Shear romance: Couples can say 'I do' with alpacas as their wedding guests with rentals from a Grafton farm

GRAFTON — A local farm is renting out the fluffiest wedding guests imaginable. Our Little World Alpacas LLC offers alpaca rentals for couples' special days, usually for photo shoots with guests and the bride and groom. Joy Turner and her husband, Brian, started the farm in 2009 but have been doing event rentals for about two years. In that time, they've done about four weddings, and can also do engagement or wedding photos at the farm. The idea started on the West Coast, Joy Turner said. "On my farm we usually try to use a white one and a gray one," she explained. "The grays, he usually is my groom because he's considered a tux gray. So he's already kinda got the tux on — but I do have a vest that I've modified to fit him and he has a wing collar and a bow tie that he puts on." She uses her background in costume design to create Halloween costumes usually for one of the more docile alpacas, Special Edition, as well as the wedding attire. The bride is usually a white alpaca. She said even though one is dressed as a bride — complete with a veil and flowers — the farm uses two male alpaca for events. She said normally the farm's female alpacas are pregnant, and stressing them out could cause a miscarriage. And if they're not pregnant, they could be ovulating, which would make the male alpaca too hard to handle. Normally, they take silvery Chance and white Dobie as the bride and groom, but she said couples interested in renting them can pick which animals they want at their reception. "The weddings we have done have been where we've either (stood) outside the reception venue where the bride and groom provided cameras to do selfies with the alpacas," she said. "Or they've hired us to do a photo shoot with the bride and groom. And at which point, it's minimum an hour. So if the photo shoot takes 15 minutes then we stand outside the venue and let everybody take pictures with them." As prey animals, alpaca aren't really "friendly" but are curious. Sudden movements will normally cause them to back off or run. She said the boys can usually tolerate about an hour to an hour and a half at receptions, and she and her husband know what the animals' limits are and how to handle them if they get a little out of control, as they can still kick or spit. "The thing with it is you have to have the insurance to cover it — which we do, we carry — it is not cheap so that's what a lot of our pricing is," she said. Growing up in Chicago, Turner never expected to run an alpaca farm in Northeast Ohio, let alone offer the animals for event rentals. Her husband grew up in Conneaut, Turner said, and had always wanted a business, loves animals and a quite, laid-back place to live. Now, the pair takes care of about 42 animals, including a couple llamas, 19 of their own. They board animals for other farmers. The alpaca they have are all of the Huacaya breed, which grow shorter, crimped hair. "We decided this was a good business for us because you don't kill the animal, you don't harm the animal in order to make a profit off of them," she said. "Because all you're doing is you're growing their hair and you cut it off and you make product from it." That product is sold in the couple's store front. They carry yarn made from the alpacas' fleece, along with hats, gloves, cat toys and other gifts. They shear the animals in May and it takes nine months to a year to get the yarn back, as there aren't large processing centers for alpaca fleece like there are for sheep's wool. Turner retired two years ago to run the farm full-time, focusing on the shop and events. Outside of weddings, they offer bonding experiences for groups, open houses, and birthday or other event rentals. She said the best part is when people interact with the animals. The younger alpaca are less afraid of people and have been known to stick their faces in people's conversations, or steal someone's glasses. "In terms of the weddings, I love when people they come up and they're afraid of them and then they realize how docile and gentle they can be," she said. "It's really fun. I love when we get little kids that are there — especially when you've got the younger (alpaca) ... The little ones that are in this pen are the ones that were born last summer. When you get little ones like that and you get kids that are their height. ... They have less fear and because the kids are small they're not afraid of them and they come up and they nuzzle or they'll interact." Our Little World Alpacas LLC, 16800 Cowley Road, is open year-round. Its store is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. For more information on upcoming farm events, or alpaca rentals, visit ourlittleworldalpacas.com or call (440) 724-7070. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.