Tom and Katie originally met at The Murray in November 2018. Katie went out for drinks with her friend, Becca, while Tom also went out for drinks with his friend, Carl. Carl and Becca ran into each other (they had known each other from years before but had not seen each other in a while) and were catching up. The group of four went to The Owl for a nightcap, Katie remembers Tom being fairly quiet but when he did say something it was usually a witty comment that made her smile or laugh. A month later, Katie and Tom ran into each other again at Becca's house. According to Katie, the plan was to go downtown for New Year's Eve with a large group of friends. However, as the evening went on, the group remained just as Tom, Katie, Carl, and Becca. Tom and Katie danced, laughed, and had fun together that night and continued to see each other and talked frequently. Eventually beginning to "officially" date in February 2019.

Tom's perspective: Tom asked Katie, "do you want to shoot a big buck or just any buck?" Katie said, "I want to shoot a big buck." So Tom spent a week scouting and found a good buck. For at least two weeks, they spent numerous days and evenings attempting to get a shot on the buck. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Katie, Tom had the ring burning a hole in the center console of his truck waiting for Katie to get a good shot. Finally, with the help of Rock scouting during the day and figuring out where the buck bedded it gave Katie and Tom the opportunity to make a move on the deer. And they were successful in harvesting the deer. While Tom and Katie were getting a picture of the deer, Tom surprised Katie with the ring. Katie's perspective: During the hunting season, Katie could not figure out why Tom was so insistent for Katie to go hunting. It was more often than in previous years. While they were trying to get the buck, Katie missed an opportunity to harvest it. So Tom insisted that Katie practice getting on the scope of the rifle so she would be sure to get a good shot when they had another opportunity. Finally, Katie was told that Rock had eyes on the buck. So she left work as quick as she could and went home to change and found the boys while they were tracking the buck. Katie was finally successful in harvesting her deer of 2023 thanks to Tom and Rock. After they were done taking pictures, Katie stood up to put the tag on the deer but Tom stayed kneeling down. He had pulled the ring out of his pocket and began to propose! Katie was completely surprised. After sharing the news with their families, Tom stayed to field dress the deer and Katie went to her bowling league to celebrate. :) Fun Fact: this was the biggest deer for both Tom and Katie Fun Fact #2: Katie gives names to the deer that she hunts, she gave this deer the name Gage (get it, enGAGEment) :)