AJ & Karley met at a mutual friend’s graduation party in June 2015. During the party, a suggestion was made by AJ to Alex to ditch the party and go wheeling (off-roading) through the woods in his truck. Alex thought this was a good idea. Alex, AJ & their friend Edgar invited Taylor and Karley to join them as well. They were having a great time until unfortunately, during the ride, Alex’s tire rim broke, and the group ended up walking all the way back to Alex’s parents' house – in the down pouring rain!

After meeting in June, Karley asked AJ to join her on a road trip to visit their mutual friends, Morgan and Taylor in Misquamicut, RI where Morgan's parents were renting a beach house for the week. Karley’s mom, Karen was also in Misquamicut for the day as well and Karley and AJ met up with her. Karen’s first impressions of AJ were that he was very nice and gentlemanly as she watched AJ give Karley his hand to help her back to shore as she would float out further into the water as they were body surfing the waves in the water. AJ & Karley’s first official date was at Blackbird Tavern in Middlefield, CT for dinner in the summer of 2015. They double dated with their friends Morgan and Taylor that whole summer, up through September. They drifted apart for a while. In the winter of 2016, AJ reached out to Karley, and they moved forward slowly in their friendship. AJ invited Karley out to Ted’s Steamed Cheeseburgers in Cromwell on Valentine's Day, 2016. This would be their second official first date. They continued seeing each other casually. Then on April 7, 2016, they officially became a couple.

AJ planned on asking Karley to marry him. AJ wanted to ask Karley over lunch at Blackbird Tavern, but they wouldn’t be open until later, so he then decided on plan B. AJ drove Karley to Lyman Orchards, where they grabbed sandwiches and drove to the top of Powder Hill Road in Middlefield where he planned to ask her to marry him during their picnic in the back of AJs truck. When they arrived at the field in the apple trees of the orchard, they were all alone and AJ’s plan was to ask her after they ate their lunch. As luck would have it, just as he was getting ready to pop the question, a vehicle pulled up very close to where AJ & Karley were picnicking, and their privacy was shattered. Thankfully, the vehicle left pretty quickly, and AJ moved forward with his plan. Not knowing why AJ was acting so oddly, Karley picked up on AJ’s anxiety and thought he brought her there to break up with her. She was so nervous, thinking the worst was about to happen, that she professed her love for him, telling him she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. AJ then presented Karley with an opened box containing an engagement ring, asking her if this answered her question. Karley began to cry tears of happiness when AJ got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said YES and they celebrated with Jager nippers in AJ’s truck.