Brandon and Kari met for the first time during their Freshman year at Grand Canyon University. Brandon was leading a worship night called ABIDE that was hosted in the prayer chapel, and one night during abide, Kari came in while he was leading. At first glance, Kari formed an instant crush on Brandon and remembers thinking that his voice was angelic. Brandon also recalls meeting Kari that night and forming an instant crush as well. He said "I remembered your name after that night!" This was important to Brandon because he said that never happened. From that point on, both Brandon and Kari would continue to see each other on campus or at the worship nights and secretly crush on each other from afar.

During second semester of Freshman year, Brandon and Kari actually went out to get coffee together at Songbird Coffee and talked for a good while. However, neither of them thought it was a date. It was simply coffee and a conversation about theology. The following year (Sophomore year) at GCU, Brandon and Kari were both Resident Assistants at GCU and had to attend a leadership retreat at the beginning of the school year. They had a conversation one night at Lost Canyon Camp in which Brandon recalls thinking Kari was super cute. They reconnected that night and both remembered the crush they had on each other, but of course it was still secretive for both of them. During Sophomore year, they saw each other quite often! They had mutual friends and one of Brandon's good friends lived in Kari's buildings so they would often see each other at group hangouts or during Liars Dice in the Chaparral lobby. Kari recalls her crush on Brandon being strongest this year. She would often see him across campus, and thought he was the cutest guy at GCU! They maintained this casual Liars-Dice-Playing-and-Mutual-Friends type friendship for all of Sophomore year.

Junior year came and passed, and Brandon and Kari did not see each other one time (even in passing) that year. Finally, the summer before Senior year, Brandon was in Belize doing missions work for the summer and Kari was working at Dutch Bros in Phoenix. One day when Kari got off of her shift from work, she looked at her phone and had a text from Brandon! He told her he noticed that God had been doing some cool things in her life and asked if they could get lunch when he got back to Phoenix! Of course, Kari said yes! When Brandon got back from Belize, they went out to lunch and talked for hours. At the end of the day, Brandon asked Kari on an official date! And the rest is history... after dating for 9 (ish) months, Brandon and Kari went on a trip to Northern California for what Kari thought was a graduation trip. After camping in the Red Woods for a couple of nights, Brandon got down on one knee and asked Kari to marry him! Of course she said yes! And now, six months later, they are about to walk down the aisle! Kari and Brandon have become the best of friends and consistently refer to their lives and personalities matching together like "puzzle pieces" because they fit so well.