In the Fall of 2016, Julie had just returned to Menomonie in order to complete her Senior year at UW-Stout, and John was navigating life after graduation while working at the university. Both ready to find the real deal, they decided it was time to check out what these dating apps were all about. Not long after signing up, Julie and John matched and there was an immediate friendship. "Tell me about your family." "What do you like to do for fun?" "What music do you listen to?" "I like that too!" It took only two days of exchanging messages for them to make plans to meet up and they decided to grab a drink after work on a Friday. A few hours of nervous and excited conversation later, John asked Julie if she wanted to grab dinner. That led to a few more hours of talking about life and sharing stories as if they were old friends catching up. Needless to say, the stories, jokes, and good conversation have not stopped since.

In March of 2021, John and Julie went down to Big Sur to hike the trail at Andrew Molera State Park. This is a 10-mile loop that has access to a beach that is gorgeous but usually pretty empty, and they had discovered it the year prior so were excited to return. After a few miles (and a few days really!) of John almost giving away the surprise due to growing excitement, the two went down to the beach with John continuing to appear more and more excited and Julie becoming more suspicious. John, trying to be sneaky, told Julie to look towards the water so he can get a photo of the view and her silhouette. And when he told her to look back she found John on one knee beaming ear to ear.