https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/see-photos-elizabethtown-animal-rescue-founder-swaps-bouquets-for-puppies/article_19388210-7f6e-11e6-a217-4721d06c2e33.html

Elizabethtown animal rescue founder swaps bouquets for puppies in wedding

TOM KNAPP | Staff Writer | September 20, 2016

Sarah Mallouk Crain, a founding board member and trainer for the Elizabethtown rescue group Pitties.Love.Peace, discarded the hackneyed notion that brides and bridesmaids should only hold flowers.

For her Sept. 10 wedding to Matt Crain, Sarah Crain asked her bridal party to carry puppies instead.

The photos -- taken at Moonstone Manor, Elizabethtown, by Lancaster photographer Caroline Logan -- have gone viral, popping up on websites like BuzzFeed, Inside Edition, Huffington Post and The Dodo.

"It's been crazy," Crain, 30, said Tuesday afternoon, shortly after returning with her new husband from a honeymoon in Mexico.

"It's been an exciting day," agreed Logan.

Each member of the bridal party carried an 8-month-old boxer-coonhound puppy for the photo shoot. They're sibling pups, all from one litter and named for the first five presidential first ladies: Martha, Abigail, Dolley, Elizabeth and Louisa.

And, instead of a bouquet, the bride carried a 9-week-old pitbull, rescued this summer from the streets of Brooklyn, named Biggie Smalls.

The puppies, Crain noted, were only there for the photo shoot and didn't participate in the wedding ceremony itself. For that, she said, she and the bridesmaids carried more traditional bouquets.

But they were perfect for the photos, she said.

"It was phenomenal, honestly. I feel more comfortable in front of a camera if I have a puppy in my hands," Crain said.

"Caroline didn't have to tell us to laugh or smile," she added. "It was all natural. We just went with the flow and had fun."

'Great stress relievers'

For Logan, who has been shooting weddings for more than six years, the addition of puppies to the mix was exciting.

"Sarah emailed me a few weeks prior to the wedding day and said, 'Hey, one more thing....' I knew right away it would bring a lot of fun and excitement to the shoot, but I also knew it would be another logistic to consider.

"Neither of us could have ever have known this would go viral."

In the end, she said, it worked out even better than she hoped.

"The photographer's job is to bring as much peace and calm as we can to a hectic situation," she said. "These puppies were great stress relievers."

Besides, she added, "it was a really cool way of incorporating her passion for the rescue shelter into her wedding."

The photo shoot only took a few minutes, Logan said.

"The puppies definitely brought an added dynamic to the session," she said. "You have a group of ladies who are trying to look their very best ... but they were so relaxed, focused on the puppies and loving them rather than being aware of the camera.

"It went incredibly smoothly, and the puppies were incredibly well behaved. Fortunately, there were no accidents with all those beautiful dresses."

Things got crazy a few days later. On Sept. 16, Logan said, she shared the photos with Kleinfeld Bridal, the New York City boutique that hosts the reality TV show, "Say Yes to the Dress." Kleinfeld shared the images on Instagram.

"Thousands of likes and thousands of comments later," the photos began to spread quickly, she said.

'That crazy dog person'

The Crains, of Middletown, returned Tuesday from the Rivera Maya in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Even while on her honeymoon, Crain was posting messages on Facebook about the attention they were receiving.

"We're on BuzzFeed?!" she wrote on one link. "Moral of the story...go out and adopt a dog in need!"

The couple has three dogs of their own and also fosters rescued dogs through Pitties.Love.Peace.

"Dogs truly have been the biggest part of my life," she said. "As a little kid, you'd always find me hanging out with animals instead of people. It only seemed fitting to try and include them in some small way."

She said she is shocked -- and flattered -- that her photos have received so much attention.

"I'm viewed as that crazy dog person. But I didn't think anyone would take so much interest in these photos," she said. "I'm still not sure I can wrap my head around it."

Although the photos were taken before the ceremony, Crain said she wasn't concerned about spoiling her gown for her wedding.

"I wasn't worried about an accident. In all my years of working with dogs, I've never been peed on," she said with a laugh. "Besides, everyone knows me well enough that if there's a little dog hair on my gown -- that's just me."

Crain said she hopes her wedding photos will encourage people to become more involved with shelters and rescue groups. She especially hopes more people will learn to appreciate pitbulls as a loving breed, she said.

The pups featured at her wedding, all of which she helped to raise, will soon be available for adoption.