I have quite a unique situation here that I need some advice on -- I don't know if this is "Etiquette," but that's the closest I could find to it.
My future MIL and FIL have a well-behaved, older, Jack Russell terrier that they absolutely love. They do not normally leave her alone for more than a few hours, and she doesn't get alone well with other dogs so they do not put her in a kennel at all. They did not want to put her in a kennel or leave her alone during our wedding, so they have done paperwork to have her registered as a service animal (for anxiety) so she is legally allowed to be in various locations. (They do not actually need her to treat anxiety, this is purely so she would be allowed in more spaces.) Our wedding is indoors, in a nice private club in the city and will be fairly formal.
My MIL asked my fiance if it would be okay to bring the dog, and he said he would ask me about it.
I'm really not sure what to do. On one hand, I don't want to upset my future in-laws -- they love this dog, and if she wasn't there they would be distracted and worried about her and probably couldn't fully enjoy themselves. On the other hand, I feel like it's a little unreasonable to do this for a pet, and I'm feeling a little offended that they can't be away from their dog for a couple hours -- even though I know they don't mean it like that; they're very kind people and I do like them a lot.
Our venue is a private club, so I'm not even sure if the service animals caveat applies to the space, we would need to ask them about that. Another concern is that even if the venue legally must allow the dog, they see the real situation and it would cause ill will between them and us.
I'm fairly relaxed and I've been rolling with the punches thus far (just found out my matron of honor is due to have a baby 4 days before our wedding date), and I want to make his parents happy, but I'm just not sure what to do. What if someone is deathly allergic? What if the dog needs to go outside during a major moment like the first dance, will his parents miss it? I just don't know. I don't want to start off our marriage making his parents upset....
As you can tell, I'm torn. HELP!!!!