Karen & Billy in Houston, TX

After seven years of dating, Karen McCallister and Billy Thomas decided not to waste any more time being engaged. Instead, they planned a formal, classic, Texas to-do over the next six months and pulled off a flower-filled celebration of love. The Bride Karen McCallister The Groom Billy Thomas The Date August 20 Karen McCallister, a nurse, and Billy Thomas, an armored-car operations manager, met twice before making a permanent connection. The first time, Billy approached her at a stoplight and the two flirted. “I was 16 and knew my parents would kill me for even considering dating a 20-year-old. I gave him the wrong number,” she explains. A few years later, Karen switched gyms and found herself attracted to a fellow member. When he approached her, she asked, “Do you have a friend who has a black Jeep?” Stunned, she revealed: “I’m the girl in the white Explorer!” “We both laughed our heads off, and figure it was fate that we met twice,” says Karen, now 25. The pair dated through college, and one night, some seven years after their first date, Billy (now 29) proposed with a ring made with a diamond left to Karen by her grandmother.