Today we’d like to introduce you to Penni Mathis.
Hi Penni, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Cupid and His Arrows really started from something very simple: our family’s love for animals and the joy they bring into people’s lives.
Our family has always had a strong connection to animals, especially horses and farm animals. Over time, I began dreaming about creating something that would allow us to share that love with other people. I had this vision of Mini Highland cows and Mini Donkeys being part of weddings, celebrations, corporate events, and other special occasions—not simply as animals at an event, but as an experience people would remember.
By December 2025, I had decided I was ready to stop just thinking about the idea and actually make it happen.
I looked at my husband and asked him, “Are you willing to do whatever it takes to support me and help me make this business work?”
He said yes.
My response was basically, “Okay then, hook up the trailer. Let’s go look at our first Mini Highland cow and Mini Donkey!”
And that is exactly what we did.
That December, Cupid, our Mini Donkey, and Prince Charming, our Mini Highland cow, became the first two members of Cupid and His Arrows—and suddenly this dream I had been talking about was becoming very real.
Even our business name came from the animals themselves. Cupid represents our Mini Donkeys, while His Arrows represents our Mini Highland cows. With so much of our vision centered around weddings, love, celebrations, and bringing people together, Cupid and His Arrows seemed like the perfect name.
Originally, we thought we would take the next several months to slowly put everything together. We would work on the branding, gather our equipment and décor, create our social media pages, prepare the animals, and gradually get the business ready before officially launching.
Apparently, I wasn’t very good at the “slowly” part.
In February 2026, just two days before my son’s elementary school’s Valentine’s Day dance, I had a thought: Wouldn’t it be fun to bring Cupid and Prince Charming to the dance for the kids?
I asked the principal, honestly not expecting her to say yes.
But she did.
Suddenly, the business that I thought I had months to prepare for needed to be ready in about two days!
I stayed up practically all night getting everything together that I thought we needed to make Cupid and His Arrows look like an actual business. I rushed to stores looking for decorations, outfits, and photo props and did my best to turn this little idea into something we could proudly present.
Was it exactly the polished vision I had in my head for our grand debut? Absolutely not!
But sometimes you have to stop waiting for everything to be perfect and simply start.
Cupid and Prince Charming attended that Valentine’s dance, and it was a success. Seeing the kids’ reactions and watching people interact with the animals confirmed what I had believed from the beginning—there was something special about the experience these animals created.
And then things started moving much faster than we ever expected.
That very night, we were invited to participate in a local event venue’s open house just two days later. That opportunity became one of the moments that really kick-started Cupid and His Arrows.
From there, I got busy.
I started building our social media presence, connecting with local wedding and event professionals, reaching out to venues, creating marketing materials, and figuring things out as we went. Every opportunity introduced us to another person, another venue, another planner, or another idea.
One of the biggest blessings during those early days came from somewhere I never expected—a local Beer Burro business that could have easily looked at us simply as competition.
Instead, they reached out and offered to help.
They gave us advice based on their own experience and even offered to send some of their overflow bookings our way as we were getting started. For a brand-new small business, that kind of support meant more than I can express.
We are still thankful for it today.
What began as one business owner helping another has grown into both a business relationship and a friendship. We continue to work together, support one another, and help each other when we can. It taught me something important very early in this journey: there really are good people out there, and there is room for businesses to support one another and succeed together.
From those first two animals, Cupid and Prince Charming, Cupid and His Arrows has continued to grow. Today, our little herd has grown to include three Mini Highland cows and four Mini Donkeys, each with their own unique personality and special role within our family and business.
Today, our animals are part of weddings, cocktail hours, corporate events, birthdays, gender reveals, school events, venue open houses, private celebrations, photo opportunities, and so much more. We have also developed fun experiences such as our Beer Burros and Beer Steers, where our animals mingle with guests wearing specially designed baskets.
One of the things that makes this business especially meaningful to me is that it truly is a family business.
Our whole family gets to be involved. Everyone has a part in making Cupid and His Arrows what it is. It can start long before an event with feeding, grooming, bathing, training, and getting the animals ready. Then there is loading the trailer, preparing the décor, organizing supplies, and making sure everything we might need is packed and ready to go.
At the events, our family is there helping handle the animals, setting up, interacting with guests, taking pictures and videos, and making sure everything runs smoothly.
And the family involvement doesn’t stop when we get home. There is also the business side—answering inquiries, planning events, creating ideas, working on marketing, taking photos and videos, and helping with our social media.
Everyone brings something different to the business, and I think that makes it even more special.
As a mom, there is something incredibly rewarding about being able to build a business while also creating experiences and memories with my husband and children. They aren’t just watching me build Cupid and His Arrows from the sidelines—they are helping build it with me.
They get to see firsthand that starting a business takes hard work. They see the late nights, early mornings, dirty boots, last-minute changes, and all the work that happens before anyone sees the finished product on social media. But they also get to experience the rewards—the successful events, the relationships we build, the opportunities that come our way, and the excitement of watching something our family created continue to grow.
I hope that is something they carry with them. I want them to know that an idea doesn’t have to remain just an idea. Sometimes you have to take a chance, work hard, surround yourself with people who support you, and figure things out along the way.
No matter how much the business grows, though, one thing will never change: our animals come first.
They aren’t props or equipment that we take to events. They are part of our family and truly the heart of Cupid and His Arrows. We work with their individual personalities and make decisions based on their comfort and welfare. Our animals aren’t expected to stand perfectly still like decorations. They walk around, mingle with guests, pose for pictures, and interact naturally—and sometimes their personalities are what make the best memories.
There is also a tremendous amount of work behind the scenes that people never see. Running an event business involving live animals means transportation, training, grooming, feeding, cleaning, decorating, coordinating with venues and planners, preparing paperwork, managing schedules, watching the weather, and sometimes having to completely change a plan because an animal has decided he has his own ideas for the day!
It takes patience, flexibility, a supportive family, and definitely a sense of humor.
But then we arrive at an event and see someone’s face light up when Prince Charming walks in, or watch guests laughing and taking pictures with Cupid, and it reminds us exactly why we started.
Adults become just as excited as children. Phones immediately come out for pictures. People start smiling, laughing, and talking to one another. For a little while, everyone forgets whatever else is happening and simply enjoys the moment.
That is what Cupid and His Arrows is really about for me—creating moments people remember.
When I look back, I sometimes laugh thinking about how we believed we were going to “slowly” start this business over several months.
Instead, my husband said yes, we hooked up a trailer, brought home Cupid and Prince Charming, and a few months later I found myself staying up all night because an elementary school principal unexpectedly said yes to my crazy Valentine’s dance idea.
It wasn’t perfectly planned. It wasn’t perfectly polished. And it definitely didn’t happen according to the timeline I had imagined.
But it was our beginning.
Since then, every event, every relationship, every planner and venue that has trusted us, and every person who has stopped to smile at one of our animals has helped Cupid and His Arrows become what it is today.
We’re still growing, still learning, and still dreaming about what comes next. Most importantly, we’re doing it together as a family.
And when I think back to that first conversation with my husband—when I asked him if he was willing to do whatever it took to help me make this dream work—I am very thankful his answer was yes.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not always been a smooth road, but I think that is part of building any business from the ground up.
One of our biggest challenges in the beginning was simply figuring everything out as we went. There isn’t exactly a step-by-step handbook for starting an event business with Mini Highland cows and Mini Donkeys! We had to learn not only the business side, but also the logistics of safely transporting animals, preparing them for different types of events, working with venues, obtaining the proper insurance and paperwork, marketing ourselves, and making sure we were always putting the welfare of our animals first.
Another challenge has been learning to balance my vision with the reality of working with live animals. I am very detail-oriented and I usually have a picture in my head of exactly how I want something to look or go. Animals, however, don’t always care about your perfectly planned schedule! You learn very quickly to be flexible, patient, and prepared for the unexpected.
Texas weather can certainly add another challenge. Because the health and safety of our animals always comes first, we have to consider the temperature, weather conditions, event location, shade, footing, travel time, and how long the animals will be working. Sometimes that means having conversations with clients about what we can and cannot safely do, even when we would love to say yes.
There is also a lot more behind the scenes than people probably realize. An hour-long appearance can mean hours of preparation before we ever leave home—bathing and grooming animals, preparing their décor, loading equipment, traveling, arriving early, setting up, working the event, traveling home, unloading, and caring for everyone afterward. Then there are emails, contracts, invoices, social media, marketing, scheduling, and all of the other responsibilities that come with running a small business.
Balancing all of that with being a wife and mom and having a family life has probably been one of the biggest learning experiences. Thankfully, Cupid and His Arrows truly is a family business. My husband and children are involved in everything from preparing and caring for the animals to helping at events and even contributing to the business and social media side. We have learned how to work together, and that has made some of the challenges much easier.
Another lesson has been learning that you cannot make every opportunity work. In the beginning, you want to say yes to everything because you are excited to grow. Over time, I have learned that the right opportunity has to work for our family, our business, and most importantly, our animals.
There have definitely been long days, late nights, unexpected challenges, and plenty of learning along the way. But I wouldn’t necessarily change those struggles because each one has taught us something and helped shape the way we run Cupid and His Arrows today.
We are still learning. I don’t think that ever stops when you own a business. But when we arrive at an event and see people light up when they meet our animals, it makes all of the work behind the scenes worth it.
For me, success hasn’t been about having a perfectly smooth road. It has been about learning how to navigate the bumps, adjust when something doesn’t go as planned, keep moving forward, and enjoy building something special together as a family.
We’ve been impressed with P&J Mana Consulting LLC, DBA Cupid and His Arrows, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Cupid and His Arrows is operated under our company, P&J Mana Consulting LLC, which also provides business management and consulting services to other companies. However, Cupid and His Arrows is the heart of our family-owned specialty animal event business and a brand we are incredibly proud to be building together.
We specialize in creating unique and interactive experiences featuring our Mini Highland cows and Mini Donkeys for weddings, cocktail hours, corporate events, private parties, birthdays, gender reveals, school events, venue open houses, photo opportunities, and other special celebrations.
We are especially known for our Beer Burros and Beer Steers, as well as creating memorable photo opportunities and guest experiences. Whether one of our fluffy Mini Highlands is greeting guests or our Mini Donkeys are mingling through a cocktail hour, we want our animals to be more than something people simply see—we want them to become part of the memory of the event.
What really sets Cupid and His Arrows apart is the personal and family aspect behind everything we do. Our animals aren’t just part of our business; they’re part of our family. Our entire family participates, from preparing and caring for the animals to working events, creating content, helping with social media, and handling the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the business moving.
We also love customizing our animals’ appearances to complement the theme and personality of each event while always keeping their health, comfort, and happiness our first priority.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud of how quickly Cupid and His Arrows has become associated with fun, family, relationships, and creating memorable experiences. We have built wonderful relationships with venues, wedding and event professionals, other businesses, schools, couples, and families. Much of our growth has come through referrals, partnerships, and people sharing their experiences with us.
Ultimately, Cupid and His Arrows isn’t just about bringing Mini Highland cows and Mini Donkeys to an event—it’s about creating a moment people weren’t expecting and won’t forget. That’s what I want our brand to always be known for.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I would say determination and the willingness to take a chance have been the most important qualities behind our success.
I am someone who, once I have a vision and truly believe in something, will work extremely hard to make it happen. Cupid and His Arrows is a perfect example. We originally planned to slowly build the business over several months, but when an opportunity unexpectedly came along, I stayed up all night and figured out how to make it happen. It wasn’t perfect, but we started—and sometimes taking that first step is more important than waiting until everything is perfect.
I also believe being adaptable and willing to learn has been extremely important. Owning a business, especially one involving live animals, means things don’t always go according to plan. You have to be willing to adjust, solve problems, listen to advice, and continue learning.
Finally, I couldn’t talk about our success without mentioning family support. My husband said “yes” to this dream from the very beginning, and our entire family has worked together to help Cupid and His Arrows grow. Having people beside you who believe in your vision and are willing to work toward it with you has made all the difference.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cupidandhisarrows
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61587095063207
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cupid.and.his.arr?lang=en
