We met while working at Spirit Halloween. It was Justin’s first year working there and Tia’s second. For those of you that aren’t aware, Justin has INSANE beginner’s luck. Justin had been working at a different location for a week as an associate. The store wasn’t even open yet, they were just building it. The district manager asked if he could help build another location because he was such a hard worker. Of course he said yes. So after building that store the district manager asked if he was interesting in working at that store as an Assistant Manager. Meanwhile, Tia was beginning her second year with the company… she remained an associate while Justin was an AM. As the season went on, the store manager and other employees got to know the two of them and thought they would be a great couple. So Tia wanted to try to trick the rest of the staff into thinking they were actually interested in each other though they were just friends. Tia found Justin through Snapchat and explained her idea. Justin was reluctant but after talking it over with his friend he agreed. For the rest of the fall season, the two had begun hanging out to attempt to convince the staff that they were dating… (to be continued)

After chatting a bit Justin and Tia had convinced the entire store that they had crushes on each other. Justin did, in fact, develop such a crush. Tia was not sure if he had or not. Tia was hearing about a free concert that Justin was able to go to because it was on his college campus. He had told another store associate that he wanted to ask Tia to go with him but he wasn’t sure if she would want to. This associate was friends with Tia and told her IMMEDIATELY of Justin’s thoughts. Tia said, “uh, duh. It’s a free concert. Who would say no?” As it turns out, it was actually one of Tia’s favorite bands growing up: All American Rejects! It was the day before the concert when Justin finally asked her to join him. She said yes. They went to the concert together and they had a great night. They ended up holding hands at the show and they even went back to Justin’s dorm after to chat. This is when they both realized they did, in fact, like each other. However, Spirit Halloween had a policy about dating coworkers. So they decided to wait until the store was closing to actually get together. But they were inseparable from that night forward. At the end of the season, Justin got two free tickets to Halloween Horror Nights and asked Tia to go with him. (Yes, Justin got a lot of free stuff all the time it seemed.) So on November 1st, the two went to HHN together. While they were waiting in line for a haunted house Tia took out her phone and noticed it was 11:59pm. Justin quickly asked Tia if she wanted to make it official and, without hesitation, she said yes… again. (To be continued)

Skyler was born summer of 2023, and that fall Justin and Tia found themselves back at HHN for the 5th year in a row. Tia should have noticed the signs, but she did not. Justin was so slick and so were his brothers. Tia’s mom took Tia to get her nails done for the third time in two months. (This was the first sign she missed.) Justin had told EVERYONE what his plans were. That afternoon, they were all getting ready, Justin and his brother were paying a lot of attention to what they looked like. (This was the second sign. This was normal for Nate but not for Justin.) Justin’s mom was trying to conceal a small hip pack under her shirt. (Third sign. Why did she need that?) Tia was wearing a Friday the thirteenth hockey jersey dress from Spirit with her unwashed hair in a high bun. Justin had a long sleeve button down and pants. (Remember this is Florida.) (4th sign.) They headed to Orlando. The baby was with Tia’s mom. Justin and Tia went with Justin’s mom and dad, (5th sign. His dad never went to things like this.) and Justin’s brothers. When they finally arrived at HHN they planned to go to a bunch of the houses. The created a mini schedule to try to get to as many houses as possible. They made their way to the first house and went through it. After that house, there was a little confusion of how to get to the next house. (6th sign. Justin’s brother worked at the park and his other brother is obsessed with it.) Finally, they figured it out and headed toward the next house. Or so Tia thought. Justin’s brothers lead the group. Soon they found themselves by the water feature in the middle of the park. Nate made a comment about how pretty the park looked from there. Tia agreed and started to lean on the wall looking out over the water. (Perfect set up.) Suddenly, it was very quiet and Tia realized she was alone at the wall even though Nate was just there. So she slowly turned around to see where everyone had gone and the first thing she saw was all of Justin’s family holding up their phones to take pictures/videos. She kept turning and finally she saw it. Justin was right behind her, down on one knee holding a ring in a little box. Of course, she said yes.

Justin first asked Tia to be his girlfriend on November 1st, 2018 at 11:59pm. One minute he’s asking her to be his girlfriend, and the next minute, they are getting married. November 2nd, 2025