Marília Pieroni's dream wedding was already off to a rocky start.
The bride had pictured a sunny, outdoor wedding, but storm clouds rolled in just before the ceremony, forcing her and her fiance Matheus Gomes Martins to move their ceremony under a tent. As guests filed inside to get out of the rain, an adorable wedding-crasher joined them.
A stray dog looking for shelter during the storm had stepped into the wedding tent, muddy paws and all. Guests quickly shooed him back outside - how cold-hearted! - but the dog seemed determined to witness the wedding.
"As the ceremony started, to everyone's surprise," Peironis says, "it was the dog who came in when the bridal chorus began to play." The pooch was kicked out again but returned one last time, only to fall asleep on Pieroni's veil during the exchanging of vows.
Clearly the dog wouldn't be denied, so the couple invited their guest to stay and their wedding story took a surprising turn...
While the happy couple's guests tried to turn the dog away, Pieroni was happy to let him enjoy the festivities.
"I was really surprised and thought the little guy was really cute," she told The Dodo, "It was a very pleasant surprise for me, because I love animals. I liked it very much." As the night wore on, the stray danced with their wedding guests and was even allowed to sample the buffet dishes.
But when the night was over, the dog was nowhere to be found. He had slipped out into the night as quietly as he snuck in. In the week after their ceremony, the couple kept thinking about the dog, and eventually decided they wanted to adopt him.
The stray was hard to track down, but when the couple's photos went viral locals were able to identify the pooch. Snoop, as he's been re-named by his new owners, now lives happily with them in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
"[Snoop] is adapting very well to his new routine," Pieroni told HuffPost. "He is very playful, needy and caring. We are so happy with him."
The couple are also sharing their story in the hope that others will follow their lead and help reduce Brazil's stray dog population. "We want to make an appeal to people to not buy animals and to adopt them instead," Pieroni explains.
Share this story if you think we should all adopt our dogs!
