Over the past year, dozens of major retail chains and entire shopping malls have been closing stores and downsizing employees to cut costs in response to reduced consumer spending and gift card buyers are being warned about the validity of their purchases.

Certified Wedding Planners have the duel challenge of keeping themselves in business while keeping an eye on their vendors’ businesses as well. Too often these days, bridal clients are being disappointed by wedding shops, florists, jewelers, craft stores, photographers, bridal shops, clothing stores, and consignment shops that are closing, often without notice, and leaving couples scrambling to reclaim deposits and fulfill their wedding day checklists.

The economic daily news is, at best, troubling. Taxpayer-funded bailouts for the mortgage, insurance, and automobile industries aren’t helping reduce foreclosure rates, cover uninsured families, achieve energy independence, or employ our legion of jobless workers fast enough to stabilize financial markets and raise consumer confidence.

With a new administration setting up shop at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January, there are some signs of hope for the future for Certified Wedding Planners. In the middle of scandalous bailout-sponsored celebrations, credit card company defaults, and the U. S. Postal Service running in the red, some wedding vendors have innovatively survived certain doom and new locations are bringing better business to other vendors. Wedding planners are increasing the awareness of their value to brides and grooms and diversifying their business offerings. Optimistic developers and retailers are expanding existing and opening new shopping malls.

And entrepreneurs, such as you, the wedding planner, are being touted as the key group of business people capable of turning our slumping economy around.

As a Certified Wedding Planner in a tough economy, diversifying your revenue streams is often a necessity of survival. Beyond expanding your services menu to include multiple service level packages and ala carte offerings, sometimes you need to plan outside the proverbial box. Think: pet weddings.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

On that measure, America is doing just fine. According to the American Pet Product Manufacturers Association, we are spending over $43 billion dollars on our pets this year. Of that, $3.2 billion is being spent on services outside the initial pet purchase, food, supplies, and veterinary care.

While not an exclusive American province, pet weddings are gaining traction in our culture as a way to celebrate our love for our four-legged friends. Puptials, as they are often called, have been held to raise money for animal shelters, staged to attempt world records, hosted at famous luxury hotels, or planned to simply find a play date.

Pet wedding officiants range from the Reverend Tyker, a miniature schnauzer ordained as a minister by the Universal Life Church, to human officiants providing “heartfelt, tail waggin’, light-hearted ceremonies with personalized puptial vows”.

A 2006 survey by the American Kennel Club reports that one-third of women and nearly one-fourth of men would date their dog if it were human. This love we have for our pets is evolving beyond including them in our own wedding celebrations to holding ceremonies for the dogs themselves.

As a CWP delving into the world of animal matrimony, there are several resources you can tap to deliver the dream. When planning a puptial service, keep in mind the special dietary needs of the betrothed. Wedding attire will also present a challenge, although pet tuxedo sizing charts and pet wedding dress up programs can help. To capture the memories, be sure to consult a seasoned pet wedding photographer.

Whatever your quadruped client’s desires, you can find a service provider to help you plan the best pet wedding possible. It may not be one of the most expensive, such as the 1996 union of two rare “diamond-eyed” cats named Phet and Ploy that cost over $16,000 and was attended by 500 guests. It may not be one of the largest, such as the hundreds of pet owners in Bangkok, Thailand hitching an impressive variety of animals together just before Valentine’s Day.

But with some research, creativity, and a respectful understanding of Immanuel Kant’s assertion that we can judge the heart of a person by their treatment of animals, you can help your client and their pets realize their wedding dreams.