (I used small turquoise flowers.) Using your wire cutters or pliers, cut off the flowers from the stem, and try to cut them so no wire is poking out. The flowers I got worked like a dream and popped right off without any wire left. You don't want any pokey wires on your pup!
Step 6: Choose where you want your flowers. I put a couple on the ribbon, and then two on the bottom of the pennant. With burlap, you can easily poke the flower through the small holes and hot glue on both sides of the burlap to make sure they stay in place.
Step 7: Adorn your dog with her fancy-pants necklace and admire her like any proud parent.
This is a super-easy and super-adorable way to spiff up your dog, if you're including them in your ceremony!
That is adorable! Your dog looks just like our old pitbull.
Thank you!!! She normally doesn’t appreciate it when I dress her up (she once ate her halloween shark costume) so I thought this was an easy way to show her off! 🙂
Ahhhhh that’s so cute! If my dogs were allowed in our ceremony venue, I’d totes make this for them! Maybe I’ll make them “My parents just married!” necklaces for them and take them out to Petsmart/Petco the day after. Definitely saving this tutorial. What a beautiful pooch!
What a gorgeous girl! Fellow rescued pittie mama here 🙂 I wish you the happiest wedding day ever–“laid-back, small wedding at a private yoga retreat in the piney woods of East Texas full of vegan food, jalapeno margaritas, and karaoke!” sounds like my dream come true!
Beautiful and a great idea!
I’m in the UK and getting married in August 2015, this is perfect for my two dogs of honor 😉
Thanks for the idea! Have a lovely day xx
“you might want to use some sort of non-fraying stuff. I didn’t, but I know that it exists and is most likely available at any craft store.”
(Costumer Hat On) It’s called “Fray Stop” and yes, any craft/fabric store, because it’s a good thing to have in your “Oh Shit Kit” for day-of emergencies. You can also use “Fabritack” which is kind of designed to be superglue for fabric for fast repairs but would work to glue on flowers, etc. as well. Fabritack will show on the edges of something like burlap, though, so Fray Stop (or just plain ol’ clear nail polish) would probably be best. (Costumer Hat Off)
Pit bull and Whippet. So she’s a Pippet? Or a Whit Bull? 😉 I kid because I love pibbles and help run a rescue for bully types. Sadly, no dogs at our ceremony, though. The cat that owns the venue has put the Fear of Bast into every dog in the neighborhood, including the two Rottweilers that live across the street. Congrats on your wedding and your beautiful pibble girl!