Katie and Eric initially met during their freshman year at Indiana University. However, this was not the first time they were in each other's company. One of Katie's best friends and bridesmaid, Molly Anzalone, lived in Eric's neighborhood when they were younger and there were numerous chances that Eric and Katie may have crossed paths without ever knowing it. Eric was also friends with Ama, Katie's younger sister, during high school but never met Katie despite being in the same class. Eric even attended Katie's high school graduation party without ever seeing her. It was like life was trying to force us together without our knowledge. Eric was roommates with one of Katie's best friends at IU. However, Katie was coming to visit her friend one day and burst into the dorm room to say hi in a rather embarrassing fashion. Little did she know that it was only Eric in the room, and thus began a friendship. Over their freshman year, they became close and Katie asked Eric out at the end of freshman year. They have been together for approximately 7 years and have been living together for about a year. Katie can now sleep right through Eric yelling at videogames in the middle of the night and Eric has grown to love Katie's rapidly growing plant collection decorating their apartment. They work out and rock climb together and are at their happiest peacefully coexisting with Eric playing video games and Katie doing her weaving and art work right next to him.

Eric and Katie have been avid rock climbers for 4 years now so Eric wanted to incorporate this activity into the proposal. He worked with the employees at their climbing gym to create a route specifically designed for Katie, with all her favorite moves. On the day of the proposal, while Katie was climbing up the wall, Eric changed the name of the route to "Will you marry me". Katie came down from the wall and, unbeknownst to her, found Eric down on one knee. It went off without a hitch thanks to their best friends Claire and Kevin, with pictures taken by Brian, Kevin's younger brother and talented photographer. Katie had absolutely no idea this was going to happen, so she immediately burst into ugly tears and tackled Eric to the ground, hard. His fall was thankfully caught by the mats on the gym floor. The surprise was not finished at the proposal. Eric had worked with Claire, Kevin, and Mark and Judy (Katie's parents) to plan a beautifully decorated engagement party that same night at the Warnock house. This was a complete surprise to Katie, and she cried repeatedly as basically every single person she knew and loved showed up at the house to celebrate. They ate lots of chips and queso and chicken nuggets and played beer pong in the garage with all the dads.