Heather and Paul

Celebrating Heather and Paul

Lisa and Aaron

The Best of the Best

Konnie and Robert

Celebrating Konnie and Robert

Konnie and Robert met through work and attended a function at The Alden Hotel, so it was an easy decision where to host their reception.  On the coldest day of the year (it even snowed the day before!) loved ones gathered at St. Anne’s Catholic Church for mass. The beauty of this church is only overshadowed by the picturesque location of the proposal: St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.  The couple had an adventurous honeymoon in Queensland, New Zealand where they took helicopter rides and bungee jumped.  Then, they totally relaxed in Bora Bora.

- LMV–
Photo by Studio Capture

Julie and Chase

Celebrating Julie and Chase

Monica and Scott

It’s a Small World, After All

Shelly and Paul

Thank God for Bad Directions

Megan and Dallas

Celebrating Megan and Dallas

They met at a party in 8th grade, attended the 9th grade homecoming dance together and began dating seriously in 2004. Their Galveston wedding was followed by a Cancun honeymoon. Dallas is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy. He is stationed at Vance Air Force Base, in Enid, OK and is in fighter pilot training. Megan is now the assistant to the City of Enid City Manager where she loves the change of scenery and the weather. She is a proud member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie class of 2008!  On February 26, 2010, Dallas’ mother, Dee passed away. She couldn’t have been more proud of the newly married couple.

- LMV—–

Astronaut Wedding

From Russia With Love
by Lynn Ashby

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” – John F. Kennedy, Sept. 12, 1962

We all remember that quotation. What most people don’t remember today is that he uttered those words right here in Houston, in a speech at Rice University. And what we tend to forget is that the speech was made in the middle of the space race with the Soviet Union. So JFK used words such as “challenge” and “win” and mentioned the Soviet Union by name in a derogatory fashion. This country was trying to catch up in the contest because the Russians had fired both Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin into space. Americans were playing second fiddle in a back room bar while the Russians were orchestrating the moment.

Could anyone on the Rice campus during that hot September day ever believe that Russia and the United States would join forces in space exploration in the future? Who could foresee cosmonauts and astronauts living together in space for months on end, cooperating in scientific research while down below taxpayers in both countries were sharing the costs? Now we come to yet another link: On Aug. 10, an American citizen, a Houstonian, married a Russian cosmonaut while she was in Houston and he was in space. Who would have thunk? The bride was Ekaterina Dmitriev, 27, known to all as “Kat.” The groom was Yuri Malenchenko, 41. Standing in for the groom by proxy was Harry Noe, a family friend. The best man was Ed Lu, who happens to be an American astronaut currently in space with Malenchenko. The maid of honor was Sandra Hammack, and Judge Bill Yeoman officiated.

The bride wore a long white gown, the guests were all seated for the ceremony. There were flowers and music. It was a standard American wedding – except that it was held in a large conference room at NASA, and the groom was there via a drop screen. “The Wedding March” was played by Astronaut Lu on a keyboard, and the groom’s family listened to the event on the phone in a conference call. After the ceremony, everyone – except the groom and the best man – adjourned to the Villa Capri restaurant in Clear Lake. In attendance were family friends.

The first space wedding in history had a circuitous route, but one well worth following. Dmitriev was born in St. Petersburg, came to America when she was three and a half years old and became an American citizen. “My parents moved to America for political reasons. My father is a professor at Oklahoma State University,” she says. “The first six years we lived in California, where my father received his Ph.D. in Russian literature at UCLA; then we moved to Michigan for two years, where my parents taught at Michigan State. In 1989, the family moved to Stillwater where my parents were teaching at Oklahoma State University.

“When my mother got a job offer in Houston for NASA, we moved to Texas, and my father continues to work for OSU. I went to high school in Stillwater and to San Jacinto College, majoring in communications. I’m still kind of there, but I also work for a company in administration for staffing. So, I work part time and go to school part time.”

As for Malenchenko, he was born in Svetlovodsk Kirovograd in the Ukraine, which is now a separate republic. But Malenchenko is a Russian citizen. He attended a military aviation school in Russia and in 1987 was selected for the Russian cosmonaut corps. He served as commander of MIR 16. During that flight, he controlled the first manual docking of Progress. While serving on the crew of STS-106, Malenchenko and Lu performed a six-hour and 14-minute extravehicular activity or spacewalk. He is currently the commander of Expedition 7. His specialties in space are tests related to biomedicine and technical instruments.

“We met in November five years ago at my mother’s house,” Dmitriev recalls. “It was a Russian holiday. He showed up with another cosmonaut. We talked, it was fun, but we didn’t hit if off. I didn’t see him again until last year on April 12, 2002, at the Outpost Bar in Clear Lake. It was Yuri Gagarin Day. He was the first person in space on April 12, 1961. Yuri was named for him. Anyway, this date is a huge celebration in the space program. It started on the West Coast and spread to the East Coast.”

Dmitriev was tired that night and didn’t want to go to the party, but a friend urged her to go anyway. As Dmitriev was ready to return home, a friend approached her and said, “I want to introduce you to someone.” Dmitriev turned around. “That moment I saw him I just knew he was the one. I moved in with him two days later.”

At the time, Malenchenko was in training for the shuttle flight in Atlantis which was to go to the International Space Station, or ISS. That flight was cancelled after the Columbia disaster. Finally, on April 25 Malenchenko and Lu were sent up as a relief crew. Due to the lack of supplies and the freeze on any new flights, they are the only two people aboard the ISS.

“We’ve had a very unusual relationship. Mostly long distance phone calls. He would go to Russia. I would be here. Also, I’ve talked to members of his family on the phone many, many times. Actually, most of our romance has been over the phone, so a space wedding is not that unusual. We converse in Russian, but he speaks excellent English. He proposed in December over the phone. Then he came here. I went to visit him in Moscow a week after he proposed. I stayed there for three weeks. It was the coldest December Moscow had seen in the last 50 years. We’re talking freezing.

“While he’s in space we get to talk every day. It’s a private line by NASA so no one else should be listening. This line was provided to support the crew members.” Asked to describe her new husband, Dmitriev gushed, “He is dark haired, 5 foot 10 inches, with strong facial features – a beautiful, handsome man.” Malenchenko is due to return to Earth on Oct. 28. In Texas a proxy marriage is legal, but not in Russia, so the couple will return to Moscow and be married in a traditional Russian Orthodox wedding after his return to Earth. She says, “This was a first for NASA, and they were just thrilled. They are giving us all the support they can give.” As for reports that the Russian space officials tried to prevent the wedding, Dmitriev disagrees. “The Russian authorities have always been very supportive. I would say it was a media mix-up.”

Yep, times have changed.

Debra Duncan’s Wedding

Wedding Bells for Debra
by Linda Miller Anzaldua

Without the hot spotlights of her KTRK TV studio but with plenty of internal glow from the bride and her proud papa, Deborah Kay Duncan, Houston’s award-winning talk show hostess, needed no producer or director to guide her into the arms of her groom-to-be, George Neal Horner.

Some say it was a match made in heaven, but it’s no secret this romance started out as the result of a botched appointment at a doctor’s office.

Debra (the professional format for her name) remembers well that fate-filled day. Though she and Neal were accidentally booked for the same time slot, they both graciously offered to cancel and reschedule. Neal (his preferred nametag) had never “picked up a girl” at a doctor’s office before, but he was intrigued by Debra’s infectious (pun intended) personality. He decided to make the move and call her for lunch, having no idea that she was such a well-known television celebrity. Debra liked that.

Boy Meets Girl

And so the story goes. Boy meets girl, boy dates girl, girl likes boy, and so on and so on. But wait, wasn’t that supposed to conclude with boy marries girl? Well, not exactly.

Debra will admit that she has interviewed or hosted on her many shows just about every recognized authority, author or get-them-to-the-altar self-help guru around. She has learned the rules from the best in the field. Neal, a successful local business owner, was smitten beyond belief, but he wasn’t so good at the next step.

Debra loves to share her Most Remembered New Year’s Eve story. Where are most Texas guys and their buddies over the holidays? Where else, the deer lease. So Debra made her way down to exotic Edna, Texas. She stopped at the local WalMart (where she was well recognized) to pick up some long johns and then bravely spent the next few days in Neal’s deer stand. Come New Year’s Eve, Neal promised her the finest that Edna had to offer, the local Pizza Hut. And as he motioned to the waitress, he said, “I want everything first class for my gal,” sign us up for the salad bar.?

The Way to a Man’s Heart is Through His Calendar

So how did they get to Second Baptist Church for a wedding? Easy, Debra set up a timetable with deadlines. Though she knew she had found more than the love of her life, a true soul mate and one who could make the marriage commitment stick, it was her only recourse. While it was no secret Neal shared the same love connection emotions, he was a little timid about marriage, especially given that Debra is such a well-known celebrity.

Neal realized Debra’s deadline was fast approaching. So in typical businessman style, he asked for an extension.

When the second deadline approached, Neal woke up in terror, realizing he may have just messed up big time. As he had come to know, deadlines in television, and especially in TV news, are crucial, and he had to do something before she left for the office.

And Your Ring Came From Where?

Being an old-fashioned guy and wanting to show Debra he was dead serious this time, Neal knew he had to show up with a ring. You can imagine trying to find a jewelry store open before 10 a.m. But Neal put on his thinking cap and remembered a jeweler’s cart that Debra had stopped by once at a nearby Fiesta grocery store.

Luckily, the proprietor kept early hours, and Neal was able to purchase a ring and hightail it over to Debra’s at the final hour. Proudly, he rang the doorbell and professed his love through the peephole.

And You are Calling Me From Where?

“Hi, Debra. Can you talk now?” asked Neal.

“Not really, honey. We are in a pre-show production meeting.”

“Well, I just wanted to tell you that I’m sitting in front of your house.”

“And so what? I’m not home,” said Debra.

“Well what I mean is, I’m sitting in front of your parent’s house in San Antonio, and I just wanted to tell you that I’m about to go in and ask them if I could marry their daughter, OK?” said Neal.

Needless to say, once Neal’s true love motor was in motion, he scored all kinds of points on that one special day.

Real Wedding Plans

The Fiesta ring found its way to popular Houston jewelers Mike Plummer of Diamonds and Time and Mark Klein of Michael Klein’s Fine Jewelry. The original band became the base for a knock your eyes out princess-cut solitaire. Diamond studded double bands finished the unique three-part wedding and engagement ring set.

Houston-based London designer Vanessa Riley created a one-of-a-kind wedding ensemble for Debra, while Lucho designed Neal’s tux, and the wedding was soon to be a reality.

Here Comes the Bride

So now we return to the beginning of this love story, with more than 300 guests on a beautiful, cool, crisp late fall afternoon in the simply elegant Second Baptist Church Sanctuary.

The Rev. Ben Young led the groom and groomsmen out in front of the altar. Neal’s hunting buddy, Kevin Duke, served as best man, and groomsmen included Matt Mahoney, Bruce Mosher, Mike Odeguard and Joey Vallone. The five bridesmaids entered regally, each in a black gown of their own choosing, but somehow so appropriate for the uniqueness of this event. And each carried a freestyle bouquet of assorted white blossoms, again in five differently styled designs. Marsha Branniff was Debra’s maid of honor, and her attendants included Kim Jackson, program manager of KTRK, Wendy Granato, executive producer of “The Debra Duncan Show,” Michelle Mosher, Debra’s new sister-in-law, and special friend Antoinette Latham.

As Debra proceeded down the aisle, Tony Glover of Brentwood Baptist Church began a beautiful rendition of “One in a Million.” We looked around and as is often said, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

The service did not have any personally scripted vows, but somehow, Rev. Young made each and every word more meaningful this time around.

Let’s Party Heart-y

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the guests departed for the reception at one of Houston’s most elegant estates right in the heart of the Memorial Villages, the home of Larry and Janet Rammings. Meanwhile, inside the church, the bridal party posed for the traditional post-ceremony photos with one of Houston?s most in-demand wedding photographers, Nhan Nguyen.

On this perfect day for an outdoor afternoon reception, the crowd swelled to nearly 400 guests. We were wined and dined by a fabulous buffet from Ruggles hats off to Bruce and Suzanne Molzan. Richard Flowers and Associates’ Scott and Karen were on hand to oversee the details, along with a most attentive staff from Carlton Staffing. It was a picture-perfect reception amid the elegant gardens, pools and courtyards of this fabulous swank-ienda. What a great mix, the A-plus list of socialites, politicians, television anchors and well-known reporters mingled among family, friends and best of all, lots of Debra’s own regular audience members. We all loved being there and feeling the bond that had just been created between the local TV star and this very exceptional groom.

Florist Lyman Ratcliffe’s talented floral designer, Kirksey Gregg, filled big clear globes with the freshest of flowers – all different – as centerpieces on the dozens of satin-striped tables.

“The Heat Band,” led by Lawrence Overshown, kept everything cool as the happy couple made their way through the throngs of well-wishers. Eventually, Debra took to the microphone to sing Natalie Cole’s “Inseparable.” But, of course, this was Debra’s own version to her beaming groom.

Among the last official duties on the agenda was the cutting of the cakes. The official bride’s cake was a one-of-a-kind creation designed by Julie’s Cakes (Baker to the Stars) of Missouri City. Originally called the “Heirloom Cake,” Julie Clifton took family jewelry pieces from both the bride and the groom and used her talented icing artistry to create something special.

The groom’s cake was on display in a hunting-themed den and was, of course, decked out in camouflage icing. Emblazoned across the cake in bold lettering were the words, “The Hunt is Over!”

Family Secrets

Like most brides, Debra followed the “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” tradition. But it’s the “something borrowed” that had everyone at the wedding in awe.

Debra’s good friend, Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale “loaned” Debra the Princess Diana jewelry to wear at her wedding. The $700,000 necklace and earrings came complete with an armed security officer to guard them. The flash of diamonds and pearls and the chance to see the real ice close up had everyone totally impressed, except for Debra’s mom, who said, “Oh, nice beads.”

So with Debra adorned in this beautiful necklace and fabulous one-of-a-kind gown, we all could see that she was the princess of Neal’s eye, not only on this day but forever in his future.