Our Story
Spring 2008 was the second semester of Preston and Lynne's junior year of college, and it was Preston's first semester at CSUN. He'd registered for a Friday morning class…and then forgotten about it. Everyone already in the civil engineering program, including Lynne, wondered, “Who was that guy that was here for one day and then disappeared?”
Once Preston remembered about that class, surveying with GPS, he showed up a little more often. And every Friday morning, he'd shuffle past Lynne in flip-flops and a peacoat, not-so-subtly checking her out. Or when Lynne would look in his direction, he'd always be looking at her. She thought it was cute, though she didn't imagine herself ever dating him. (Ask him about the subtlety, though, and he'll say he was the smoothest operator on the planet.)
Throughout the class, they never really talked. It wasn't until the following semester, the first semester of their senior year, that they began to truly see each other. One fine evening in early March of 2009, while waiting for a hydraulics class to start, they were talking to a mutual friend about the new movie Watchmen. When their friend said, “Hey, Watchmen is coming out on Friday,” Preston surprised himself by getting the nerve to ask Lynne out on the spot. On March 7, 2009, they went to the Calabasas Commons for an Italian dinner and to see Watchmen. There was even an adorable little hand kiss on Lynne's porch.
As the years began to pass, they began to talk about the future. About marriage, and having a family. There was just one problem: the economy was so bad that neither of them had full-time jobs, even four years after their first date. They were going to wait. And wait they did, for years. It was a roller coaster ride. Preston would get a job, things would be looking up, and then would come the news that he was laid off. That he lived too far away to get the next job. That he didn't have the experience to get another job. Meanwhile, Lynne worked two part-time jobs. And they waited and they cried and they waited some more, and with every turn of the roller coaster they thought it was time…and it wasn't. They had to wait some more.
Then Preston realized it wasn't about waiting until the opportune moment. It was about creating the opportune moment.
So Preston did just that. He bought a ring and booked a four-night trip to gorgeous green Vancouver, Canada. On the cloudy afternoon of June 22, 2013, he took Lynne to the top of Grouse Mountain, pictured background, with a picnic lunch procured from a local farmer's market: a half chicken, some cheese, and a bottle of wine. With an above-the-clouds view of all of Vancouver, he began to talk about progress and moving forward. He fumbled in his bag to find a small wooden box. And then, with forming tears in his eyes, he opened it.
Lynne was so surprised that she was completely speechless for a full minute. Then, through her own forming tears, she said yes.
Six years later, Preston and Lynne now make their vows.
The Vows
Preston's Vow
Dear Lynne: We are here today because we've made a promise to each other; a promise to support each other through life, through both hard times, and good times, and to go on adventures in twain. It is a promise to go to the unknown with you, on the open road, and seek new envelopes and frontiers to conquer.
"However sheltered the port, and however calm the waters, you shall not anchor there; afoot and lighthearted, take to the open road; healthy, free, the world before us; the long brown path before us leading wherever we choose."*
We make this promise because we've found trust and companionship in each other, with uncommon confidence that we won't fail one another no matter what the challenges may be. I choose you. I know you're the right person because you have been selfless, courageous, and compassionate to me; you embrace my entire person and my interests in your heart; you motivate me to succeed regardless the odds. I now make this vow to you, and it is an unbreakable commitment to honor, respect, and celebrate our kinship. I promise you all this, and I choose to make this vow to you because you're my love, and indeed my greatest adventure.
*Walt Whitman: Song of the Open Road
Lynne's Vow
Preston, I've waited for this moment for a long time. I've known for so long that we were meant to be together, and now we're finally here. I'm the luckiest girl in the world.
I love you and everything about you. You're my muse, my best friend, my partner. No one has ever inspired me the way you do. You are strong, sweet, and fun. I love the way you can think in perspectives other than just your own, how you never give up, and how you make me want to be a better woman.
I promise to be your best friend, your biggest fan, your loudest cheerleader, your strongest support, your voice of reason, and your loving and loyal wife. I promise to be anything you need me to be. Even if the world turns against you, I won't.
I make these promises to you today and I'll keep them forever. For the rest of my life, you will be my one true love, and I will be your wife. I can't wait to see what life holds for us.
Pictured background: Top of Grouse Mountain, 2013; location of proposal.