Joe and Juli met in fall of 2012. After graduating from the University of Michigan, Juli left Ann Arbor to work for a sales company in the Chicago suburbs. While working as a recruiter for the company's Oak Brook Terrace location, Juli received an application from a recent Buckeye graduate and begrudgingly called him to schedule an interview. On her third call, Joe finally answered while on vacation at Niagra Falls. Frustrated that she had to call him three times, Juli told Joe he could schedule the interview for next week or forget about it. A week later, Joe came to Chicago and had his interview, but the two did not yet meet in person for another few weeks when Joe came for his first day of work.

Over the next two months, Joe and Juli became frenemies. Joe would come into work every morning and put his Ohio State coffee mug on Juli's desk, and Juli would respond by playing "Hail to the Victors" when Joe came back from sales calls. The week before Christmas, Joe mentioned that he was not going home for Christmas and would be spending it alone. At first, Juli only offered to loan Joe her two favorite Christmas movies. When she brought them to drinks with co-workers that Thursday, Joe suggested that Juli watch them with him. Juli was going home for Christmas, but she was to be driving back to Chicago on Christmas Day. Juli felt sorry for Joe, so she offered to come over when she got back into town. Joe said he would make dinner and provide wine if Juli brought salad. All weekend Juli's friends told her she had a date on Christmas, but Juli insisted she did not. Before she left Ann Arbor, Juli's friend Adam told her that she would know it was a date if "the room was only lit with candles and Barry White was playing."

On her drive in, Juli could not find a single grocery store open to buy salad. When she arrived at Joe's empty-handed, Joe opened the door and teased her for not having salad. As she walked in to his apartment, she realized that the room was only lit by Christmas lights and that 2-Chains was playing. She quickly texted Adam to tell him it wasn't a date because 2-chains was playing, but he responded with "2-Chains is the Barry White of our generation". Joe then came out of the kitchen with ham, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and red wine. Juli finally realized she was on a date. The two sat and watched Love Actually while they ate dinner. Joe talked through the whole movie because he was so excited to get to know Juli better. Juli thought Joe was cute, so she didn't yell at him for talking through her favorite movie. After the movie was over, the two ate ice cream while Joe showed Juli you-tube videos to keep her from leaving. The two talked about many things including how, in reality, Juli very much doesn't like Christmas. When Juli finally got home around 2am, she received a text from Joe asking if there were any other holidays she didn't like that he should be prepared for. That was when Juli knew that this was not going to be her last date with Joe.

After months of deciding how he wanted to propose, Joe decided 4th of July weekend was the perfect time. On July 2, 2017, Joe and Juli were in Kalkaska, Michigan staying with her grandma for the weekend. Juli thought it would be fun to wear matching t-shirts based on the TV show Friends (Juli's favorite show) and go to Traverse City to go wine tasting. The two spent the afternoon touring wineries and enjoying the beautiful scenery Traverse City has to offer. When they returned to her grandma's house, Joe suggested they take her grandpa's row boat out at sunset. They grabbed a portable speaker for music and rowed out into the lake to enjoy the sunset. While Juli was distracted enjoying the view and watching the fish jump out of the water, Joe pulled out the ring. Juli was very surprised and couldn't figure out where he was hiding it. Joe offered to get down on one knee, but Juli was nervous the boat might tip over, so instead she told him just to ask her the question. Joe asked Juli to marry him, and Juli said yes. Just after Joe put the ring on her finger, purple fireworks started shooting off over Joe's shoulder from shore. Joe takes credit for the fireworks, but Juli is very skeptical. The two rowed back to shore and enjoyed champagne and fireworks with Juli's grandma and her two friends. After four and a half years of dating, the two were ready to begin their journey as husband and wife !