Brandon and Daniel met through a mutual friend, Joe. He is a volleyball teammate to Daniel and a teacher friend to Brandon. They met out at a bar in Boystown and instantly caught each others attention. They slowly made their way over to each other and with a little liquid courage, Daniel leaned in to tell Brandon that he was handsome. Brandon returned the compliment and they spent the next several hours chatting. They had their first date 2 days later and the rest is history.

Brandon and Daniel had been chatting about getting married for a while at this point. One night they went and saw a lovely play at the Goodman Theatre and then decided to go have an early birthday drink at Marty's in Andersonville for Daniel. When they got there, Brandon went into the bathroom and gave himself a little pep talk knowing that he was going to propose to Daniel. He came back out, joined Daniel at the bar and started to chat about marriage again like they had done so many times before. Then Brandon mentioned that he had been keeping a secret from Daniel. He had asked Daniel's parents and sister for permission to propose to him and they were overcome with joy and excitement. Then he looked at Daniel and said "Will you marry me?" Daniel immediately said "YES!" They kissed and with several drinks, celebrated the engagement the rest of the night.