Juliet has been to many weddings and is a pro. As the happy couple exchanged vows, she emerged from a dark box and jumped onto the gloved arm of her caretaker, Duncan Black. She turned her head 270 degrees and looked at her surroundings.
A sudden squeak made her stir. Whoosh – she flew down the aisle, the little bag containing two rings tied around her skinny ankles. The human sitting beneath her outstretched wings gasped. After a few seconds, she lands on another outstretched arm, usually belonging to the groomsmen, sometimes to the bride or groom.
Suddenly, Juliet became the star of the ceremony. After delivering the ring, she flew back into Mr. Black’s arms and received her reward: a raw chicken foot.
Then, leaving the room just as quickly as she entered it—more than 50 million years of evolution and about 90 seconds of action later—humanity turned its attention back to the couple.
By now you may be aware that Juliet is an owl, and there are several owls across the UK who have been trained to star in wedding ceremonies.
“Harry Potter” effect
The idea of having owls at weddings became popular in Britain more than 15 years ago, according to people who make a living from owls. They trace this rise directly to the popularity of Harry Potter, in which owls serve as postmen for the wizarding world.
“They are a mainstay of British weddings,” says Zoe Burke, editor of wedding planning website Hitched. Social media also played a role, she said, with BookTok driving the popularity of literary-themed weddings not just in the UK but in the US and elsewhere.
“Millennials just like a trend,” Ms. Burke said.
Ms. Burke said that for many couples, whether they liked magic or not, the owl’s presence was primarily about giving guests a special experience. Such was the case for Lucy and Scott Robinson, who said “I do” on a sunny, windy Tuesday afternoon in April in Stoke-on-Trent, England. It was at their wedding that Juliet the Barn Owl ushered in her stardom.
“We don’t particularly like Harry Potter,” Ms. Robinson, 31, said. The couple had been looking for a special surprise for their guests and stumbled upon the owl option while searching online.
Robinson, 33, said adding birds to a wedding seemed “a no-brainer”.
“Birds play an important role.”
At Robinson’s wedding, Juliet was one of the seven birds present. Mr. Blake, the falconer of Bird on the Hand, brought birds of prey (including prairie eagles, gyrfalcons, and Harris hawks) to the reception for a bird show, where guests took turns performing the falconer’s gauntlet, and the birds Perched on their arms.
While fees vary by service, the bird show at Robinson’s wedding cost £745 (about $951). There is an additional fee for taking photos with guests (approximately $96 per half hour). Couples can also opt for a mini-falconry experience on a static display, which involves the birds flying back and forth between guests, for £699 (about $893).
The bride’s father, Dean McAllister, a longtime birdwatcher, said he felt the weight of a bird on his arm for the first time (he was holding a prairie eagle). He felt very excited. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s a genius feeling,” he said.
“I’m not an occasion person,” Mr. McAllister added, “but the birds are important.”
For those who don’t like to be stared at too much, the bird also plays another role: it can relieve some stress. At Robinson’s wedding, everyone looked up as a barn owl flew over the guests. For a few seconds, eyes were turned away from the bride.
“I don’t like too much attention,” Ms. Robinson said.
Her groom said he found the creatures to be very beautiful to look at. “I’m a big fan of birds,” said Mr. Robinson, who believes birds make guests feel comfortable. “No one feels left out.”
“This could go very wrong.”
Mr Blake, the falconer, said overall the owl’s performance at the wedding went well. He said he had taken Juliet to weddings for five years and she had never flown away with the ring.
Of course, problems occasionally arise. For example, if a bride keeps an owl perched on her arm, she might not end up wearing an all-white wedding dress. In 2018, at a wedding in Cheshire, England, an owl delivered a ring to the altar and then attacked a guest.
Staffordshire County Council registrar Yvonne Forrester, who officiated at Robinson’s wedding, said it was the third time she had featured an owl. She said her nephew got married with an owl as the ring bearer. At that wedding, the owl had to fly over a small body of water. Instead, the owl flew into the woods with the real ring, causing the wedding to be delayed by half an hour as members of the wedding party frantically chased after it.
Wedding photographer Sarah Elvin, who has photographed hundreds of weddings across the UK over the past 15 years, said that when the trend first took off more than a decade ago, there was “hardly a wedding” that didn’t Wear a flying ring. She said she had seen owls re-emerge as a mainstay at British weddings since the pandemic.
For guests in Stoke-on-Trent this spring, the birds were both a novelty and entertainment when the couple went out to take photos.
“They were spectacular,” said Richard Finch, 33, a friend and current roommate of the Robinsons, adding that he had never seen a raptor at a wedding. “This is very different,” Mr. Finch said, looking at the birds displayed on the perches. He said he found the birds a little scary (“They put the fear of God in you”), but he also felt “a little bit sorry for them.”
Animal rights campaigners do not support the use of raptors at weddings or as any form of entertainment. Isobel McNally, of the charity Animal Freedom, said having owls as ring bearers goes against the birds’ nocturnal instincts to rest during the day.
“Owls are wild animals and should be respected as such,” Ms McNally said. “Raising owls for show and entertainment is completely unethical and unethical.”
Mr Black, a falconer, said his work with the birds was not only about entertainment but also about education and conservation.
“Our birds are well cared for and given regular exercise, and we also ensure they don’t experience any stress at public events,” he said.
Working with wild animals always carries a certain amount of risk. After Juliet successfully handed the ring to best man Mickey Herod, Ms Robinson said: “This could go wrong.”
“It’s easy,” said Mr. Herod, the groom’s school friend. In the end, the only hiccup was due to human error, as Mr. Herod readily admitted: “I did drop the ring.”
