Fond wedding memories and why we chose a doodle.

[Bonne Bouche]

This summer my husband and I have three weddings to attend; his cousin, his brother, and my best friend are all getting married. All this wedding stuff this summer has me so fondly remembering mine. It was only 9 months ago, but it seems like forever. I had an amazing time planning mine. I loved pretty much every second of it, both the planning and the wedding. It came together like a dream. Now I'm sad its over.

 

His cousin is getting married this weekend, so I went back and watched our wedding videos, and thought I might share them with my DK friends. I hope you don't mind, I feel a little silly...

  

 

 

(the condensed video ^)

 

A video of just the ceremony and beach:

 

 

The wedding reception:

 

 

What might sound very odd, is that while we didn't have Bonne Bouche at the time of our wedding, I still strongly associate him, and why we chose him, with the outer banks and our wedding.

 

Here's a bit of our backstory, and why we chose a goldendoodle.

 

My husband and I live in central Pennsylvania, although I grew up near the Pittsburgh area, and him in the Rochester, NY area. I am a long time dog lover, and have had several amazing family dogs growing up, Bonne Bouche is Nick's first and before BB never considered himself a "dog person". I've known that a Goldendoodle would be our first, ever since first meeting one in September of 2009. Nick and I were on our way to the Outer Banks for a 5 day vacation and wedding planning spree. We stopped right before getting on the island at our favorite Farm Stand after the long drive. While there we came across a woman who had a dog that we could not pinpoint the breed (my husband and I often play a "guess the breed" game, where we guess the breed, usually he guesses and I tell him if he's right ;-]). When we went over and asked the owner, we ended up talking with her for about 10 minutes during which time we petted, played with, and fell in love with Doodle Bug. (I've looked for her briefly here on DK and don't think she's a DKer :-[). If we could have, we would have both scooped Doodle Bug up and just taken her! We talked about her all the time and how cute, friendly, soft, loving, and all around perfect she was. At that moment we knew we had to have a Doodle. We went home and researched and decided tha when it was time for us to get our first dog, a doodle it would be!

 

Then, a year later on the Outer Banks, days before our wedding when we were taking our engagement photos, we ran into a couple that had a Goldendoodle and Labradoodle. We asked our photographer to take a photo of us. I think the photos here are with the Labradoodle (Can't remember which was which, but I'm pretty sure the GD was a bit camera shy, and the photo is of the Labradoodle). I think at that point we decided it was fate, and a GoldenDoodle was destined to be our first dog. Almost six months exactly after our wedding, our beautiful black BB came home with us, and in September of this year he'll be joining us at our yearly vacation on the Outerbanks for his first trip to the ocean! I can hardly wait!

 

 

 

 

 

When did you know a Doodle was for you?

[Harley Girl & Linda Neff]

Hi!  I take Harley to the Rotty Den Learning Center in Milesburg.  Elaince Swancer is the teacher/owner. We did puppy classes there too when Harley was about 6 months or so old.

[Bonne Bouche]

Oh! I loved reading each one of your post/responses. I wish I could easily "reply" to everyone individually (in discussion thread format).

Sherri, I loved your story, and I'm so happy that you got Sophie, despite the order she was on your list!

Kaytlin, I'm glad your breeder introduced you to DK. I love how doodles are referred to as the Teddy Bear dogs, I find that to be fitting to, like their little "bear butts!" ;-]

Lisa, Thanks for sharing your story in your blog post, too. I enjoyed reading it. We'll have to have Daisy and BB a play date sometime, we don't live too far away!

 

Thank you for all your kind words, and thank you for sharing your stories with me, it really is fascinating to hear how everyone chooses these, and how many of us have just met one and "knew"-- like love at first sight! ;-]

 

The wedding we went to last weekend was beautiful, a funny anecdote to "conclude" with: My brother-in-law has been telling my nephew (about 3 years old) for the past few weeks that they were going to take a trip to another wedding. Upon arriving, his dad told him that they were there. Little nephew responded, "but there's no sand?" :-]

[Camilla and Darwin]

Your wedding videos are lovely, and the location looks so gorgeous! Thanks for sharing your memories and the story of choosing what breed you wanted. You made a great choice! :-)

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

Thanks for sharing these memories with us. I don't have a romantic story like yours. When I decided to turn down a scholorhsip to do my masters degree in Switzerland because I wanted to stay put and settle down, even if it meant 'nesting' on my own, I decided I'd fulfill my lifelong dream of getting a dog. The first step was to move to a dog friendly apartment on the otherside of downtown, and once that was done I started doing my homework. People kept telling me it would be a mistake, too much work, too hard for a single person, it would ruin my social life, bla bla bla. But when I know I want something I go for it.  Friends of mine have a goldendoodle named Kaz, and when I met Kaz I knew I wanted a dog just like him - a big, clumbsy, goofy, shaggy dog. I went around to a few shelters and they told me it's very rare that they see doodles or PWDs in shelter, but I registered on their waiting lists and waited a couple of months, with no luck (I had no idea about DRC). I was leaning toward a Portuguese Water Dog and went to visit a breeder. Having done lots of research I knew what to look for in a breeder, and I knew this wasn't it. Then I happened across a breeder of labradoodles who had the perfect litter of puppies who had just been born and they were just the cutest little things. The week they were being assigned to people, at 6 weeks, I got a terrible flu and couldn't make the drive so I had to chose based on pictures and descriptions of their personalities as they grew. The breeder said she would ultimately decide based on the puppies temperament and energy level (I'm not sure how you can tell so young but anyway...). I told her my favourites, but also told her I wanted a dark chocolate one. She ended up assinging me the one that was my second last pick from the 7 puppies. She looked grumpy in her photo so I wasn't sure about her. Well when she posted the updated photos I knew I did well. Sophie Bear was the cutest one in the bunch (ok, perhaps I'm biased, but I seriously think she was). I'll never forget her little sleepy face the day I picked her up in the airport. She has been my heart and soul ever since.

[Kyoko]

Wow, the first one is almost like a music video. Sooo pretty....

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Funny cause our doodle adventure started much the same way as yours. We went on a Cancer Walk...at that time we were thinking about another dog and we knew it had to be a dood cause I have asthma and our dog that passed was a dood (at least we knew his mom was a poodle). 

There were 3 doodles at the walk, one was an FI Labradoodle, adorable, straight haired and shed terribly. He was ever so cute but the shedding really turned me off. There was another there as well another F1 Labradoodle but absolutely no shedding and curlier. I fell in love. WE went on our walk and came upon the 3rd one...an F1b - Goldendoodle. Well I was sold. It was the year of wedding planning as well, my DD's wedding, and we really did not have time for a puppy...so we waited and entire year.

DD's wedding was Oct 9th, 2009, Daisy was born Oct 27th, 2009...we found her the first week of November, went and met her (3 hours away) at 4 weeks and picked her up the week after Christmas at 9 weeks old.The rest is history. I will probably never own another dog except a doodle.

Carla your wedding ceremony was beautiful...DD's was outdoors as well in a national park. I think I now may watch our video again. :o)

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

aww what a lovely story :)

 

Cooper was the first ever doodle I saw "in person" and the first time I saw her was when she was hand delivered to my door!

 

I grew up with cats, DH grew up with dogs - growing up he had a lab, collie, and an american eskimo The lab was his favourite! We always said we would get a dog (I already had 2 cats). My Mum told me several years ago about a "teddy bear" dog she saw and showed me a picture of a doodle, so when we started thinking about getting a dog I immediately thought of a doodle. I looked at other breeds but kept coming back to the doodle. I then researched golden doodles, ameican labradoodles and australian labradoodles and decided on the australian labradoodle. I then researched breeders and found a reasonably local breeder who is fantastic and who told me about DK!

 

Cooper really is the best dog I can imagine - she doesnt shed, doesnt mat (I brush her once a month), will go go go all day if she can, but is also content at lazying around the house. Her best friend is our 10 month old kitten, and she is super respectful to our older cats. Yeah she has her bad doggy moments, but i love her no matter what. One day id like to get another doodle, but we just arent ready to do the whole puppy thing again just yet!

[Bonne Bouche]

Thank you all! Your stories are all so cute, too, Meridith, Donna, and Allyson! Thanks for sharing!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

What a wonderful "story"....thanks so much for sharing.  I really needed a touch of "romance" tonight.

[Meridith and Lola]

Gorgeous wedding.  Such a beautiful spot.

I always wanted a dog and always wanted a golden retriever but I traveled a lot for business and since I live alone it was not a good time to get a dog for lots of reasons.  Then suddenly my job was changing and I wasn't going to have to travel very much so I decided I would get the dog I always wanted ASAP.  I realized that a Golden retriever was going to be too much dog for me and too much shedding.  I also didn't think I should I get a puppy as I work full time so I thought I would try to find a shelter dog.  I went to visit friends of mine who just got a puppy and live near North Shore animal league so I would meet their puppy and then go see about adopting.   Well it was a 8 week old mini golden doodle that was the cutest dog I've ever seen.  We then went to the shelter and it being right after Christmas, there were no adoptable dogs left.  I went back to their house, looked up the breeders web site and found there was one puppy left in the same litter.  I reached out to her.  They said they could keep her for 1 extra month for additional house and crate training and send her to me at 12 weeks.  It was the best decision I've ever made!  Since I got my doodle, I've met so many people that after meeting Lola, they have gotten their own doodles (many from the same breeder).