Bride's Dog Couldn't Come To Her Wedding, So Her Dad Brought A Life-Sized Cardboard Version Along Instead

New York resident and Ohio native Hillary Bowles treats her pup Leo like one of the family, so she was pretty devastated that he couldn’t attend her recent wedding in South Carolina.

“We wanted to have Leo at our wedding more than anything,” she told The Knot.

“But with everyone traveling from out of state it was nearly impossible. We opted to leave him back in Ohio with other dogs and family members that he was familiar with.”  

Ahead of her big day with now-husband Logan Bowles, Hillary handed Leo over to her father, Wayne, who was meant to take Leo straight to his puppy holiday.

But the mischievous father of the bride had other plans.

Wayne took a photograph of Leo and had it turned into a life-sized cardboard cutout that could attend the ceremony in Leo’s place. 

The makeshift Leo starred in a series of wedding photos on the big day, shot by photographer Lydia Ruth.

Wayne also took photos of cardboard Leo covering his entire journey to the wedding and text them to his daughter. 

Hillary shared a series of them on Twitter along with the caption: “I was upset my dog couldn’t travel down for my wedding, so my dad made a life-size cutout of him and is bringing it to South Carolina.”

Hillary told The Knot that her dad’s big surprise wasn’t really that shocking.

She said: “He is the goofiest, most creative person I know. My dad would do just about anything to make sure I’m happy, so him doing this wasn’t too far out of the ordinary. We are very close.”