This love story begins in fall of 2023. Catey made the decision to move 10 hours from her hometown of Ansonia, Ohio to Winona, Minnesota, in pursuit of her career as a dairy nutritionist. Winona is a beautiful town on the Mississippi River that offers many amenities, including a Crossfit gym. An avid Crossfitter, Catey knew she would make friends quickly by joining the local gym. After a couple of months, Catey and a few new friends decided to go out for Halloween. They hopped around Pine Creek, Dodge, Fountain City, and ended up in Waumandee, WI. Nick enters the chat.

Nick was going out for Halloween with his buddies. The go-to spot for the group was the Waumandee House. Many memories and many stories stem from nights in Waum. Just another night out with the guys and seeing the normal local patrons. Or so he thought...

Catey sees Nick walk into the bar with his buddies, makes mention to one of her gym friends that, "the guy in the cowboy hat is cute" and goes about her evening. Some time passes, and Nick makes a trip to the bathroom. Upon his exit, he is pulled to the side and lightly interrogated about his relationship status. After supplying adequate answers about being a single man, Catey's friend takes him to introduce Catey. Catey and Nick spend the remainder of the evening talking about everything from careers to childhood to their doodles. They exchange contact info and Nick sends Catey home with her friends (getting booed by the bar patrons upon returning).

After a week of back and forth, Nick works up the courage to ask Catey out. They go on their first date the second week in November. The date consisted of dinner in Winona, a drive past Nick's farm, providing a sober cab for Nick's friend Will, and upon dropping Catey off-- chasing her dog Gemma around the neighborhood when Will mistakenly let her out of the house. Nick helped catch the dog and sheepishly hinted at a second date.

Seeing each other one night a week quickly turned into two, and then three into four. Nick made a trip to Ohio after the new year to meet Catey's family, where the first questions he was asked were "What color of farm equipment do you run out there?" and "What is your credit score?"

Weeks turned into months: celebrating holidays, family events, job changes, creating closer mutual friendships, working cattle, traveling to Ohio, cheering on Badger basketball, attending many concerts, hosting Catey's visiting family and friends.

In March, while Catey was away on a work trip in New York, Nick decided it was time to buy a ring.

And on April 12, after a typical busy Saturday, Catey and Nick were sitting on the deck at Catey's house-- watching the dogs play and enjoying the nice weather. Catey started reminiscing about the relationship and Nick thought it was a good time to get a glass of water. When he returned to the deck, he stepped down to play with the dogs. He went out of sight and asked Catey to "come over here." She reluctantly asked what he needed, but Nick persisted "come get this dog toy from under the bush." After she looked under the bush for approximately 30 seconds, she concluded there was in fact, no dog toy under the bush. When she looked up, Nick was on one knee and pulled out a small white box, claiming "what about this?" Nick asked Catey to spend the rest of their lives together and there has never been more genuine excitement.