Preston Hollow Women’s Club Matchmakers ‘Make Me a Match’
New-to-the-neighborhood moms seek friendships, fun, then help their children find love
If the interest groups offered by the Preston Hollow Women’s Club included one for “matchmaking,” Daphne Vandegrift Elizalde and Gayle Porter could provide experienced leadership.
Daphne and her husband, John, moved to Preston Hollow from California in 2015. Gayle and her husband, Dave, moved from the Dallas suburbs the same year.
The wives joined the club in 2016 and 2017, looking for friends and activities in their new neighborhood, never dreaming they would also gain a son-in-law or daughter-in-law in the process.
“People can’t believe it. That’s just not how most people start dating these days.”
Payton Porter and Kalee Vandegrift
Gayle and Daphne instantly liked each other and soon agreed to head PHWC’s wine tasting group and serve on the Membership committee together.
“We enjoyed working together so much that we wanted our husbands to meet,” Daphne said.
The two couples hit it off and started going to dinner and hosting each other on various occasions.
In December 2018, the Elizaldes went to a Christmas party at the Porters, where they met Dave and Gayle’s son Payton.
“My daughter, Kalee, needs to meet Payton,” Daphne said. But Gayle was skeptical.
“Daphne had talked about Kalee, so I knew that she was a few years older than Payton and lived in Southern California,” Gayle said. “I thought, just how is that going to work?”
But when the Porters met Kalee, who was in Dallas a week later, they immediately liked her, Gayle said. “We told Payton he needed to figure out some way to meet her.”
Initially, the young adults balked, but with some parental prodding, they talked on the phone and set up a dinner date for the day after Christmas. They closed down the restaurant, and the next morning, Payton drove Kalee to the airport.
Two years later, after a long-distance relationship that saw Kalee move from Los Angeles to Seattle for a job that she had accepted before meeting Payton, both were working remotely in Dallas.
With both sets of parents “in on” the planning, Payton surprised Kalee with a sunset proposal on the Porters’ Texas Hill Country ranch, where they intend to wed in the fall.
“When people ask how we met, and we tell them, ‘Our moms,’” Payton and Kalee said. “People can’t believe it. That’s just not how most people start dating these days.”
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