VALENTINE'S DAY VOWS: WILD BILL & ANGIE GET HITCHED

Shortly after 2 p.m. today, before 100 friends and family members gathered at Lynwood Baptist Church, Angie Menz and "Wild Bill" Lamberson will say their I do's.

How romantic, you say, marrying on Valentine's Day. Well, Angie's reasons were practical as well.

"I thought it would be pretty hard for him to forget the anniversary. My dad has that problem," she said.

The ceremony will be traditional. They'll make promises like couples have been making to each other for millennia. On Angie's left will be her maid of honor and roommate, Jamie Bruns. Wild Bill's right-hand best man is Sean Trapp, a former co-worker who lives in New York City now.

Afterward, everyone will head to the River City Yacht Club for a reception that, given Wild Bill's reputation for enlivening his habitat, should be somewhat less formal than the wedding. He promises "Dinner, drinks and lots of hoopla."

Angie is a 21-year-old Cape Girardeau native who plans to become a nurse. Wild Bill, a 26-year-old construction worker, was born in Hannibal and one day wants to own a bar and restaurant "a casual place where I'm the wildest customer," he says.

They met when she went to work at Griffin's Bar and Deli in downtown Cape Girardeau just over a year go. He was a bartender there at the time.

It was a Romeo and Juliet romance for a while because the company's rules don't allow employees to squeeze each other, even off duty. Wild Bill stopped giving her rides home. "We acted like we didn't know each other that well," Angie says.

Their attraction was yin-yang.

"I just think she's gorgeous, and she's a very nice person," Wild Bill says.

"She's a lot quieter than I am, and it kind of evens things out."

It's Wild Bill's outsized personality that rocks shy Angie's boat.

He shares more than a hometown with Tom Sawyer. As a boy, he had to be rescued from Turtle Island when a driving rain caught him swimming in the Mississippi.

And after all these years it can be told that Wild Bill was the one who piped Pink Floyd's Orwellian "The Wall" into the high school's public address system during the Jack of Hearts Dance.

Angie is marrying the class clown.

They were at Port Cape West on Dec. 1 when Wild Bill asked her to marry him on impulse, he says. She was stunned but accepted, then watched him climb atop the bar to announce their engagement to the entire place.

Then they went to Griffin's where he did it all over again.

"I need somebody who's like that," Angie says. "Otherwise I get too shy.

"...And he needs someone like me to calm him down."

She was entertained by the surprise proposal. "It wasn't a boring dinner with candlelight," she said.

But Angie's answer surprised Wild Bill as well. "I figured she'd say, `No, let's wait awhile.'"

Angie and Wild Bill enjoy doing most everything together especially outdoor activities like fishing. Angie may be reserved, but she's also a former barrel racer. "Angie even wades the river with me," Wild Bill says proudly.

Theirs will be a marriage based on sharing, they say. "As long as she does the laundry, I'll do the dishes," he promises.

She wants "maybe two kids." He looks surprised, then says, "That sounds great but I want three."

They will take a brief cruise aboard the Alton Belle after the wedding ceremony, and plan a longer honeymoon in the summer.

"You ought to get married because you love each other, not for how much money you have," Wild Bill says, suddenly turning serious.

He doesn't expect marriage to change his wild, wild ways much. "I still go and do my male thing, but I'll never run off."

Angie will pursue her nursing studies next semester at Southeast Missouri State University, and Wild Bill expects to work as a carpenter.

Like most young couples starting off, mostly what they have are plans and each other.