Charlie and Terrie, bride and groom, early 1970s

Charlie and Terrie as bride and groom — the formal couple portrait from their wedding day, early 1970s. Terrie in a high-necked white gown with lace cuffs and a long veil, holding a yellow-and-white bouquet; Charlie in a black tuxedo with a black bow tie and a pale carnation boutonnière. Both are looking straight at the camera, outdoors in front of trees, with a period sedan parked at the right edge of the frame — the kind of just-outside-the-church snapshot a family member takes before the couple goes in.

This is the companion frame to Will and Peggy mid-laugh on the church steps: the parents-of-the-groom photograph shows the day from the family’s side; this one shows the couple themselves. Together they are the visible resolution of the Letters from Vietnam — the courtship that ran across Charlie’s 1969–1971 tour, most of the letters going home to Terrie at Marietta College, ending in this day.

The print was scanned from Charlie’s own photographs alongside two other items on the same sheet: a courtship-era thank-you note in Terrie’s hand (“Charlie, thanks for a really terrific weekend… try harder than your last visit… Yours, Terry”) and a winter exterior of a family house with a wreath on the door. The couple portrait is placed here; the note and the house exterior are held for identification.