Alex and Chae met at Moonshine Country Bar in Tempe while there separately with friends. Alex asked Chae to dance and spent the whole dance getting to know each other. Alex offered to dance again later but never asked for another dance. Chae went up to Alex (after three failed attempts :D) and asked him to dance again. Alex said he was leaving the bar and offered to exchange numbers. For the rest of the summer, they spent many late nights dancing and getting to know each other.

Alex told Chae he would propose by the time they started their life outside of Texas, hinting at a possible proposal on an Alaskan Cruise in August 2019. Secretly, Alex was planning to propose in April in a field of bluebonnets (Texas state flower). Alex recruited his labmate, Ethan Beyak, who has a sweet trench coat, to video the proposal. On a rainy Saturday in April, Alex insisted on taking Chae to the bluebonnet field, and convinced her to take family photos there (with their dog, Luna).