Thre's been some talk of the wedding at the Anahiem show in some of the other forums. Here's a news article about it.
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ANAHEIM – The bride said "I do," the groom said "I do," and the ring bearer was kind enough to not eat anybody in the room.
That was the scene as Debra Klepeis and Steve Sykes, both of Tustin, got married Saturday. They stood up in front of friends, family, a few hundred reptile-loving conventioneers and their ring bearer, Bubba, an 8 1/2-foot alligator.
The wedding was held at the end of the first day of the North American Reptile Convention at the Anaheim Convention Center. Before getting hitched, the couple worked a booth, selling their Leopard Geckos. Both work as environmental consultants, but they have a side business (Geckos Etc.) selling tiny lizard-like creatures.
"We are here not only to celebrate how reptiles brought us together, but how they brought Steve and Debra together," Marcia McGuiness, minister and owner of Golden Gate Geckos in San Francisco, told the crowd watching the ceremony.
McGuiness officiated with an Ivory Ball Python wrapped comfortably around her neck. Bubba sat calmly on a large table wearing a yellow boutonniere and a white pillow, where the wedding ring sat cradled on his head.
The wedding was sponsored by the Reptile Convention and Reptiles magazine. The convention provided the room, the sound system, groomsman Mark O'Shea from the Animal Planet reptile-themed show "O'Shea's Big Adventure" and Bubba. Reptile magazine provided the cake.
"It was definitely different," said Lil Klepeis, mother of the bride.
The couple will spend their first full day as husband and wife working, again, at the convention. They'll take off for a honeymoon in Costa Rica in November. Field trips in the jungles to see reptiles are expected, said the Sykes.
Steve and Debra met four years ago while in graduate school in Santa Barbara. She studied botany. He studied herpetology, the study of reptiles and amphibians.
For the groom, at least, loving cold-blooded creatures that often have scales and long tongues and yellow eyeballs was something of a deal breaker.
"I certainly wouldn't have dated somebody that wasn't interested in the animals that I was," said Sykes. "So it worked out."
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