James was in the first group hired at Bass Pro Shops in East Peoria and was there for the grand opening in 2011. He started in footwear and later moved to the boat service shop where he helped working on boats and installing trolling motors and such.

Tia started with Bass Pro Shops in 2012 as an elf for Santa's Wonderland and was moved to a cashier before that ended and by January was moved up to Customer Service.

Tia had spotted James when she first started, as a fellow elf was friends with him. He was very quiet though, so they had never talked.

In February 2013, James was purchasing a couple of drinks before he left work to go to school and that's where we first started talking. He contacted Tia through Facebook and started talking and texting from there.

They started hanging out towards the end of February and went on their first official date in the beginning of March.

At the end of April, James purchased his first house and Tia joined him in living there! She moved in with her two labs (one of which was pregnant at the time) and a chinchilla.