I have 2 solid nights to try to remember everything I learned in dance class!!!  Don't expect any fancy or smooth Dancing With The Stars kinda moves for our first dance, 2nd dance or last dance. My dance instructor told me I danced like an angry German when I first started. I don't think that was a compliment.... I'd like to think I've gotten a tiny bit better since then. If I bust out with the Macarena, that means I forgot ALL my moves. Luckily Emily makes me look good no matter what!

Make sure you drive past Country Road 2008 (the front entrance to Fossil Rim) and look for these road signs a little past at Country Road 2010 (the back road that leads directly to the Fossil Rim Safari Camp & Lodge). Just follow the signs till you reach the Safari Camp, then park anywhere within the area (except the parking space reserved for the groom...I'm gonna need this space) and look for my sister Paula to check in. See ya'll soon! Gonna take a break now, I think I inhaled way too much spray glue while making these signs....

At this point there are only a few small details that need to be taken care of each day... but the one thing are keeping a close eye on is the weather. Luckily it looks like Glen Rose is going to be getting some rain these next few days followed by the only sunny day being on Saturday! Hopefully it'll be enough rain to help refill the main watering hole by our camp and to help green things up around the Safari Camp. The last time I went there, it was looking a lot like Africa thanks to the summer long drought and crazy heat. It's still a little early to get an accurate forecast, but if things stay close to todays forecast, you may want to actually bring a jacket for when the sun goes down. We're just crossing our fingers that the days high will drop just a little more cause sweating in my wedding suit will be no fun.

Everything is officially kinda ready for our wedding! We're one week away and actually pretty much done with the planning and all elements involved.... unfortunately I totally understand how people can mentally go a little crazy with all the details and stress. I may have gone Groomzilla a couple of times along the way thanks to two solid weeks of working on wedding stuff till 2am or later. Sorry about that mom :)

We don't really need new towels, toasters, silver frames, or salt & pepper shakers (unless they are shaped like llamas, I LOVE LLAMAS).... what we really want, is your help building the perfect New York City Honeymoon. Whether you've been or have always wanted to visit The Big Apple.... we are totally open to suggestions or ideas to help make our time down the street from Central Park even more fun, romantic, exciting or easier to get around town! Please check out our Registry right here at HoneyMoonWishes.com to find out a few things we are considering doing while there.... like catching a performance on Broadway. I really wanna see the crappiest show show ever, Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark (he actually fights a giant inflatable dinosaur at one point in the show after singing with the Green Goblin... kinda like in the comic books), but Emily thinks we should shoot for the slightly better reviewed Wicked. What do you think? 

We just wanted to say thank you to everyone coming to our wedding... we love all of our friends and family so very much! However, we are majorly appreciative to our dear friends Jeremy, Selena & Katie. They are moving to Colorado (thanks to an awesome job offer and the chance to be closer to family) and they arranged their big move around our big day. 09-24-11 will actually be their last full night here in Texas. We are very sad that they are moving away (Jeremy and I have been good friends since the mid-90's)... but at least they'll be able to have a final dance and a night full of fun with all of us next Saturday. If you have fun at our wedding.... then please thank these two, cause if Jeremy & Selena had not had a medieval themed wedding a few years back, I'm quite sure we never would have gone with our safari style wedding. Thank you guys for everything... we love you very much! 

We can now get married and it'll actually be legal... all for just $71 cash and 10 minutes of our time! It was kinda strange. Getting a marriage license was way easier than getting a drivers license.... 

The Axis Deer from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka takes no crap from anyone. They are the most carnivorous of all the antelope species. Axis deer are known to pick fights with Bengal Tigers for fun and eat King Cobras for brunch. Axis Deer NEVER eat breakfast. They can go without water for years because they prefer to drink Schlitz Malt Liquor. If you happen to see an Axis Deer at the Safari Camp, odds are it'll be drunk or at least partially hung-over. Whatever you do, DO NOT point at an Axis Deer and say "Hey is that an Axis Deer"... this will result in a hoof to your face. Please do not piss off the Axis Deer at our wedding.

Gemsbock are the inspiration for some African tribal masks. The Gemsbock is one of the few antelope species able to protect themselves from lions with horns that can grow up to 48 inches long. They can also sense rainfall from far away, and will walk up to 50 miles to feed on freshly sprouted plants. Luckily for us, these guys don't have to travel far to find water since the Safari Camp overlooks one of the main watering holes at Fossil Rim.

If you see anything with a bullseye on it's behind, odds are it's an African Waterbuck. Know one really knows why they have a big bullseye on their rump, but one therory is that the target helps them follow each other. Emily calls these guys "Circle Butts". Circle Butts stay close to water, and will run into the water if pursued by a predator. However thanks to the oil glands in their skin that secretes an oily substance that functions as waterproofing and insect repellent... they kind of taste like Deep Woods Off which does not make them a popular snack for lions. 

The Addax is another animal you may see hanging around the big watering hole next to the Safari Camp and they are Emily's favorite animal in the area we'll be. The addax can be found in Northern Africa and is considered Critically Endangered. This is one animal that was not really affected by the heat or lack of rain this summer because they are the most desert adapted of all antelopes. An addax can live most of it's life without drinking, deriving sufficient moisture from the plants it eats. They are easy to spot, just look for their brown "toupee" on their heads.

Sable Antelope are one of the many animals you may see at the Safari Camp on September 24th. Sable Antelope are native to Southern Africa and are considered Near Threatened. They usually rest in an outward-facing circle to watch for danger while their young lie protected in the center. Females are reddish brown, males are black, both sexes have white undercoats. This is a species of antelope capable of killing lions with it's long curved horns, so please do not wander past the cattle guards on foot. We'd get a little mad at you if you get mauled at our wedding. Please DO NOT get mauled. Thanks :)

For anyone who has never taken a tour at Fossil Rim or thinks that it's a little outdoor petting zoo or park... here's a little more information about our most favorite place in Texas. Fossil Rim Wildlife Center's mission focuses on the conservation of wildlife species in peril, conservation education, scientific research, responsible natural resources management, and the training of conservation professionals. If you were to take the normal tour of the 1,700 acres of Fossil Rim you'd note the 1,100+ animals that roam freely in large pastures, in near natural conditions. Fossil Rim is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization. To learn more visit www.FossilRim.org.

If you haven't taken the scenic drive before, we highly recommend spending the night in Glen Rose so you can take the tour Sunday morning and really get the full 3 to 4 hour experience which includes Zebras, Ostriches, Cheetahs, Rhinos and Giraffes! 

I just got back from meeting with our main contact and friend Donna Steakley (The Fossil Rim Director of Tourism) to cover all of the final details involved with September 24th.... we just can't believe that our big day is less than a month away now! The time since we first started planning has really flown by quickly!!!

For those of you wondering what to expect, all I can say is that we've planned a very unique wedding experience for everyone. Emily and I have been to plenty of weddings and we've decided that it would be more fun for everyone if it wasn't the same old traditional by the books style of wedding. If you couldn't tell by the invitation or our wedding site, we're adding our own creatively quirky twists to the normal wedding traditions everyone else does. So please don't be shocked if we don't toss the bouquet or we decide to have a little fun with the most overplayed wedding songs. We wanted to create an atmosphere that lets everyone feel relaxed enough to mingle along with giving people who don't like to dance a chance to help make the night even more memorable and fun. Oh and don't worry if by chance the weather doesn't cool down much more by then... while I was there today the weather was still 100 degrees, but it did not feel like it at all under the shade of the trees at the Safari Camp. Plus the whole wedding isn't completely outside thanks to the air conditioned Pavillion that will be playing a big part of the wedding. Stay tuned for many more Wedding Blogs leading up to 09-24-11.

If you have any questions about anything, please e-mail me at Gabriel@TheRanchRadio.com. Thanks & see ya'll very soon! 

1. THE DIRECTIONS CARD - You may have a hard time getting to the very secluded location of our wedding without the Directions card included in your invitation. That and we're pretty sure you won't get inside the Lodge & Safari Camp area without that handy Gate Code also found on the Directions card. Please follow the directions on the card... YOU CAN NOT GET TO THE LODGE IF YOU DRIVE TO THE MAIN ENTRANCE DOWN CR 2008.

2. A CAMERA (with fresh batteries) - Emily & I are pretty photogenic, but we're positive you're going to find many other things to take pictures of while at the Fossil Rim Safari Camp.

3. A FLASHLIGHT - You may want to grab a flashlight from the car later in the night because the animals (big and small) usually become more active as the sun goes down. 

Thanks to everyone who sent back their RSVP cards... if by chance you haven't sent it in feel free to just e-mail me at Gabriel@TheRanchRadio.com or call me at 817-565-2458 and let me know if you can make it along with a song request. July has been a very fun month for mail. We've really enjoyed seeing how everyone filled in the blanks! Also, your song suggestions have been great and may help us to create a very unique soundtrack for our wedding! Song requests have included: "Jungle Boogie", "Wake Me Up Before You Go Go", "Africa" and "Welcome To The Jungle", along with more traditionally great wedding songs like "At Last", "The Conga", "Faithfully" and "Colour My World".

....I'm just not quite sure where in the wedding we should play the request for Warrant's very inappropriate "Cherry Pie". Thanks Rob.

I'm so blessed to have an awesome fiance who is just as creative as I am! Emily helped me to keep the invitations classy yet fun. 

...but I think I know why people spend so much money on having invitations made. IT'S A LOT OF WORK. Luckily we have Honeymoonwishes.com and our wedding pages to let us add any extra details that we couldn't fit into the invitation like additional hotels near the wedding site and our registry. 

Oh and for those of you who have never done a Madlibs before.... rather than going with the boring RSVP card with an M________________ and Yes or No for if you're attending.... we decided to go with a more fun "fill in the blank" apporach. Just add an adjective, noun or whatever it asks into the blanks. Don't forget to include a song you'd like played at our wedding... we may just add it into the mix!

For the invitations, Emily wanted to keep look and feel of our Save The Date cards. We were going for creative, cute, kinda classy but casually fun... kind of the theme for our whole wedding. She loved how I gave personality to a couple of clip art giraffes I found, so the best way to keep things consistent was to give the giraffes friends.  So I created in the same style of art, The Wedding Friends! Meet Zack The Zebra, Olive The Ostrich, Ryan The Rhino, and Captain Kick Ass The Cheetah (she let me name that one). 

After carefully checking out EVERY single hotel, motel, hostel, and boutique in the New York City area we finally picked the Hotel Elysee! Out of 433 hotels on TripAdvisor, the Hotel Elysee is ranked #5 for popularity and it won the award for "Most Romantic Hotel" from Oyster.com. But it was the complimentary wine and chocolates that they offered us that really pushed them in the lead.... I LOVE chocolate :)  Best of all it's walking distance to Times Square, Central Park and a Taco Bell!

....WE'RE GETTING MARRIED ON 09-24-11! It didn't really feel like it until I dropped off all of the handmade Save The Date cards. Now it's full steam ahead for our big day! We watch a lot the wedding shows on cable and we've decided that we're going to try to get as much done ahead of time so we don't have to stress as much as we get closer to Sept. 24th. We want to enjoy the day and not turn into Bride/Groom-zillas. We're doing pretty good so far... - Secured a location & date. - Made & sent Save The Date Cards (big thanks to Em's mom & sister for working in our sweat shop). - Signed contract for a wedding photographer. - Purchased all postage stamps and paper material needed. - Bought something really cool to be signed instead of the usual picture mat or gust book - Created a wedding day webpage and registered for our New York honeymoon on this awesome website that makes everything pretty easy! - Registered for Rachael Ray Show tickets to hopefully see in New York so we can thank her in person for all the awesome food Emily makes. .....up next, we actually have to book the plane and hotel for the honeymoon and then do EVERYTHING ELSE.