It started 18 years ago with an endearment and a plush bunny.
Today, Steve Lubanski and Candace Frazee live in The Bunny Museum, where they have the world’s largest rabbit collection with more than 26,000 items. Guinness Book of World Records dubbed the bunny collection the largest in 1999, when there were only 8,437 items.
Frazee counts and catalogs the items and keeps track of visitors — hovering around 16,000. The couple are surrounded by rabbits, from wallpaper to wind chimes, telephones to faucets and sheets to screen savers. Thousands of items are in storage because of lack of space.
Lubanski, 52, and Frazee, 53, met at a singles seminar in 1992. She called him "Honey Bunny,” and he gave her a stuffed rabbit for Valentine’s Day.
In the beginning, they gave each other bunny gifts on holidays. Then every day. Sometimes dozens a day. At the reception to their 1994 wedding, he dressed in a bunny costume; they did the bunny hop and ate carrot cake.
In 1998, they opened the museum, calling it the "happiest place in the world.” Admission is free and by appointment only.
The couple have seven real bunnies and continue to expand their collection at antique, novelty and out-of-town stores. This time of year is like Christmas, because Easter makes stores nearly as bunny happy as they are.
The most asked-about item in the museum is an Elvis Parsley pitcher, Frazee said. But the most asked question? "How do you dust?”
She used to do it all herself but finally hired a housekeeper to help two days a week.
"But the truth is,” she said, "we don’t mind dust bunnies at the museum.”
World’s Largest Rabbit Bunny Toy Collection Video
Frazee counts and catalogs the items and keeps track of visitors — hovering around 16,000. The couple are surrounded by rabbits, from wallpaper to wind chimes, telephones to faucets and sheets to screen savers. Thousands of items are in storage because of lack of space.
Lubanski, 52, and Frazee, 53, met at a singles seminar in 1992. She called him "Honey Bunny,” and he gave her a stuffed rabbit for Valentine’s Day.
In the beginning, they gave each other bunny gifts on holidays. Then every day. Sometimes dozens a day. At the reception to their 1994 wedding, he dressed in a bunny costume; they did the bunny hop and ate carrot cake.
In 1998, they opened the museum, calling it the "happiest place in the world.” Admission is free and by appointment only.
The couple have seven real bunnies and continue to expand their collection at antique, novelty and out-of-town stores. This time of year is like Christmas, because Easter makes stores nearly as bunny happy as they are.
The most asked-about item in the museum is an Elvis Parsley pitcher, Frazee said. But the most asked question? "How do you dust?”
She used to do it all herself but finally hired a housekeeper to help two days a week.
"But the truth is,” she said, "we don’t mind dust bunnies at the museum.”
World’s Largest Rabbit Bunny Toy Collection Video