In October of 2018, Hunter attended a Halloween party for work when his co-worker Ryan and girlfriend (now wife) Kennady approached him. Kennady said she had a friend and old roommate that she thought would be perfect for Hunter. She simultaneously texted Chelsie about a guy named Hunter that she wanted to set her up with. She even sent Chelsie a picture of Hunter in his Halloween costume. Kennady gave Hunter Chelsie's number that night, but he was so nervous to text someone that he had never met that he almost decided not to. A few days after the party, and with a little nudge from Ryan, Hunter finally reached out. They had their first date on November 3rd where they went to dinner at Malo and followed it up with arcade games at Up Down. From then on, their relationship continued to grow and they began to fall in love as they spent more time together and met each other's friends and families.
In January of 2020, Hunter began planning his proposal to Chelsie. He picked out the ring and had a special plan all set for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately, COVID-19 was already interfering with those plans as the band was delayed due to virus issues overseas. Valentine's Day came and went, and the ring had still not arrived. On Friday, March 13th Hunter received a call from Iowa Diamond that the band had finally arrived, so they had set the center stone and it could be picked up that day. On this same day, schools were beginning to announce their delay in classes and there was talk of closing restaurants and bars. Chelsie texted Hunter on her lunch break and suggested they go out to dinner to kick off spring break and to enjoy some time out before everything shuts down. Hunter had no idea what COVID-19 was about to bring, so he took Chelsie's idea and ran with it. That night they had dinner at Splash, one of Chelsie's favorite restaurants, and then walked across the pedestrian bridge into East Village. It was there that Hunter got down on one knee and asked Chelsie to marry him, and she happily said yes.