Before he went out on a first date with his co-worker, Chris Clayton had a premonition.

MILTON HINNANT/DMN

'I knew from the beginning it wouldn't be just random dating,' Chris Clayton says. After Amanda Keathley agreed to go out with him in 2005, he wrote a letter to himself declaring his intention to marry her.

Might as well write it down, he figured. So, in October of 2005, he took out a card and wrote one sentence: "I will marry Amanda Keathley one year from today."

He sealed it in an envelope and decided to mail it to himself.

"I even drove it to the post office because I was afraid they'd just put it back in my mailbox," he says. After all, he'd need a postmark as proof of his psychic abilities.

What made him so sure about Amanda? They'd shared a friendship at work, and once she agreed to go out, "I knew from the beginning it wouldn't be just random dating," says Chris, 36, who is now a vice president at a financial management company.

Amanda, who works as a loan officer for Countrywide Home Loans, had never dated anyone she'd worked with. "I was a little leery," she recalls, "because what if it doesn't work out?"

But she said yes to the date, and things went so well that she soon was having a premonition of her own.

"Within a couple of weeks, I told my mom, 'This is the guy I'm going to marry,' " recalls Amanda, 33.

More successful dates followed. By 2006, Chris had begun to plan when and where he'd pop the question. In July of that year, the two decided to go on a spur-of-the-moment trip Memphis, Tenn., to visit Graceland. Chris, a longtime Elvis fan, decided the King's house would be ideal for their big moment.

"It's unique, and Amanda's got a real strong, fun personality," he says. "It's something she would enjoy."

The first night in Memphis, the couple hung out on Beale Street, listening to music and eating barbecue. But Chris couldn't exactly let loose; as he thought about his proposal the next day, "I was just a train wreck."

The next morning, they arrived at Graceland. Chris' plan was to propose on the front porch at the end of the day, but he hadn't counted on the other 50 people lining up for the next tour.

Chris had to stall. He told Amanda he wanted to get one more picture of the back of the house, and she obliged. As they returned to the front porch, Chris said they couldn't leave quite yet.

"I was like, what is he trying to accomplish here?" Amanda says. "Finally, I was like, 'OK, it's hot. Can we go?' "

It was now or never, as Elvis might say. Chris led her to a brick walkway in the front yard and said, "I have a question to ask you." She turned around to find him on one knee. She said yes, and the people standing in line broke into applause.

"When we got on the bus, everyone was clapping," Chris says.

But their moment in the sun wasn't over. As they walked around the gift-shop area, a deejay from Sirius Satellite Radio's all-Elvis channel asked to take their picture because it seemed as if they were sharing a special moment. They told him their happy news.

A few minutes later, they were sitting in the radio booth, going on the air to talk about the proposal. The couple also requested their favorite Elvis song, "If I Can Dream." (The deejay, being a thoughtful guy, later sent them a recording of the interview.)

Back home in Texas, Amanda and Chris decided their wedding date should be 07-07-07.

"We actually thought we were geniuses," Amanda says with a laugh. "We thought we were pretty clever, and then we found out everyone had our idea."

The night before the wedding, Chris sent a gift to Amanda, who was staying at her sister's house. It was the letter he'd written to himself in 2005, predicting the future.

"It was signed, sealed and delivered," she says. "My first joke was, 'He probably has a pile of them in his closet.' "

But she knew that wasn't true: "One of the things I love about Chris is that he's a funny guy, and he's a sincere guy. He mixes the two very well."

At the rehearsal dinner, their Sirius interview was played for the guests.

"All of my guys made fun of me, but it was pretty cool," Chris says.

The Elvis theme continued through the wedding, but not in a flashy way. The groom's cake featured a Swarovski-crystal topper done in Elvis' TCB logo; the couple entered the reception to the theme of 2001: A Space Odyssey (which is how Elvis entered his concerts); and they drove away in a white 1961 Cadillac convertible.

The Claytons, who now live in Plano, are the epitome of newlywed bliss.

"I'm so glad I waited for the right man," Amanda says. "He's made every bit of my single days worth the trip."

Darla Atlas is a Fort Worth freelance writer. If you have a True Romance story, e-mail darlajatlas@yahoo.com.