We met after being set up from the people that we worked with at Menards. There were conversations throughout the store how we would be a good match. One of Kaitlyn's co-workers in the front end snapped Ryan's friend asking for Ryan’s snapchat while we were out for supper. The following day, Ryan made his way up to the front end to figure out what all the rumors were about. Kaitlyn avoided Ryan like no tomorrow and he ended up writing down his snapchat. After Kaitlyn had gotten off of work, she waited until late that evening before adding Ryan back. Ryan started the conversation that night and continued the conversations while Kaitlyn went to Duluth for a week. Once, Kaitlyn came back from Duluth, they finally went on their first date to Tokyo Grill.

After dating for about 8 months, Kaitlyn needed to move back to Duluth for graduate school. It was during this time that Kaitlyn was trying to convince Ryan to move with her up to Duluth due to it "being so expensive." Ryan and Kaitlyn began looking for apartments and finally moved in together February of 2023.

As we all know, Kaitlyn is very inpatient and had been bothering Ryan for many months about proposing and getting engaged. During that time period, Ryan was receiving different photos of rings and styles that Kaitlyn liked. During the summer of 2023, Ryan decided that he was going to propose late fall/early winter. It was during this time that Kaitlyn's grandfather began to decline in his health and Ryan wanted to make sure that he was able to see the ring and know she was happy. Kaitlyn's manager from Menards was on her way up to Duluth to visit and hang out after Kaitlyn finished with her weekend classes. While Kaitlyn finished classes, Jody and Ryan went to "get Crumbl cookies." Ryan had looked at Jody and asked her to go to the mall to get the ring without Kaitlyn knowing. Ryan and Jody were heading back to the apartment where Kaitlyn was standing outside waiting for them. Kaitlyn was totally throwing off Ryan's plans that he had made. Once they had picked up Kaitlyn, the three of them decided to go down to canal and get supper at Little Angies. After finishing supper, Ryan wanted to got to Duluth Pack so he could find a nice sweater to wear since Kaitlyn had messed up his plans. After Ryan had found his sweater and went back to the car to get the "cookies" to eat on the lake and the ring, they all began walking on the board walk. Halfway down the board walk, Jody had asked Ryan and Kaitlyn to stop and take pictures in front of the lake. It was during that time that Ryan had gotten down and proposed in the rain and wind.. and in front of way too many people for Kaitlyn. The evening was filled with FaceTime calls and Snapchats to the important people that needed to know and watching Saturday night football with Jody.