When neighborhood resident Regina Weaver walked down the aisle at her wedding, it wasn’t in a church.
It was an aisle at a Tom Thumb grocery store.
Regina and husband Dennis recently won Tom Thumb’s Remarkable Wedding contest – with a grand prize of an all-expense paid wedding at a Tom Thumb store.
Catering, flowers, invitations and wedding cakes were provided by the store. Radio station 107.5 FM, the OASIS, and other contributors supplied the couple with everything from wedding bands to limousine service to bridesmaids dresses to a honeymoon in Jamaica.
The couple, who have lived in Lake Highlands for two years, were married at the Tom Thumb at Preston and Beltline. They entered the contest at the neighborhood Tom Thumb stores located at LBJ and Skillman and Jupiter and Plano. There were more than 10,000 entries throughout the Metroplex.
Dennis says it was suitable for them to win their wedding from Tom Thumb: He shops there about four days a week and enters every contest he can. He even subscribes to a newsletter about contests.
“It’s like a hobby for me,” Dennis says. “Free is good, is my motto. Now, our friends are making jokes: Are you going to win a baby?”
A few days after learning about the wedding, Dennis won $100 from a radio station.
“He always says you won’t win if you don’t enter,” Regina says.
The couple met seven years ago while working together.
“We talked about getting married, but we weren’t officially engaged,” Regina says.
But that quickly changed.
“It was like: Honey, I guess we’re getting married,” Regina says.
George Mason with Wilshire Baptist Church performed the ceremony.
“It was in the floral department, close to the deli,” Regina says.
The reception immediately followed, in the deli.
“My cousin said: Are they going to roll you down the aisle in a cart?” Regina says.
“Everyone’s a comedian,” Dennis says. “One friend said: I’ll pick up a smoked ham for you while I’m there. Another said: Instead of the dollar dance, we’ll have the coupon dance.”
“There is no doubt now that this was meant to be,” Regina says. “It’ll be forever that we can tell this story.”
Discover Dallas Dining
A new dining guide produced by neighborhood residents will walk you through the maze of restaurants that winds through our city.
Dallas Gourmet, a restaurant reference book, has been in the making since last February. The guide is the first effort of Quill Creek Publishing, established in December 1993 by neighborhood residents Ed Blackburn and his wife, Linda Halbouty-Blackburn.
“We have an extraordinary amount of overlooked talent here in Dallas (in the restaurant business),” Blackburn says. “For one reason or another the limelight only falls on a few restaurants. Dallas Gourmet provides a vehicle for more exposure. It’s a showcase.”
The guide includes reproductions of actual menus, information on catering and to-go services, location maps, brief restaurant reviews, nutritional reviews by a Baylor Medical Center dietitian and meal suggestions for the health-conscious diner.
Fifty-one restaurants are featured in the book, which Blackburn plans to release annually, he says. Next year, Blackburn says he hopes the number of restaurants in the guide will double.
Release parties for the first edition are scheduled throughout November at different Neiman Marcus stores. Various book signings are also being planned, at which the public can meet the publishers, chefs and restaurateurs involved with producing the guide.
For information, call Blackburn at 750-1620.
