My Parents' Proposal Story | Whitney Beth Photography | Utah Family Photographer

There's been a lot of crazy and unexpected events that have happened in my personal life as of late. Throughout it all, my one takeaway is that I have decided to be the self appointed, family historian. And as the family historian, I am going to start writing things down. Diving right in, I wanted to record my parents' proposal story. I knew the just of it, but I wanted to get the details from them. (Above you'll see my parents' engagement picture and wedding picture) 

My parents grew up together in Tigard Oregon. They started dating during my mom's senior year. My dad decided to serve an lds mission. He was called to serve in Sydney, Austraila and would be gone for two years with minimal contact. (letters and phone calls on Mother's Day and Christmas.) My mom waited for my dad and spent the next two years getting things ready for him to come back. 

It was Christmas, 1989, and my dad was making his Christmas call home. My mom was over at her soon-to-be in-laws' house. My dad had about 6 months left on the mission. He made his companion go into the bathroom so he could have a little privacy as he talked to my mom. Mom sat there, at my Grammy's house, on their rotary phone and listened as my dad proposed to her over the phone! Dad was "testing the waters" and feeling it out to see if she'd want to get married when he got back - but what surprised him was how fast she said yes! When he was done talking, his companion came out of the bathroom crying because "that was beautiful, Jones!"

Six months later, on Tuesday, June 26th, my dad returned home from his mission. Mom met him at the PDX airport with his family to welcome him home. They went straight to the stake president's office so that he could be released and they could finally hold hands. Two days later, on Thursday, dad picked mom up and drove her to Bull Mountain to look out across the valley at all the lights. When he left for his mission, Bull Mountain was empty, but two years later, houses had started going up. Dad was unaware of the houses and was surprised to see the construction when they arrived. They got out of the car, and according to mom, dad said something along the lines of, "I may not be able to give you all this, but I promise to make you happy." (or something to that effect, Dad didn't even remember saying that! haha!) and then he got down on one knee and pulled out an opal ring he had gotten in Australia a week or so before he left. 

When it came time to getting their wedding rings, mom and dad took lots of gold rings and jewelry they had and melted them down to make mom's ring. She had it styled after the opal ring dad had proposed with. They made my dad's ring from my great grandpa Bike's wedding ring. He had lost his hand in a wood chopper working in the lumber yard and told dad that he had no use for it! The final piece to the story is when dad gave mom a pair of opal earrings that matched her ring he brought her for a wedding present. 

They were married September 15th, 1990 on the (literally) only rainy day in September and had to bring their outside wedding reception inside my grandma's house. This year will be 30 years of marriage, and 10 kids, 4 children in laws and 5 grandkids!