VALENTINE'S DAY
WEDDING AT BIG CAT RESCUE BY THE NEW MAGIC 94-9 AND TAMPA BAY'S BEST WEDDING & PARTY PLANNER MAGAZINE MAKES DREAM COME TRUE FOR YOUNG COUPLE
Each year on Valentine's Day The New Magic 94-9 holds a unique contest. The winners either get married or renew their vows live on The Magic Morning Show With Chadd & Kristi at an unusual venue. This year's wedding was at Big Cat Rescue. To enter, the contestants had to submit in writing why they felt they were ready to “tame the wild beast”. The winners were a lovely young couple, Krista Lanahan & Greg Williamson of Palm Harbor .
Through The New Magic 94-9, Krista and Greg received a spa vacation at Top Notch Resort & Spa in Stowe , Vermont and a Gasparilla Mandarin Garnet ring, valued at $17,000 courtesy of Cabot Cheese of Vermont. From Big Cat Rescue they received an overnight stay in our cabins, and all day Expedition with our keepers and tours of the sanctuary for the entire wedding party.
What made the ceremony itself particularly spectacular this year was the new participation by Tampa Bay 's Best Wedding & Party Planner magazine . There is nobody better connected in the wedding and party community than Greg Snow, Publisher. Greg arranged, at no cost to the young couple, for the beautiful wedding gown, the tuxedo, the flowers, the make-up and hair, photography and video, champagne, and a limousine to take the lucky couple to a romantic lunch after the morning ceremony. In addition, the couple and Big Cat Rescue will be featured on the cover of the next issue!
The Magic Morning Show With Chadd & Kristi broadcasts from 5am to 9am . This made for an unusually early start for sanctuary staff, who arrived at 3am to assist the technical crew in setting up. At right, Chadd talks at the broadcast booth with Guest Celebrity Mary Delgado from The Bachelor and Russell Rhodes, Roving Reporter for Fox 13 Television. During the morning newscast Fox 13 News broke repeatedly to Russell as he covered the ceremony live.
With the wedding to be performed on air exactly at 8:15, nerves were frayed as those assisting the bride hurried frantically with last minute preparations. But to the relief of all, she got to the beach just in time for her proud smiling dad to escort her down the aisle.
The ceremony itself was performed by recently anointed notary public Chadd Thomas, his first official act as a notary. Even our tiger Aurora , who watched from her enclosure behind the broadcast booth, seemed to cry at the emotional moment when the couple said “I do”. For more photos of the wedding, check back here from time to time.
Big Cat Rescue is enormously grateful for the media coverage from The New Magic 94-9, Fox 13, and Tampa Bay 's Best Wedding & Party Planner magazine. The awareness of the sanctuary created by this kind of coverage plays a critical role in drawing visitors who both help support the cats financially and who become advocates of protecting the cats through what they learn at the sanctuary.
Our deepest thanks to:
- Julia Freeman and Chadd & Kristi Thomas from the Magic Morning Show, plus all of our friends at The New Magic 94-9
- Russell Rhodes from TV Channel Fox 13
- Greg Snow from Tampa Bay's Best Wedding & Party Planner magazine and all of the wonderful vendors listed below who, through their relationship with Greg, provided their expert services and talents to make the wedding so special:
Wedding Gown and Veil: Athena's Bridal Boutique (727) 461-0225
Tuxedo: Tuxedo Junction (727) 792-5290
Bride's Hair: Sandra Chandler of MLD III Salon (727) 796-0555
Bride's Make-up: Nelda Corbett of MLD III Salon (727) 796-0555
Photographer: Bill Cadzow/Lawrence & Associates Photography (727) 549-8974
Videographer: Vance Hohenthaner/V.H. Video Productions (813) 996-6387
Flowers: Unique Weddings & Floral Events (727) 937-1211
Champagne : Freixenet
L
imousine: Royal Limousine & Entertainment Services (813) 288-9225
Lunch: The Rusty Pelican Restaurant & Banquet Halls (813) 281-1943
In addition to the quarterly publication, Tampa Bay 's Best Wedding & Party Planner magazine holds an Extravaganza Show each month at a different location in the Tampa Bay area. Over the past 15 year the shows have helped over 300,000 brides and grooms “to be” make their weddings as special and perfect as they can be. The Valentine's Day Wedding at Big Cat Rescue will appear on the cover of the Summer issue out in June. It will be available on a complimentary basis at the Extravaganza shows or for $4.50 at newsstands. For more information about the magazine or the shows, visit www.tampabaysbest.net or call (813) 249-9000.
To hear the commercial for Big Cat Rescue on The New Magic 94-9 Play in here:
Big Cats in Love
Many of the exotic cats at Big Cat Rescue either came here as bonded mates or we were able to introduce them to each other when they were young enough to accept the idea. Except for lions, exotic cats are solitary in the wild. In captivity it helps if they can have someone to interact with who knows what it is like to be a free spirit confined to a cage.
This Valentine's Day help us celebrate the love and affection of Sugar and Shadow a couple of our big western mountain lions.
Sugar and Shadow were born to pet owners who sold them to a person who tried to raise and keep them inside his trailer since he had no yard. When they knocked the window out of his trailer to escape he decided he was “too ill” to take care of them any more and he dumped them at Big Cat Rescue in 1998. We don't know how old they are since they were already adults at the time that they arrived. We don't know how many pitiful cubs they may have had together before their arrival who ended up in situations as bad or worse as Sugar and Shadow experienced.
Shadow was neutered so that they could continue to live together at Big Cat Rescue. When there are hundreds of big cats being abandoned every year there is no reason for anyone to be breeding more for life in cages. They should have been born free; free to choose their own mates and raise their own young and live whereever their instincts guided them. Life dealt them a lousy hand, but it could have been worse. Mountain Lions are not protected in this country and can legally be shot in canned hunts. The cat with many names: Puma, Mountain Lion, Cougar, Florida Panther doesn't have many places to call his own anymore.
Sugar and Shadow have theirs now at Big Cat Rescue. Volunteers and visitors often delight in their playing and grooming of each other. Shadow is very tall and leggy and Sugar is very short and small so they make a rather odd looking couple. They are never very far from each other and it is wonderful that they can share their final years with the love of their life.
Other cats were not so lucky. Cheetaro's owner sold his mate before abandoning him to Big Cat Rescue. Often females will fetch a higher price in the pet trade that breeds the animals to death for their valuable cubs who are used in photo opportunities.
Give the gift of love to an animal who has been unloved, abandoned or abused. This Valentine's Day your gift can mean so much more. It can mean a second chance. It can mean life.
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