Justin and Alex met in August 2016. Alex was working in the corporate office for the dog walking app Wag!, and Justin was working as a dog walker for the same company. Alex, having two golden retrievers named Oliver and Norman at the time, matched with Justin on the Wag! app one day to have him be their walker. Justin hit it off with the dogs right away and started regularly walking them, so they would see each other quite frequently. Fast forward to June 2017. Oliver sadly had passed away a few months prior, but Justin was still walking 1-year-old Norman on a regular basis. Justin and Alex discovered they were both going to be in Vegas on the same weekend going to the same daytime pool party at Encore Beach Club. Alex and her friend Gracey joined Justin and his group of friends at the pool party, tequila shots were taken in honor of Oliver, and drunken shenanigans ensued. Justin told all of his friends about "the hottest girl, like ever" and less than two weeks later, they went on their first date.

Justin and Alex found themselves in Colorado in October 2021 while on a road trip with Norman around part of the country. They'd gone to Austin, New Orleans, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Nashville, and now they'd be in Colorado for five days. Their first destination was Rocky Mountain National Park. They arrived in the later afternoon to Estes Park, the small town outside of RMNP. They drove into the park to admire some of the fall foliage before settling in pretty early, as they were planning to go on a sunrise hike to Emerald Lake in the morning. They woke up around 5am and groggily headed to their car. Being something they typically do when visiting National Parks, it wasn't out of the ordinary to wake up this early for a hike. They got to the trailhead and started in the dark, as there were a lot of cars waiting in the lot for daylight to strike and they wanted to beat the crowds. A smaller lake, almost a pond, is passed early in the hike. A bit further along, you reach Dream Lake, the second of three. This lake was stunning. As Justin and Alex arrived in solitude, the sun was just starting to appear and creep up the rock faces. Justin saw a rock jutting out into the lake and walked over to watch the sunrise. Alex followed and started taking a couple pictures with her phone. Justin, unbeknownst to Alex, was thinking about dropping on one knee behind her at that moment but missed his opportunity. He then pointed out the sun rising up the mountains behind them, and Alex turned around to stare at the scene unfolding. Justin noticed a couple hikers less than a minute away coming down the trail and knew the time was now if he wanted a private moment! He got behind her, pulled out the ring, dropped to one knee, and said "Bub?" Alex turned around and was a little bit in shock. Words (or whispers, according to Alex) were said, the question was asked and answered, and the rest is history.