He gave his wife a village and had her name written in the stars. This year, his Valentine’s surprise is in Utah.

Logan • Lonnie Anderson was grabbing a quick bite at a Portland, Oregon, bar in the 1990s when he wandered over to a nearby table and struck up a conversation with a friend.

Sitting at the same table was Anne Bolger-Witherspoon — the woman he would later marry.

More than 30 years later, the couple still laughs when they tell the story.

“It was really painful and awkward because,” Bolger-Witherspoon said, pausing.

“I don’t think she liked me,” Anderson finished, laughing.

But Anne did. And the rest, he said, was “fate.”

After they started dating, Anderson began marking Valentine’s Day with elaborate, but low cost, displays. For their first Valentine’s as a couple, he turned Bolger-Witherspoon’s living room into a life-size Candy Land board, complete with a giant cardboard die.

“It was really sweet because it was a way to get to know each other,” Bolger-Witherspoon said. “And we’d only been dating a short amount of time.”

Over the years, the displays grew bigger — and more public. What started as private gestures eventually drew national attention, including from NBC’s Today show in 2016.

Some of the surprises have been large scale: a Santa Fe Symphony performance in a historic theater, her name written in the stars at a national planetarium and a heart-shaped crop circle visible from space.

Last year, the mayor of Loving, New Mexico, presented her with a key to the village and temporarily renamed the main street in her honor.

“What’s so beautiful about love is, like, you get to love who you want,” Anderson said. “Like you could love that person as much as you want and as big as you want.”

This year, Anderson brought the gesture to northern Utah, returning to the candy theme by giving his wife an entire candy store for the day.

The display landed at Bluebird Candy Co. in Logan, a Utah institution since 1914, known for its hand-dipped chocolates.

‘The world needs more love’

Bolger-Witherspoon walked down a red carpet into the store and saw her name spelled across a 5-foot red heart hanging in the window. The sign, made entirely of jelly beans, was crafted at Jump the Moon, a nonprofit art studio in Logan for people with disabilities.

Surrounding it were smaller styrofoam hearts crafted by members of the studio. Each heart was painted with the names of people they love and arranged around Bolger-Witherspoon’s heart.

“The community is kind of represented, too,” said Michael Bingham, the studio’s founder. “Not only is this celebrating Lonnie’s love for Anne, but we’re also celebrating the people we love along with them.”

Bolger-Witherspoon stood in the doorway for a moment, taking in the massive display. Justin Hamilton, the shop’s owner, met her near the entrance.

“We’re going to kind of give you a candy store today,” he told her.

Hamilton led her on a tour through the shop’s factory, stopping in rooms where industrial machines mixed the chocolate.

In the last room, practiced workers hand-dipped fillings into the center of melted chocolate to create rich confections.

“Coming all this way and being welcomed by folks who I don’t know ... that’s the part that keeps it something to look forward to and fresh,” Bolger-Witherspoon said. “The world needs more love. I think we are love, and we just need to show it more.”

Planning the sweet surprise

The Utah Valentine’s display was inspired in part by Bingham, Anderson said.

Bingham said he met Anderson six years ago when Anderson was speaking at Utah State University about his career in film and “was just blown away by his energy, his enthusiasm for life.”

He invited Anderson to his studio and the two became fast friends.

When Anderson returned to lecture at USU in November for an art seminar, they met again — and the conversation turned to Valentine’s Day.

“We just got brainstorming and thought, ‘Well, what about one of these Valentine’s Day surprises for your wife?’” Bingham said. “‘She would never suspect one in Logan, Utah.’”

Anderson grew up in a small Wyoming town, and Bolger-Witherspoon is from New Mexico. The couple lives in Albuquerque, so Bolger-Witherspoon said she was surprised when he told her they’d be spending the holiday in Utah.

But the Beehive State has long been part of Anderson’s history.

Tradition has roots in Utah

He grew up visiting his grandparents in American Fork — and it was his grandmother who helped inspire the Valentine’s tradition.

When Anderson was 6, he visited her at a supermarket where she was working on Valentine’s Day. He remembers noticing that every cashier had flowers or candy — except his grandmother.

He asked his mother why. She told him his grandfather never bought her gifts; with eight children, he didn’t believe in presents.

“I looked up to her and I said, ‘Well, when I get married, my wife’s never going to feel like that,’” he said.

Anderson said he’s often asked how he can afford the displays or find the time to pull them off. In reality, he said, they usually cost no more than a nice dinner and a bouquet of flowers.

He simply asks for help, and more often than not, people are happy to pitch in.

“People think that I do this all myself, and it’s not,” Anderson said. “It’s like, every time I’ve ever done it, the community, everybody, says yes.”

But while the grand displays are heartfelt, Anderson and Bolger-Witherspoon said they want people to know they are not a perfect couple.

Like all couples, they argue and make up, they said, but it’s worth fighting for.

“I tell people out there, love is not simple, like, it’s very complicated,” Anderson said. “And you just have to hold on, even if you’re holding on by your fingernails, just hold on, because it’s such a beautiful ride when you’re with this other person. They make you so much more than you would ever be.”