Couple Reunited with Vinyl Record from 1966 Wedding After It Was Found at Thrift Store
“What a gift for us to have this recording back in time for our 59th next year!” Donna Packer said
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person holding record — stock imageA Denver couple got a sweet surprise just after their 58th wedding anniversary.
Dr. Phil Schmidt and Donna Packer married in Los Altos Hills, Calif. on Aug. 21, 1966. For their wedding, the then-college students had their vows and other memorable moments from that day preserved onto a vinyl record.
However, the Schmidts moved over the years, and the treasured wedding gift eventually got separated from the couple. But then the record made it to a thrift store in Austin, Texas, according to NBC affiliate KXAN-TV.
Phil previously spent over 40 years there, working as a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Once his tenure was up, he and Packer relocated to a retirement community in Denver.
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“We had an estate sale that cleared out everything from our home that wouldn’t fit in our new apartment,” Packer wrote in an email to KXAN-TV. “We had a large record collection and somehow our wedding vinyl made its way into a jazz cover. Makes me wonder what other treasure we left behind?!”
Austin resident Katie Ornelas found the record when she bought what she thought was The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn, a live album recorded in 1956. Instead, she ended up with “Phil’s and Donna’s Wedding.”
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Ornelas didn’t mind the mixup and began her quest to try and track down the rightful owners.
“We put it on, and we were just instantly, just connected with that record and wanted to make sure it found its way back to its family, because it was in a different sleeve [than the vinyl cover],” Ornelas told KXAN-TV. “So we anticipated that it’s probably missing its owners.”
The Schmidts' daughter saw Ornelas' interview with KXAN-TV and the priceless gift made its way back to the couple.
“We celebrated our 58th Anniversary last August,” Donna told the news station. “What a gift for us to have this recording back in time for our 59th next year!”
