Waiting outside the venue before her parents’ wedding, Lucy could sense someone was sneaking up behind her.
When she turned around, the large dog almost didn’t recognize the woman in the white dress. But as soon as Lucy realized who it was, she couldn’t help bounding over.
“It was like she paused and had this moment of ‘Oh my goodness, is that my MOM?’ before the excitement set in and she ran to me,” Lucy’s mom, Ashley Pfaff, told The Dodo.
The touching “first look” was captured on video, which you can watch here:
From the moment Pfaff and her now-husband, Chris Decker, started planning their wedding, they knew they wanted Lucy to be part of the special day.
“We knew that bringing Lucy to our wedding would be an added layer of planning for our day, but when we discussed it, we decided that she has been here with us this whole time and deserved to be there,” Pfaff said. “We didn’t have kids in our wedding, so Lucy was sort of our flower girl!”
Lucy took her job as flower pup quite seriously, and she was so happy to be involved in the festivities. She even went out of her way to ensure the ceremony had a special touch.
“Probably even more special than the first look was the fact that as soon as we started saying our vows to each other, Lucy, completely unsolicited, got up and came right between us at the altar,” Pfaff said. “It was as if she knew that this was the most important part of the whole day and joined us all together for it!”
Pfaff and Decker are both physicians, and they can’t imagine their lives without Lucy there to supply lots of needed joy and affection. As they worked on the front lines during the worst parts of the pandemic, the couple found solace knowing they would always return home to Lucy.
“Lucy was such a rock of unconditional love and joy every single day, even when you couldn’t see any other family or friends,” Pfaff said. “She is a huge part of how we both got through some of those most difficult times as healthcare providers.”
Though including Lucy in their wedding involved a bit of extra admin, Pfaff wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“Having her get to be part of this special day and special moment in my dress was something I wouldn’t have changed for the world,” Pfaff said. “She is a once-in-a-lifetime dog.”