Groom and His Dog Share Special 'Father-Dogter' Dance at Wedding (Exclusive)

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The groom's pet Australian shepherd, Murphy, "loves attention and loves people, so she was grinning from ear to ear," the groom tells PEOPLE
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Instead of a traditional father-daughter dance, a groom named Michael had a "father-dogter" dance with his pet Australian shepherd, Murphy
"Murphy loves attention and loves people, so she was grinning from ear to ear just enjoying everyone watching her," Michael tells PEOPLE
The dance was to the tune of Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart," the same song Michael selected for his American Idol audition in 2020
Instead of a traditional wedding father-daughter dance, one groom had a "father-dogter" dance with his pet dog.
Lauren and Michael tied the knot on July 29, 2023, with their beloved Australian shepherd, Murphy, in attendance. In honor of their second wedding anniversary this year, the couple recently reposted clips from Michael and Murphy's wedding dance on the pup's Instagram page.
The DJ encouraged guests to gather around the checkered dance floor by announcing, "It is time for the father-dogter dance." As Michael picked up Murphy into his arms, wedding guests laughed in the background. The pair happily swayed to "You'll Be in My Heart" by Phil Collins. For their grand move, Michael lifted Murphy up into the air, causing everyone to cheer.
"We love Murphy. She's our best friend, part of the family and everything, so we knew we wanted to incorporate her in our big day," Michael tells PEOPLE.
While most couples incorporate their dog into their wedding through signature cocktails or decorations, Michael and Lauren wanted to do something more "special" and "unique."
"Murphy's at that perfect small-medium size, where I can still pick her up and kind of move around," Michael explains. "I dance around with her a lot in the apartment, just one of our goofy little things, so we had this idea of maybe doing a father-dogter dance."
The dance went perfectly.
"Everyone sort of huddled around us, and it's funny, Murphy loves attention and loves people, so she was grinning from ear to ear just enjoying everyone watching her," Michael remembers. "It was super fun."
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For their dance song, Michael chose "You'll Be in My Heart," which was played in the 1999 Disney animated feature Tarzan, because "it's about the bond between a parent and a kid, even across different species."
He also used this "human interest angle" for his American Idol audition in 2020, which was a "big punishment" assigned to him by his friends after he lost his fantasy football league. During the audition, which was virtual that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Murphy made an onscreen appearance.
"I was like, 'I recently got this puppy, and she's changed my world, taught me that you got to go for your moment and seize the day when you can,' " Michael says, noting that he did not move on to the next round of auditions.
A video compilation posted on Instagram shows Michael and Murphy practicing their dance lift over time.
"The lift they practiced for three years..." Lauren wrote in an onscreen text overlay, adding in the caption, "To this day Murphy still thinks she's the one who married him!"
"I didn't realize, that I would be doing a little moment on my wedding day, but when we decided it, I already kind of knew my beats," Michael tells PEOPLE. "I had lifted her in that position countless times before."
"He got her comfortable with it," Lauren adds. "I feel like a lot of dogs are less comfortable with A) that much attention or B) with, like, being carried, but Murphy was pretty used to it at that point. I honestly think their father-daughter dance was better than my and Michael's first dance."
Murphy joined her owners as they were getting ready the morning of their wedding. A dog chaperone took care of her for the remainder of the day.
"It was really special," Lauren says. "I think it was a memory that we'll cherish forever. It was nice to have all of our people, including Murphy, there with us. It was really sweet even to see people who have never met her before get to meet her in person at the wedding, and see why she meant so much to us."
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Lauren and Michael adopted Murphy, now 5, in August 2020. The night before the couple picked up their new pet, they watched Interstellar. In the sci-fi film, Murphy's Law is reinterpreted not as "anything that can go wrong will go wrong," but as "whatever can happen, will happen."
With Lauren always having wanted a dog, and it finally happening, she thought of the Australian shepherd as a "Murphy's Law dog." Despite Murphy traditionally being a male name, the couple felt it was a fitting name for their new pet.
Read the original article on People
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