Nicole and Andrew met in a math class at the University of St. Thomas in the fall of 2016. Nicole sent Andrew a Facebook message asking if he'd want to work on homework with her and one of her friends in the class. They became friends that semester, doing all of their school work together and hanging out outside of the classroom. For the remainder of their time at St. Thomas, they had most of their classes together, spent most weekends hanging out and their friendship grew. After college, Nicole moved back home to Iowa but they remained friends and kept in touch. Summer of 2022, Andrew decided to visit Nicole in Des Moines and the rest is history.

Nicole and Andrew went to Minnesota to celebrate Andrew's birthday and Easter early with his family. His mom set up an Easter egg hunt. The eggs had colored dots on them to know whose was whose and were in the back yard. Nicole found everyone's eggs except her own. Andrew's mom said she messed up and must have put her eggs in the front yard. They made their way back to the front and Nicole found her egg in an evergreen. She opened the egg and the ring was inside!