John and Brooklyn met while working at Target. They talked all the time at work, and, in a years' time, grew closer. Brooklyn invited John to come to the Gulf Breeze Zoo for her birthday, along with a mutual friend. After making the group have a late entry to the Zoo, he felt bad and later made it up to Brooklyn with a trip to the Zoo on March 17th, 2021 (thus unknowingly solidifying their tradition of going to the Zoo on St Patrick's Day). They went on a few other outings, John said that it was highly unlikely he would romantically pursue Brooklyn, but he realized as soon as the words left his lips, they were a lie. Exactly two months after their trip to the Zoo, John asked Brooklyn to be his girlfriend. As they continued to learn more about each other, there was more and more evidence that God made them for each other. After almost four years of dating, on February 18th, 2025, John proposed to Brooklyn on the same dock his parents were married on.