Carter and Madi met through some mutual friends at a party. Carter was too nervous to say much to Madi and Madi thought Carter was cute, but he was wearing a tank top so she wrote him off. After that night, Carter thought he blew his chance. However later that summer, they began working at the same restaurant in Bountiful. Because both were too shy to ask one another out, their co-workers staged a group date one night after work. They bonded over their love of music and books (and their mutual weirdness).

Begin the frugal one in the relationship, Carter took Madi to Chili's on their first date, where he paid with a gift card. Madi was pretending to be healthy and ordered a salad and water, despite desperately wanting a cheeseburger.

Desperate to spend more time with Carter, Madi moved to a townhome in Bountiful, close to where Carter worked and lived. Using a combination of craft supplies and charm, Madi convinced Carter to move in with her (and her brother/wingman/gym-bro, Nick). Mostly they fought over the amount of glitter in Madi's craft supplies and the number of times Carter left his shoes in the middle of the floor. In spite of that, mutual weirdness progressed into comfortable cohabitation. Too comfortable...

Madi and Carter stopped to get a cup of coffee during an afternoon walk. The coffee shop, located in McCall, Idaho, had a variety of old-fashioned toys for diners to play with. Etch-A-Sketches were on each of the tables. After fiddling with them for a minute, Carter pulled his Etch-A-Sketch close and began feverishly working. After about 10 minutes, he flipped his masterpiece around and revealed the big question and pulled out a ring box. Madi was so excited she forgot to say yes and was just saying "Are you sure?!"