After living in Cincinnati for five years, Brad moved back to Dayton in Fall 2019. Although his main goal was to be closer to family, he wasted no time scoping out the Dayton dating pool! Soon enough, he swiped right on a cute girl from Beavercreek. After taking a short hiatus from the dating apps, Emily had just redownloaded Hinge and saw Brad come through her queue. At first glance, she thought he looked like a nice Christian boy….He had potential, but maybe he was too nice??? She felt a little burnt out from the dating apps and left him sitting in her queue until the time was right to circle back to him. On December 17th, 2019, she swiped through his profile once more. This time, she recognized a mutual friend in his linked Instagram photos and decided to do a quick background check. Erica Hopkins gave her seal of approval, and shortly after, Emily matched with Brad. Six days later, they went on their first date to Rusty Taco, followed by a Dayton Flyers basketball game. Since one of Emily's best friends from high school also gave Brad an 11/10 review, she allowed Brad to pick her up at her house! They hit it off and spent a few hours talking in the car after the game. Brad invited Emily to meet his parents on Christmas Eve, and by December 29th, they made it official. When Brad's lease ended in May 2020, they took their relationship to the next level by becoming quarantine partners! The rest is history!

Not every fairytale ends with "My cuticles!!!" but here we are! Brad convinced Emily his family was heading to Hickory Bar-B-Q to celebrate the Kiger boys' birthdays. Emily's sister, Leah, was in on the plan and called Emily a few days prior, asking if she wanted to join them to take Cosette ice skating at Riverscape before the season was over. Under the assumption that Cosette requested Pat to join her, Emily played right into their plan, inviting both families to Riverscape, and unknowingly planning her own engagement. Much to Emily's surprise, while walking to the ice rink on one of the coldest days of the year, Brad got down on one knee and proposed with Grandma Zimmerman's wedding ring. Brad was so nervous he forgot to wait for his family to walk across the bridge. He intended to propose on a beautiful lookout over the river with the Dayton skyline in the background. In reality, he stopped in front of a rusty pole with graffiti. If you zoom in on the proposal pictures, you can see Pat running across the bridge, yelling for him to wait for her! After saying yes, Emily let everyone know Brad broke her number one rule of waiting until her cuticles were ready for their close-ups! At this point, everyone realized Emily was still wearing gloves, and Brad hadn't put the ring on her finger. With Brad's family now in tow, the love birds shuffled over a few steps to the other side of the bridge, where Brad got down on one knee again. The second time's a charm, right?! Except her cuticles were still not ready for this event, and she would never let him live it down! Since then, Emily has tried every cuticle oil known to man. (In case anyone is wondering, Vaseline is the way to go!)