Dale Conwell submitted a wedding-day photo featuring the chicken-delivery vehicle he rented in lieu of a limousine; he thought it would be a fun surprise for his bride, Anne, who thankfully has a sense of humor.

Dale Conwell submitted a wedding-day photo featuring the chicken-delivery vehicle he rented in lieu of a limousine; he thought it would be a fun surprise for his bride, Anne, who thankfully has a sense of humor.

Most of you romantics out there have a favorite photo of your Valentine. Some keep those treasured images close to their heart, maybe in a locket. Others proudly display them in a pretty frame on the living room wall. And some of those photos are so darn heartwarming or hilarious that they must be shared with the audience of the neighborhood’s most popular magazine (that’s us, right?). To the subjects and senders of said snapshots we offer a hearty “Cheers!”

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Dale & Anne

Billboard_opt

Dale Conwell’s favorite photo of his love, Anne, under different circumstances could have been his least favorite and most embarrassing picture. Let us explain:

In 1984, Dale leased a billboard overlooking Greenville Avenue — above the old Bowley & Wilson, across from Ozona — and ordered the words “Anne Fletcher will you marry me? Love, Dale” scrawled across it.

The billboard idea was fun, though nerve-wracking. For one, it took two drive-bys before Anne noticed the sign.

“It came as a surprise to her, since we never talked about marriage before this,” Dale says.

As for him, “I used her last name and only my first just in case she said no, to avoid any further embarrassment and humiliation.”

She said yes. But Dale had one more unforgettable nuptial antic up his sleeve. Enter bonus photo no. 2.

[quote align=”right” color=”#000000″]“To say the least, everyone was quite surprised when this unique automobile showed up outside beautiful Perkins Chapel on SMU’s stunning campus to cart us away.”[/quote]

For the actual wedding, Dale’s big responsibility was securing transportation via limousine from the chapel to the reception.

“At the time, my co-workers and I dined religiously at the now-defunct Mr. Chicken restaurant. I asked the owner, Buddy, if I could rent the Mr. Chicken mobile (in lieu of a limo). It took some convincing, but he finally let me. No one but the two of us knew about it,” Dale recalls.

“To say the least, everyone was quite surprised when this unique automobile showed up outside beautiful Perkins Chapel on SMU’s stunning campus to cart us away.”

To prove he was both witty and intelligent, Dale also hired a real limo and driver, much to the relief of the bride (and her mother, who decidedly was not a Mr. Chicken fan).

“This was the right move, since the chicken mobile was used to deliver food and the interior smelled like chicken. Of course.”

Portrait by Kim Leeson

Portrait by Kim Leeson

 Pat & Phillip

Pat Metcalf Jackson’s favorite photo of her husband shows him wearing some silly headgear. This is why it means so much:

When Pat runs around White Rock Lake on a Saturday morning, she talks to some 50 people. A popular longtime member of the Dallas Running Club, she seems to know every jogger and cyclist on the road. Phillip Jackson moved to Dallas from Waco in 2008 to be closer to his grandchildren. A marathon runner, he joined the DRC for the training program. The polar opposite of Pat, Phillip speaks softly and trains, with seriousness, under the radar.

“We met but did not run in the same group, so we didn’t talk much at first,” Pat recalls.

At 46, Pat says, she had all but given up on the idea of marriage.

“I called myself a freak of nature, to mean that I was unusual, not that I was weird,” she says. “I didn’t always like it, but I was pretty happy and OK with staying single.”

Then she and some friends decided to train for an Olympic-distance triathlon. Pat says she casually asked Phillip if he wanted to join. He did. And then they were together seemingly all the time.

“When you are training for that big of a race, you spend a lot of time training. Three-hour runs, five-hour bike rides. You really can bond with a person.”

Pat liked Phillip and, as she got to know him, was becoming more interested, she says, but it wasn’t until last Oct. 31 that she felt the sting of Cupid’s arrow.

“The running club met on Halloween, and they said we should wear costumes,” Pat recalls. “I’ll wear anything. I was ready with a Goldilocks getup worn in a [previous themed] race. And I had a spare set of bear ears.”

[quote align=”right” color=”#000000″]“Yeah. When he put on those bear ears, I knew it was true love.”[/quote]

When Phillip agreed without hesitation to don the bear ears and wore them throughout the 10-plus-mile run, she knew he was the one.

“Yeah. When he put on those bear ears, I knew it was true love.”

After that the relationship moved swiftly. He proposed the next March (at White Rock Lake) and they married at Winfrey Point the following November. Both performed well in the triathlon and honeymooned in Costa Rica.

02 ED Cover Terry Reed_optJack & Terry

There are much better pictures of Terry, husband Jack Reed says, but he loves this one the most.

[quote align=”right” color=”#000000″]“It so perfectly represents this beautiful woman I love. She is relaxed, happy and at peace, which is the very state of mind I strive to put her in whenever I can.”[/quote]

“It’s the way she looks when she is asleep,” says Jack Reed about his favorite photo of his wife of 27 years, Terry. He keeps the snapshot in a frame on his nightstand. In it, Terry’s face is damp and red, her eyes are tightly shut and her lipstick is a little splotchy. She’s glowing.

“It so perfectly represents this beautiful woman I love. She is relaxed, happy and at peace, which is the very state of mind I strive to put her in whenever I can,” Jack says.

The photo was taken the first time Terry joined Jack at his favorite live-music event, The New Orleans Jazz Fest, he says.

“It was a hot and crowded day, and we had just walked through the spritzing tent where they cool the crowd down with sprays of cool water.”

Jack had been attending the festival annually for years and was elated that his soul mate enjoyed the event almost as much as he does, he says.

“I am hopelessly in love with her smile and this beautiful face,” Jack says. “I count my blessings that she has agreed to grow old with me.”

Sally & David

Voted Miss and Mr. Lake Highlands High School in 1970

Voted Miss and Mr. Lake Highlands High School in 1970

In 1970, Sally Russell and David Grinsfelder were elected Mr. and Miss Lake Highlands High School by the student body.

The honor of Mr. and Miss LHHS was significant, made more so by the fact that David was up against his twin brother — a member of the Wildcat student council, which tallied the votes — Sally recalls with a laugh.

The young lovebirds married at Christmastime during their junior year at college, had five children and are grandparents to six.

Sally Grinsfelder says that in ninth grade she dated a boy who was sort of jealous all the time and not all that happy.

“It was at a very early age that I decided dating or being in a relationship — we didn’t do much actual dating at that age — should be fun.”

David was shy, kind, loving soul with a sense of humor, and he was easy to get along with, she says.

She never had a problem with the fact that he was the only love she ever knew, she says, adding that their home has been filled with warmth and love through the years.

“Hopefully he hasn’t questioned it either!”