Bryon and Kristi Noem met in Hamlin County, South Dakota, and began dating when she was a high school junior and he was a college freshman. Bryon proposed on July 4, 1991 on Lake Kampeska, and the couple married on May 23, 1992 while Kristi was a student at Northern State University.
In March 1994 Kristi's father, Ronald Arnold, died in a grain-bin collapse; Kristi, then pregnant, left college to help run the family farm. The couple have three children: Kassidy (born April 21, 1994), Kennedy (Feb. 24, 1997) and Booker (May 21, 2002).