Anne and Ian met in the fall of 2015 while attending the University of Puget Sound (UPS) during Anne's Junior year and Ian's Freshman year. Anne is a Washington State native and Ian moved out to the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Saint Paul, Minnesota. They got to know each other on the swim team, while training with the Breaststroke team, and soon began to eat cereal together every night at the UPS cafeteria - a tradition they called "cereal time." On their first date, they hiked through the snow to Melakwa Lake in the Central Cascades and forgot to bring water with them.

A few weeks before their fifth dating anniversary, Anne and Ian hiked to Melakwa Lake (now a yearly tradition) with their beloved dog Ruston. At the edge of the lake, with a container full of cereal, Ian got down on one knee and asked Anne to marry him. She said "YES!"