Lily and Marshall get engaged in the fall of 2005, as portrayed in the series pilot. Towards the end of the first season, she reveals to Robin that she has been having second thoughts about getting married without having experienced much else of life before Marshall. Those doubts intensify, and she acts upon them, applying for a painting fellowship in San Francisco. She is accepted and, after arguing with Marshall on and off – with several pause breaks in between for drinks, dinner at Red Lobster, and sex – Lily finally says that she cannot promise Marshall that she would return to him after the fellowship. They break up, and she goes to San Francisco.