Carley and Jessica met when they were trying to find a roommate for their freshman year of college at BGSU. They started getting to know each other and decided that they would room together their freshman year. They had a lot in common and only lived 30 minutes away from each other! May 16, 2015, they met in person for the first time at the Dayton Mall (with Kristine!) and talked for hours at Chick-fil-a.

Carley and Jessica loved BGSU, even the non-airconditioned dorm that they lived in. They made friends with the girls on their floor and genuinely loved every second of college. They continued to get to know each other by staying up until 4 a.m. talking, watching Grey's Anatomy for hours on end, and by eating embarrassing amounts of Taco Bell and McDonald's. Everything changed when Carley made the bold and cringy move of hinting (or really not so much hinting) at her true feelings towards Jessica. Little did she know, Jessica felt the same way. On February 22, 2016, Carley asked Jessica to be her girlfriend, right in the dorm room they called home, Harshman Anderson 315.

Little did Carley know that Jessica had been orchestrating her proposal for months and the idea for years. Carley and Jessica planned a trip with their friends Brooke and Alex to Louisville. Carley, Jessica, and Brooke had been there in March of 2016 for Spring Break (this was also Carley and Jessica's first trip together as a couple), and they thought it would be fun to go back! Hotels were booked and plans were made for the four to go down. The morning of the day they were to leave, Brooke texted Carley and Jessica and said Alex was exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid at work and they wouldn't be able to go anymore. Carley and Jessica were upset (mostly Carley because she was clueless and had no idea what was actually happening), but knew that this was out of anyone's control, so Carley and Jessica went as planned (Brooke and Alex were never actually going). They spent the weekend exploring Indiana Caverns, the Big Four Bridge, and checking out all the local restaurants. Saturday night they went to bed early because they were taking a sunrise river cruise that began with a walking tour over the Big Four Bridge. Sunday morning they drove to the bridge and there were barely any cars in the parking lot. Carley thought it was weird and kept asking Jessica to make sure they were supposed to meet their "tour guide" on this side of the bridge. Jessica reassured her that they were looking for someone wearing a captain's hat. Once they got to the top and didn't see the guide, they walked onto the bridge to try to find her. That's when Jessica stopped Carley and said, "I didn't actually bring you here for a cruise". Carley was in shock and thought Jessica was joking. She finally believed her when Jessica pulled out a ring and got on one knee!

Carley already had the date picked out that she was going to propose to Jessica before their trip to Lousiville. She also thought she would be the one to propose first (wrong!). Carley had also known for years that she wanted to propose to Jessica at the Marblehead Lighthouse, a place they had been on a few date nights throughout the years. The problem was now that Jessica had already proposed, she was going to be suspicious of any plans Carley made until she also had a ring on her finger. Carley planned something to do every weekend between their trip to Lousiville and the proposal to try to lessen the chance Jessica would know what was happening. The plan for the actual day was to meet their friends, Beth and Andy in Sandusky to go to a haunted house and dinner. Carley asked Jessica if she wanted to go to the lighthouse before meeting up with them since they'd be in the area anyway. This made Jessica suspicious because everything did while she was waiting, but they went anyway. Actually, Jessica asked Carley if they could leave 20 minutes earlier than planned to see how she would react. Carley knowing what Jessica was doing, played it cool and said they could leave whenever (Cue a frantic text to Beth with their ETA and directions to not text back). Beth met up with the photographer at the lighthouse to set up a blanket, lanterns, candles, and fairy lights. Carley had a general idea of where the setup would be but didn't know the specific location. Once they got to the lighthouse, Jessica and Carley walked around by the water. Jessica stopped being suspicious when it seemed like they were just wandering aimlessly. They came up over the rocks to a grassy spot, and both spotted the blanket and candles. Carley was somehow able to surprise Jessica, thanks to not knowing exactly where to go! After taking some pictures, Carley took Jessica to Twin Oast Brewery to surprise her with all of their friends, just liked Jessica did for Carley at Eudora!