Said Todd: “Kelli wants a beautiful winter wedding with a lot of friends and family, and I can ’t wait to be her husband.”

Each has a busy career now: Kelli is chief marketing manager for her father’s vast homebuildng Kickerillo Companies, while Todd is a mortgage officer at Amegy Bank. Nonetheless, each has a formula for keeping a happy union through the years.

Kelli: “We talk nine thousand times a day. Even if it is a quick phone call to say ‘Hi,’ we answer. Communication is the key to any relationship. And furthermore, Todd doesn ’t argue. On the other hand, I could argue with the wall and be happy. He knows this about me, listens and then laughs. ”

Todd: “Kelli’s right. You’d think that being the son of a lawyer, I would love to argue, but it’s not my forte. Kelli is my best friend. We talk so much when we are around each other, yet twice as much when we are apart. My advice is to never stop talking. If you are in a disagreement, talk it out. ”

Kelli adds: “Todd just understands me. It’s important to find someone you love and like as well. I work hard, spend a lot of time with my family and love to be at home watching movies. I am comfortable having him see me with my hair down, so to speak, and know that he is always there for me …always on my side. It’s a very special feeling.”

And Todd says: “I’m the one she talks to when she’s upset, when she is frustrated, and also when she is the happiest. She also sees great potential in me, even when I don ’t. To know that she is on my side makes each day easy. Marry your best friend; that ’s what I am going to do!”

Julie and Ron Clifton

Julie and Ron Clifton have a truly inspiring story. Picture the ABC Bakery in Houston in 1979, with sweets in the window. Ron was passing by, and the cakes caught his eye, but it was the pretty young girl behind the counter that really brought him in.

“He told me I was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen,” said Julie. “And with those brown eyes, I thought he was the best looking man.” From time to time, he’d drop into her parents’ bakery, to visit with her, but business frequently took him away.

Finally, some four years later, Julie crashed a wedding where she knew he would be. In that festive atmosphere, romance blossomed, and they began to date. But in their 18-month courtship, spiritual differences became evident. Could these different points of view ever be resolved?

“Anything is possible if you wish it to be,” said Ron, who phrased his proposal in that sentence. Then each began to show that that be true.

What would be a symbol of impossible accomplishments? Julie had noticed that the standard favorite, the Cabbage Patch Doll, was sold out everywhere, so she gave him a challenge.

Said Julie: “If anything is possible, then get me a Cabbage Patch Doll!”

Surprise: Ron came up with a Cabbage Patch Doll made in her image. Then Julie went one better: she came up with a rare male Cabbage Patch Doll, made in his image.

They married on Feb. 16, 1985, at Greenwood Baptist Church.

Said Julie: “We have worked together and lived together for 24 years, and still love one another. ”

Her most unusual creation was a cake in the shape of the Taj Mahal, for an India celebration. “It took six men to carry it,” said Julie, adding that it was so successful that she got at least two more orders later for a similar cake.

Some of her favorite creations for wedding cakes include the Madison and the Debra Duncan-styles. By now, her cakes have appeared in Vogue magazine, the L.A. Times, the Houston Chronicle and on TV.

Their advice for keeping a happy marriage?

“Learn to accept one another for who they are, and balance and joy will follow!”

Brian and Carol Foy

Adventure is the keynote for oil expert Brian Foy and his wife Carol. They spent 16 years overseas on three continents —India, Russia and Africa (five countries) before moving to Houston where Brian joined the British Consulate as oil advisor. Some 10 years ago, they moved to Lakes of Parkway, a beautiful gated community built by Kickerillo, where Brian also maintains his office as consultant to several oil and engineering companies.

But back to the beginning...

They met at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, where both were working in the Student Union. Each was dating someone else when they ran into one another at a Hanukkah party, which was the last party before Christmas break. It was also Carol ’s 18th birthday.  

From the party onward, Brian and Carol dated.

“Carol was one of the prettiest girls in school,” says Brian, “and I was impressed with her capabilities. I first met her when we were both working on a local political campaign. ”

“Brian always has had a very outgoing personality, and he was more polished and sophisticated than most of the men I ’d met,” says Carol.

Two years later, romance was interrupted when Brian joined the Air Force and left for basic training in San Antonio. Undaunted, Brian came back to propose on his first leave.

“Carol was then in the School of Nursing at Columbia University,” says Brian. He flew back to New York City and delighted her with a traditional proposal on bended knee with his grandmother ’s diamond ring in hand.

They set a wedding date---twice---but each time the wedding had to be postponed, because the South East Asian theater of operations expanded and Brian ’s bomber wing was sent to other overseas bases: Guam, Okinawa and ultimately Thailand.

“Friends  began to think I wasn’t really engaged,” said Carol. But finally by 1969, he came home and they were married.

Their advice for keeping a happy union?

Says Carol, who learned to enjoy primitive posts with her husband, activities ranging from Kenya safaris to formal Consular Balls:

“You need to have your own interests as well as your shared interests—you decide what’s important.”

It must work, considering their many years together. You might say, Safari, so good!