It was the spring of 2008, and Heather Barker had her hands full. Not only did she have a boyfriend, she was writing an LDS missionary.
But then came Dan Yeates.
“We were living in Raintree Apartments in Provo when we met,” says the Elk Ridge bride. “My mom’s maiden name is Yates, and so that got us talking.”
After a summer of flirts from afar, the pair dated for a month or two and then broke up. Heather then dated the missionary she’d been writing (who’d since come home), and Dan did some dating of his own.
But then came the cheddar cheese waffles.
“We had been keeping in touch by text here and there, and he always said he was going to make cheddar cheese waffles for me. My birthday is on New Year’s, so he came over that day — and the rest is history.”
The rest is, in fact, a delicious history. When it came time to propose, Dan, who hails from Orem, put things into overdrive.
“It was the last day of my finals during the spring semester, and I came out to find a bouquet on top of my car,” Heather says. “There was a note. On one side it said, ‘Heather Barker.’ And when I unfolded it, it said, ‘Yeates.’”
Still not 100 percent sure he was proposing (thanks to the stress from her chemistry final), Heather met up with Dan and they went for a drive up Provo Canyon. After dinner at Sundance, Dan got down on one knee to propose to his sweetheart — but not before tripping (adorably so) in the process.
Talk about head over heals.
