THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 10, 1994 TAG: 9409090101
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
UH, ABOUT THE wedding . . . I guess you could call it a frog gig. After all, the wedding invitation had frogs printed on it.
Linda Fulgham took Bob Culpepper - warts and all - for better or worse on Aug. 20 at the First Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach.
The reception was held only a hop away at the Hilton Inn Oceanfront.
It was not your usual reception. As you've probably guessed, the couple is hung up on frogs.
There were two cakes. The wedding cake contained a green pond on top with two frogs in it. The groom's cake also had two frogs.
The flowers were all in froglike vases. Stuffed tree frogs decorated the food tables.
And during the reception, a frog music box tinkled with the reception's theme: ``Some Day My Prince Will Come.''
There were lots of froggy presents for the bride and groom.
On their honeymoon, the couple visited a rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula in the state of Washington to look for frogs. Then they went to Frog's Leap, Calif., to tour the Frog's Leap Winery.
``We're both frog admirers and collectors and it seemed the only thing to do,'' Linda said.
Bob's interest in frogs came by accident. Years ago, when the Old Dominion University graduate worked in a research and analysis firm, he bought a poster with a big green frog on it that said: ``Time's sure fun when you're having flies.''
``People at work assumed I really liked frogs, and I began getting frog gifts . . . especially on my birthday,'' he said. Stuffed frogs, frogs on posters, frogs on plates, you name it.
Linda, also an ODU grad, said her interest began a lot earlier. Raised in Norfolk, she remembered a big fat toad that set up shop beneath the family dog house when she was a girl.
Times must have been a lot gentler back then. Looking at the frog was one of her favorite things. ``He was really big, and he was always under the dog house. I went out to look at him from time to time. I thought he was pretty neat.''
By the time she met Bob - about 15 years ago - she already had a large collection of frogs, hundreds of them, including frog rings, frog earrings and frog jewelry.
Before they were engaged, the nature-loving couple spent a lot of time at Seashore State Park where they looked at birds. And frogs, natch.
They debated whether to have a traditional wedding. ``And we both said `nah.' So we went with frog invitations,'' she said.
Bob said they thought the Frog's Leap Winery in California was cool. ``It's built on the site of a frog hatchery,'' he explained. ``We brought back T-shirts and sweat shirts with the Frog's Leap logo on them.''
And they both remembered an interesting South American bullfrog they saw while visiting Seattle on their honeymoon. ``It must have weighed 5 pounds and was bigger than a plate,'' he said.
Linda is an employee at Bell Atlantic Telephone and Hecht's and lives in Virginia Beach. Bob is employed by Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and is living in Maryland.
It is not an ideal arrangement, they say. So Bob is working on a transfer to Hampton Roads.
``When we get a home, we'll be able to use the frog presents we got in it, including a neat frog crossing sign,'' Linda said.
Bob said he'd like to put a frog pond in the back yard.
They hope to have their own pad, soon. by CNB