Ray and Olivia first met in junior high. They knew about each other but didn't cross paths often beyond hanging out as friends a few times. (Ray "just knew her as the cute, tall blonde girl on the basketball team.") Mutual friends in high school brought them closer together. Ray asked Livi to the Homecoming dance at the start of their junior year. Livi remembers him being very shy, but very gentlemanly. They bonded over their mutual love of pesto, charcuterie, and pizza. Livi liked how much of a party Ray was at the dance (he's got moves!). Ray learned how fun she is to be around, started crushing on her during that date, and never stopped! Ray & Livi's first kiss was a silly challenge with Livi's friends sometime in the fall of 2021. They took things pretty slow for a few months (Ray had a huge crush on her, but he was so shy!). But around New Years' 2022, they couldn't ignore the spark and started talking and spending more time together. Their first REAL kiss was in February of 2022. They had gone night sledding at Mueller Park (just the two of them) & Ray was working up the nerve to kiss her the whole time. Ray says "it was really scary for me in the moment." But he was finally courageous enough to ask if he could kiss her, so they shared a kiss in Livi's truck as she dropped him off at home. In Liv's words, "it was SUPER cute." After a few more months of going on dates & spending lots of time together, Ray asked Livi to be his girlfriend officially on April 10th, 2022 and the rest is history!

By fall of 2022 Livi "just enjoyed loving him our senior year." They didn't want to make marriage plans before they served missions, so that they didn't jinx it or put too much pressure. But in Liv's words, "in the back of our minds we always knew." Ray said, "I started thinking more and more that I didn't want to spend my life with anyone else." Ray served his mission in Florianópolis, Brazil. Olivia served in the Tokyo North mission in Japan. They were both super devoted & focused missionaries. The last month of Livi's mission, she thought about Ray a lot and was nervous to come home. As soon as she got home though, all the feelings came right back and they both knew they were still in love. For Liv, it was scary to admit the love because it felt so fast! So, they didn't officially start back up dating until October 2025, but they couldn't really stay away from each other in the meantime :)

Olivia was attending BYU Hawaii, and Ray was at BYU in Provo. Ray made plans to visit Livi in Hawaii in March of 2026. She didn't know that Ray had been secretly scheming with his parents, and Liv's parents & sisters to design & purchase a ring, and stage a proposal! They all flew out to Hawaii to go visit Livi. On March 6 Ray took Livi to dinner in Turtle Bay, followed by a walk to a beautiful, hidden beach (Kawela Bay, as shown in the movie Catching Fire). The family had set up a beautiful backdrop of flowers & palm leaves against the sunset. Ray was trying to hustle Livi to the spot before the sun went down, and Livi was just taking her sweet time enjoying the moment & smelling flowers :) They did make it just in time, and according to Ray it was "absolutely perfect." He proposed to Livi, and the family came out of hiding in the woods to take pictures of them in the sunset. (See the "Gallery" tab for pictures!)