--- title: Owl Ring Bearer Flies Rings Down Aisle at Wedding description: Groom and best man surprise bride with owl ring bearer at wedding canonical: https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-26T15:18:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:35.841Z og:title: Watch a Groom Surprise His Bride With an Owl Ring Bearer og:description: Groom and best man surprise bride with owl ring bearer at wedding og:url: https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch a Groom Surprise His Bride With an Owl Ring Bearer twitter:description: Groom and best man surprise bride with owl ring bearer at wedding twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch a Groom Surprise His Bride With an Owl Ring Bearer ## Video: Inside New York's First Cat Cafe [Watch (HLS stream): Inside New York's First Cat Cafe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0MiiFeak.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-12-12. Meet the cats of NYC's first cat cafe, Meow Parlour, and hear more about the growing trend of paying to play with cats from the cafe's two owners._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 26, 2015 3:18 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 26, 2015 3:18 PM UTC Shaun Palmer of Sunderland, England, surprised his bride Adele at their wedding with an owl ring bearer that flew down the aisle to deliver the rings. The bird went by Bilbo, the name of the protagonist in _The Hobbit_, J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel, and the _Lord of the Rings_ series. The clip was first uploaded on [Dec. 4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhSJRGgFHY0), but [it is now going viral](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2MDB-0k-Ps). Though incorporating a bird into the ceremony might not be the mark of a traditional wedding, the practice is something of a growing trend in the U.K. where several companies hire out barn owls that have been trained to deliver wedding rings. ### Behind the Picture: Hansel Mieth's Wet, Unhappy Monkey  A rhesus monkey in Puerto Rico, 1938. Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/"},"headline":"Watch a Groom Surprise His Bride With an Owl Ring Bearer","datePublished":"2015-05-26T15:18:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:43:35.841Z","description":"Owl about that!","url":"https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/","name":"Watch a Groom Surprise His Bride With an Owl Ring Bearer"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Inside New York's First Cat Cafe","description":"Meet the cats of NYC's first cat cafe, Meow Parlour, and hear more about the growing trend of paying to play with cats from the cafe's two owners.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/0MiiFeak/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-12-12T19:30:27.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/0MiiFeak.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/","duration":"PT1M49S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3896058/owl-ring-bearer-wedding/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```