In 2017, Joey was a senior at Averett University. Ashlyn transferred to Averett, her sophomore year, the week before Labor Day weekend and walked on the Volleyball team. Joey returned to school early on Sunday of Labor Day weekend. By coincidence, at dinner at the café, while Ashlyn was putting her plate away, she bumped into Joey, who was behind her. Later that night, they were invited separately to a game night with different friends. After that night, they hit it off, and exactly five days after, they made it official and started dating. It wasn't even a month later that they both knew they were the one for each other (we have it written on a note to back this up).

After Joey graduated in May, many did not know how long they would make it together since Ashlyn was from North Carolina and still in school, and Joey went back home to Warrenton, VA. They made it through 3 years long distance before Ashlyn could move in with Joey in May of 2021 in Culpeper, VA.

On October 29, 2022, Joey proposed to Ashlyn at a Harry Potter: A Forbidden Forest Experience that was here for the first time in the United States from the UK.