Amanda and Noel officially met on campus at Northern Illinois University. They crossed paths many times throughout the school year in 2018, but it was nothing more than acquaintances. The following year, they became closer friends and would interact regularly through work, events, and other campus involvements. Come 2019, Noel began to pursue Amanda, but Amanda wasn't interested at the time. Noel didn't give up! Little did Amanda know... they continued to get closer and began dating after they both graduated. The rest is history!

During May 2023, Amanda, Noel, and their friends Dara and Eileen went on a long weekend getaway to Fort Myers, Florida. On Friday, May 12, they all planned to go to Marco Island for the day to hang out at Amanda's cousins' condo. Amanda, Noel, Dara and Eileen spent the whole day on the beach and then went to an early dinner so they can make it back to the condo to watch the sunset. After returning from dinner, they were all sitting on the balcony waiting to walk down to the sand to watch the infamous Marco Island sunset. Amanda was getting so annoyed with the bugs and eventually said "I'm just going to start walking so I don't have to deal with these bugs anymore". As the four of them walked, they stopped a couple times to take photos (it's about a 15 min walk to get to the shoreline). As they approached the shoreline, Amanda noticed a proposal setup and said to Noel, "oh my god we need to get out of the way someone's going to propose". Noel then proceeded to look at Amanda and said, "yeah... come here". Amanda doesn't remember much of Noel's speech as all she could say was, "Are you serious? Are you sure?". Speechless and stunned, Amanda finally said yes and then turned to realize that her best friends Megan and Fermin flew to Florida to help setup the proposal and surprise Amanda by being there. She was SO shocked and honestly still can't believe Noel and their friends pulled that all off!