More Info:

How did you meet?

We met when a friend of mine set me up with a blind date on June 17, 1981. Like most men, I could get within a month or two, but she kept(and still keeps)a diary, so she had the exact date recorded. Oddly enough, she wasn't my date that night; my friend set me up with her best friend(who he knew I didn't like)in order to get a date with her. As the evening progressed, he wound up getting a little too fresh and getting slapped, and she stormed out of his house in a huff. I was attracted to her from the start, and chased her down and gave her a ride home. Along the way, I got to know her a little better and was even more attracted to her, and so when I dropped her off at home, I asked her for a date. We dated for about a year after that, but I was pretty wild in those days, and she was more calm and sensible and she wound up breaking up with me.

Tell us about your engagement proposal?

Several years passed, and she wound up marrying someone else. We were in contact sporadically in those years, and I decided to move to California from Arkansas(for the first time)in 1986. I loaded everything I owned at the time into the back of a '69 Chevy pickup with a camper shell and hit the road.My third day on the road, I called home to check in with my family, and my mom said "You'll never guess who called today". It was Melinda, and she told my mom she was in town and wanted to see me. I was committed to the move by that time and had quit my job in Arkansas, so I went ahead to California, but of course I called her as soon as I got the word, and we talked for about 4 hours on the phone. To this day, I think that's the longest phone conversation I've ever had. She told me that her husband had died from an inoperable brain tumor about 6 months previously, and she had returned to Hot Springs to live with her mother. We talked until we were exhausted, and I began to realize that this was what I was missing in my life, what I was really looking for during those years I spent running around and raising hell. I went on to California and got a good job, but I knew what I was really missing in my life was back in Arkansas. After a couple of months in California, I couldn't take it any longer, and moved back to Arkansas to be with the woman I loved. We rekindled the old flame with a fury, and my proposal was DEFINITELY not out of a romance novel. One night in the spring of 1986(I'm sure the date is in her diary and she will probably shoot me after the wedding for not consulting her first)after making love, we were lying in bed catching our breath and I looked over at her and said "Tonight you're my lover-tomorrow you'll be my wife". A look of surprise came over her face, and then she gave me a sly smile and said "Tom Acree, are you asking me to marry you?". I looked into her eyes and said "Yeah, I guess I am-will you marry me Melinda?" Ten years(seconds)later, she looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes and said "Yeah, I'll marry you". To this day, that's one of my fondest memories, but as fate would have it, it was not to be. I was self-absorbed at the time and didn't realize what she was going through. She had found out about 18 months before that she was pregnant, and then about three months into her pregnancy, she found out that her husband was dying. I didn't mean to be an inconsiderate jerk, but I was. I was thinking of my own dream about marrying the woman I loved and getting what I wanted out of life, and not taking her loss into consideration. It wound up with us splitting up again and both of us getting married-to other people. We fell in and out of touch over the years, but always seemed to find each other; sometimes in ways that were almost uncanny. My wife died suddenly in 2007, and Melinda called and offered to help me go through her personal effects. When she first called, I was glad to hear from her, but not ready for that step yet. Life in the town where I had lived with my wife became unbearable; there were too many reminders of our time together, and so I decided to move to California once again. A few weeks before the move, I realized that I DID need to go through Trish's personal effects and decide to do with them, so I took Melinda up on her offer. She came out and we began to go through them, and a strange thing happened. I was getting really torn up going through the process, but at the same time all of my old feelings for Melinda came flooding back like someone had dynamited a dam. I was already committed to move to California once again, but somehow I knew I had to spend some more time with Melinda. At the last minute,(the night before I left, in fact)I called her and asked her if she would like to come with me for the move if I flew her back after a week or so. She accepted, and things really heated up on the road. When she left, it was almost more than I could bear, and I knew we had to be together again. Like the first, my second proposal was not out of a storybook; it took place over the phone. I was talking to her a few months after the move, and by that time we both knew we wanted to spend our lives together, and so bursting with emotion I could contain no longer, I asked her over the phone. She accepted.

What do you do for fun?

We are both outdoorsy people and like to hike, canoe, camp and fish.

Tell us about your occupation.

I am a self-employed dealership parts department consultant.

What would you like voters to know about you?

If you have stayed with the story thus far, you are probably thinking "What are a couple of rubes like them doing in a contest like this?". The answer is simple. My brother treated Melinda and me to a weekend at the MacCallum house, and we both agreed it was the most romantic place we had ever stayed. We stayed in the water tower(#13), and could not have asked for a better time. It was a perfect romantic getaway, the accommodations and staff were wonderful, and the dining room was a hidden jewel; fantastic food and an impressive wine list.

Why do you deserve to win our Dream Wedding contest?

We don't "deserve" to win this any more than anyone else does. A soldier who risks his life to save his fellow soldiers deserves a medal; no one "deserves" a fancy wedding. Having said that, I will add that, for us, this would truly be a dream wedding. We are of modest means, but can definitely appreciate the finer things in life, and this is something we would never be able to afford to do on our own.