AJ and Lauren met while working at a local convenience store. Lauren supervised the location AJ worked at for one night. As fate would have it, she came to the right place at just the right time. From their very first conversation, everything felt natural, and they both knew there was something special between them. Before AJ returned to college, he asked Lauren out for breakfast — a breakfast date that lasted six hours! Three months later, Lauren flew down to Tennessee, where AJ was going to college and the couple officially began dating.

After the couple started dating on April 4th 2022 they spent the next 3.5 years living is different states and time zones. Spending most of their time on FaceTime and phone calls, they traveled to one anther any chance they had. Above all the obstacles that long distance dating can bring, AJ proposed to Lauren on August 8th 2025 in Talkeetna, Alaska and she said YES.