My Proposal Story | Whitney Beth Photography | Salt Lake City Family Photographer
 

This past week, on February 18th, marked 8 years since Danny proposed to me. With my new title as "self appointed family historian" it seemed like the perfect time to tell our story.

Let me preface this by saying that they end of February kicks off "birthday season" in the Jones household. Hailey's birthday is February 28th, Kenny's is March 1st, Robert is March 5th, Danny's is the 11th and so on. (We even have a cousin born on the 2nd of March, Uncle on the 4th, and cousins on the 6th and 9th and aunt on the 11th.) My mom is an angel and has always thrown us awesome birthday parties. 

February 17th, 2012: Amanda and I were hanging out together with our boyfriends (and eventual husbands) Amanda was spending the night and both guys came over to watch a movie with us. Hailey and Kenny were having a combined birthday party the next morning and Danny was going to come over and help with the activities. Amanda and I stayed up super late after the boys left - just talking and hanging out. We didn't go to bed until around 4 am. 

The party didn't start until later in the morning and Danny wasn't due to show up until just before it started, so we were planning on sleeping in as late as we could. 

February 18th, 2012: After staying up super late I was woken up to my mom yelling down the stairs, "Whitney! Your lover boy is here!" I rolled over to check the time and it was just before 8 am! I remember being like, "are you serious!? It's so early!" I laid there for a bit longer until my siblings started chanting down to me and yelling that Danny had brought donuts for everyone. Amanda was still trying to sleep, so I reluctantly stubbled upstairs so that the yelling would stop and at least one of us could try and sleep. 

When I got upstairs I saw Danny with a box of donuts smiling away in the kitchen. I asked him why he was here so early as I gave him a morning hug. By then, my dad had a pretty good idea of what was going on. You see, Danny came over early to ask my parents' permission to propose. He was banking on me still being fast asleep after a late night with Amanda. My mom, on the other hand hadn't caught on as quick and produced a slight road bump by waking me up. After a few nudging hints from my dad, my mom caught on and realized what was happening. She kept telling me over and over to "take a donut down to Amanda," and "see if Amanda wants a donut!" I distinctly remember that part because I replied, "she doesn't want a donut, she wants to sleep!" The next thing I know, I'm downstairs with a box of donuts asking Amanda if she wants a donut. (she didn't - she wanted to sleep.) But at that point we were already awake. After having been downstairs for probably five minutes I emerged with the box of donuts. Danny tried to play dumb like he thought the party was earlier than it was - and me, being the sleep deprived-not-morning-person that I was, bought it. Danny started helping mom with the decorations while I got ready for the day. (The party was a "princess and knights" theme - so I was putting on my old prom dress and Danny had a blue tux to be my prince.)

(look at those babies!)

After the blur of a party with around 20, eight and six year olds, Danny had to go help his elderly neighbor move something. (aka go pick up the ring.) We had dinner plans that night with most of his siblings and their spouses and Danny was set to pick me up on his way down. When Danny left, my mom was super giggly and kept batting her eyes when she talked to me (one of her tells that she's hiding something) I asked if Danny had talked to them when I was downstairs, now that I was fully awake and could process the events of the morning. To which she replied ".. no" *batting eyes*

*Backstory - there was this super cool looking dead tree in a vacant lot that would soon become the Sandy trax station on 11400 and like 5th E. It was so cool looking and weathered. Every time I passed it I would think how I wanted to photograph it someday. I needed to do it soon too, since they had started construction on the lot and it wouldn't be there for much longer. 

Fast forward a few hours: Danny picks me up and we start heading towards the freeway. As we get to about 7th E, he asks if I have my camera with me, to which I reply, "I always have my camera with me." Danny starts to pull the car over into a neighborhood and says, we've got some time, lets go get a picture of your tree! I was thrilled! We started walking towards the tree I stopped at the side walk and snapped a picture. I noticed some balloons near the base that must've gotten stuck there or been left for a memorial and tried to position myself in a way that the tree would block them. Danny said lets go move & check out the balloons and started walking towards the tree. I followed behind as we passed the "no trespassing" sign that I was low key freaking out about passing. I was so focused on the ground and not tripping that it wasn't until I got right up next to the tree to move the balloons that I saw the sign that said, "Marry Me." Embarrassingly, the first thing I thought of when I saw it was, "Hey! someone else likes this tree as much as me!" I turned around to see if Danny had noticed the sign to find him down on one knee. "Oh! It's for me!" I thought! He asked me to marry him, his knee in the soft earth, next to my favorite tree. Of course I said yes and we hugged and kissed and laughed. I head shouts and out from behind a dirt mound came my future brother and sister in law, Ed and Steph. They had filmed the whole thing! Danny said that knowing me, I'd want documentation - smart man. 

After hugs were exchanged I looked at my ring. Not only was it huge, but it was so familiar! (When we were dating and marriage was discussed Danny asked if I wanted to go ring shopping with him. I told him "no," that I wanted him to pick it out. After a little back and forth I told him that I wanted white gold, three stones and princess cut, but the rest was up to him.) I called my mom on the way to the car and told her the news. She was thrilled! And surprised! She didn't think it would happen that fast! Which was probably good if she intended on keeping the secret! haha!

We went to dinner with all of my soon to be in laws. Danny wanted to see how long it would take them to notice, so he made me wait to tell! I tried to overly use my left hand the whole night! haha! Finally Bill saw it and the secret was out! 

Later that night, after Danny had dropped me off, I remembered where I had seen my ring before. I pulled out an old sketchbook from high school and flipped through it until I found what I was looking for. A sketch of a ring I thought up one day while sitting in class! I asked Danny if he had seen the sketch, and to my surprise, he didn't even know it existed! We both took that as a good sign, and I think Danny breathed a sigh of relief with all the pressure of finding my ring on his own! 

We are celebrating 8 years of marriage in May, and I am so thankful we decided on forever!