When it happened: Friday, August 8th, 2014.

How we got engaged:

They wanted to find the perfect ring, so they started ring shopping in December 2013. By March, they had found a few different rings that they liked.

In June, James started planning the engagement and decided that he wanted to surprise Tia while she was in Florida for two weeks, as James was unable to get the time off from work to go for the whole two weeks.

In the beginning of July, James has purchased a ring and began preparing all the details of the day he was going to propose.

The Day of the Engagement:

James arrived at the Tampa International Airport at 11:30am.

Tia, her best friend, Taryn, and two brothers were being dropped off for a boat day trip where they were going to dolphin watch, snorkel and walk through old army ruins on an island. They were dropped off around 11:30am by Tia's mom, Monica. After she dropped them off, she went straight to the airport and picked James up.

James hung out at the hotel, getting the final details of the actual moment down. Tia's boat trip was supposed to get back around 4pm.

5pm, Tia finally arrives back on shore! It takes them about a half hour to drive back to the hotel, where James and Tia's little sister are hiding in her parents' room.

Tia is completely oblivious and is showering, getting ready and eating. Taryn is working on getting her down to the beach. She finally convinces her around 7pm to go down to the beach to take some pictures of each other. Tia was very set on going to her favorite place that night, Pier 60. Her mom told her to go down with Taryn and to take pictures until everyone was ready and she would let us know.

About 3 or 4 mins of posing and taking pictures, Tia's mom comes out on the deck and tells her that they are ready. She stands up and then her siblings come out on the deck, one by one, each holding a sign that says "Will" "you" and "marry" and then James walks out with the sign that says "me?"

Tia makes her way up to the room and out on the deck where James is standing down on one knee and asks the big question, "Will you marry me?" and she says "OF COURSE!!"

They celebrated by going to Pier 60 and taking sunset pictures on Clearwater Beach.

It could not have went more perfect.

See the video here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=FL_4Basq9MRqODNVWYX0d4iA

Travel

Country Inn & Suites By Carlson, Peoria North, IL