How to Find White Doves for Your Wedding
Indeed, there are many dove breeders who offer the service of releasing their birds for your wedding ceremony. Most are legitimate vendors who pride themselves on caring for their stock and ensuring their safety and wellbeing. But, ultimately, it is up to you, as the couple purchasing the service, to understand the pitfalls and know what exactly you are ordering.
Before deciding upon a white dove provider, the first thing that most couples will do is consult the local phone book and any websites for breeders or handlers in their immediate area. Sometimes, the venue booked or other service providers will recommend someone with whom they have worked before. In any case, there are several points to consider when making the final decision for your wedding.
Legitimate white dove providers do not allow self-releases. They do permit the bride and groom and even the wedding party to release the doves if they are present and have trained the participants, but they do not ship their birds to customers to handle themselves.
Do not under any circumstances purchase white doves from the pet store to release. This amounts to cruelty, as the birds do not know what to do. Further, the white doves found in pet stores cannot fly distances and do not have homing instincts. Likewise, if someone offers to supply you with real white doves and not white pigeons known as rock doves, you are ultimately killing the birds.
Normally, white dove providers will permit you to choose from various containers so that you have the perfect match to your wedding theme. Depending on whether the birds will actually be released for flying or will sit for admiration during the reception, the decorative baskets will differ.
Reputable vendors will not put their birds in harm's way so they will not allow the birds to fly in inclement weather, areas where it is too cold or too harsh for the birds, nor areas that have no available shelter. In addition, the birds will not be permitted to fly in the evening at dark. They must be released beforehand so that they have time to get home before darkness falls. For evening weddings or reception displays, the birds are kept in their cages to view and are not released.
Legitimate vendors will always offer a refund if an act of nature prevents the birds from flying. So if the day of your wedding, there is a huge thunder and lightening storm, for example, vendors will refund your money rather than put their birds in danger. But, one thing that you must do, like all other vendors with whom you book for your wedding day, is to get all the conditions in writing. A bona fide sales contract is required.
Without doubt, it is extremely important for you to ask questions when you try to find and choose a white dove provider for your wedding. Also, keep in mind a lot of locations have multiple vendors due to the high amount of weddings. You'll have a much easier time finding doves for your wedding in Lake Tahoe than you will for a wedding in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky.