Swiftie Couple Met at Eras Tour — 1 Year Later, They're Engaged with a Friendship Bracelet Proposal (Exclusive)

Kayla McCarty and Kat Messinger met when they attended the Eras Tour in Chicago with a mutual friend in June 2023

• Kayla McCarty and Kat Messinger met when they attended Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Chicago. Nearly one year after the June 2023 concert, they were engaged

• The super-fans built their relationship around the singer and her discography. Messinger even proposed with a friendship bracelet

• The Swiftie couple spoke to PEOPLE about how they met, their engagement and their plans to elope at sunrise in homage to the Grammy winner's love song "Daylight"

Kayla McCarty was enchanted to meet Kat Messinger at Taylor Swift's Eras Tour concert last June. It's been a love story ever since, and nearly one year later, McCarty just said "yes."

The two Swift super-fans didn't expect to spark a romance when they accepted a mutual friend's invitation to see the singer perform in Chicago. Within just a few weeks, however, Messinger flew out from Iowa to visit McCarty in California and they spent the summer together. Their lives changed with the season — Messinger moved to Portland and McCarty's mother died — but throughout it all, their relationship remained.

This May, the couple landed back in Chicago to attend the baptism of their same mutual pal's kids. In the exact spot where they met, with the same people who set them up, Messinger proposed with a ring and a friendship bracelet beaded with the words "marry me."

"I've never believed in love at first sight, and then I met Kat," McCarty tells PEOPLE. "The second we met, it was like the world shifted."

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Looking back, McCarty and Messinger can trace the "invisible string" that lead up to their relationship. Their friend previously invited both of them to other Taylor Swift concerts, including the 2018 Reputation Tour and her Lover Fest, which was ultimately canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We always say we weren't ready for each other then," says McCarty. "We weren't in the right time in our lives. I didn't even know I was gay in 2018, so it would not have worked."

Their mutual friend was interested in setting up McCarty and Messinger when their plans finally came to fruition with the Eras Tour, however neither woman took the idea seriously. Everything changed when they arrived at their reserved suite inside Chicago's Soldier Field stadium and finally shared some one-on-one time.

"It was a very crowded suite. It was more than just our group of four, but Kat and I just gravitated to each other the whole show," McCarty recalls, adding how they furthered their initial connection while Swift performed her hit "Champagne Problems." Messinger became emotional while singing along to the song, and she recalls how McCarty showed her sympathy and support by giving her a friendship bracelet, per Swifties' tradition of trading the homemade beaded accessories at the concerts.

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"I don't know when she gave it to me, there was just this deep eye contact moment where I was just really feeling seen, and in that moment just really validated in all of the feelings that I was feeling," Messinger tells PEOPLE. "I also came to learn that Kayla is an artsy girly, I am not, I'm a boring lawyer, and she prizes her bracelets, so she doesn't just give them out willy-nilly."

Confirming her fiancé's sentiments, McCarty adds, "That was one that I didn't want to give up."

The women went their separate ways after the concert but kept in touch via text message. Eventually, they resolved to see each other in person. Messinger was moving from a job in Iowa to a job in Portland, but with no "hard date" when she had to move, the lawyer decided to visit McCarty in Northern California. They timed the trip so they could celebrate the July release of Swift's third re-recorded album, Speak Now (Taylor's Version).

"She showed up and we didn't really know or have any pressure on. We just kind of said, 'Let's spend some time together,' " McCarty recalls. "That kind of turned into a summer of love where she met my family. We ended up going to three more Eras shows in Santa Clara and L.A. together."

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Messinger eventually made her way to Portland, but the two didn't let the distance affect them. McCarty leaned on her then-girlfriend when her mother died of a terminal illness in the fall. Messinger was present through it all, a gesture that McCarty identifies as a "very formative moment for our relationship."

"It's really easy to be in love when everything's good and fun and magical, and you're going to the Eras Tour every other week. It's so easy to be in love — a lot harder when you're in the room with the family as your girlfriend's ... mom literally dies," McCarty, who works in marketing for Disney, explains of Messinger's commitment just a couple months into their romance.

"The way that she showed up for my whole family, showed up for my mom, showed up for me, [it] was one of those moments where I realized this is the person. It doesn't get better," the Californian continues. "Taylor connected us, but it was the way that Kat showed up that I was like, 'Oh, this is why I'm going to keep her around. This is so much deeper than the Eras Tour.' "

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With their marriage on the horizon, Messinger plans to move down to Northern California with McCarty and their dog, whom they named after Swift's 2020 song "August." They plan to elope at sunrise — an homage to "Daylight," another song by the Grammy winner.

"We've both gone through some really, really hard times. This love is so much the sun coming up and being reminded that you will be okay," says McCarty. "Taylor has so many songs about that, and we just resonate with that so much."

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