In 2008, Leslie Allison-Seei’s German shepherd, Cleo, married Buddy, a golden retriever who lived down the street.
“Best son-in-law ever,” she tells PEOPLE.
On Sunday, September 25, 2021, Allison-Seei donned her mother-of-the-bride dressing gown once more and led her town of Villa Park, Illinois, in an attempt to break the2007 Guinness World Record for the largest dog wedding ceremony, which stands at 178 pooch pairs.
“I love dogs, and I love weddings,” says Allison-Seei, who is the Chair of the Villa Park Community’s Focus on Unifying Neighbors (F.U.N.) Commission.
“They barked their ‘I dos’ at the same time,” Allison-Seei says.
Afterward, the canine couples received marriage certificates and celebrated their nuptials with a goat’s milk champagne toast and dog-friendly carob-flavored cake.
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Sadly, the adorable effort did not break the record for the largest dog wedding.
“We were 99 couples short,” says Allison-Seei, 61.
But the mass wedding ended up being a successful fundraiser and adoption event — raising $4,000 for local rescues and helping five dogs find homes.
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“I love the fact that we’re raising money for these homeless animals. And we’re doing it in a fun way that allows people to come out, have a great time with their dogs,” Allison-Seei says of what the event meant to her.
Allison-Seei has already found a location for the community’s next mass dog wedding in September 2022 and launchedwww.largestdogwedding.com. This year’s event will occur after the Kane County Cougar’s “Bark at the Park” ballgame at Northwestern Medicine Field in Geneva.
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Allison-Seei is partnering with larger rescues for 2022 and hopes to raise $100,000 for homeless animals and find forever families for 100 pets at this year’s wedding.
“We’re planning on taking another bite at it this year,” she says. “It’s going to be bigger and better.”
Her goal is to have 1,000 dogs get married this fall.
“We don’t want to just break the record. We want to make sure that that record doesn’t get broken for a long, long time,” Allison-Seei says. “It’s fun. You cannot say dogs and wedding and Guinness World Record all in the same sentence and not smile.”
Read more about Allison-Seei’s attempt to break the largest dog wedding ceremony record in the latest issue of PEOPLE on newsstands now.
source: people.com
