*Tia's version of events* A lot had to come together for us to meet on that day! We were brought together by a flight to Guadalajara, Mexico. Tom was going to Mexico for work, and I had only been assigned to work the flight 3 hours before. As I was delivering pre-departure champagne during boarding, an English accented passenger's politeness caught my eye. He then tried to schmooze me to get his friend into first class but sorry to everyone reading....it doesn't work even if you're a handsome english man. During the flight, when I was coming around for meal service I noticed that Tom was watching the Blackhawk's playoff game. I asked about the score and it got us talking about Chicago. We both had recently moved back to Chicago area and started talking about all our favorite things to do in the city. As the flight went on I couldn't believe this guy hadn't asked me for my number yet! So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and wrote my number on a piece of paper and handed it to him as we were getting ready to land. Allegedly, Tom was planning to give me his number as he left the plane....but we may not be here today if I had waited for that ;).

*Tom's Version It was decided that Charleston would be a good place to propose since it’s where Tia was born, one of our favourite cities, and we had planned a couples trip down with Katie and Lou (Tia's best friend and her Husband). After lots of thinking, I finally decided that the plan was to propose at the famous pineapple fountain in Waterfront park. Saturday comes around and we head off on our carriage tour, ring in my pocket, nervous. After the tour we head down to Waterfront park, slowly make our way over to the Pineapple fountain and as we get there notice that there’s a bachelorette party doing a photoshoot right in front of it. But don’t worry, it’s big enough to go around the other side and still have a bit of privacy. As I’m about to get down on one knee, three kids decide to climb into the fountain and start swimming laps. So plan A was officially cancelled. Plan B, as discussed with Lou was to propose in front of a section of 4 houses on rainbow row that we have a painting of, so off we set. Walking down rainbow row, I see the houses that I’d been looking for, point them out to Tia, and get ready to get down on one knee. Lou suggests that we have a picture in front of them, but Tia's response to this is ‘no, I don’t want a photo of us in front of them’ so, that was plan B cancelled. However, we continue down rainbow row, and find a beautiful house covered in flowers and a bench which Tia actually does want a photo in front of. So this is it, it’s now or never. I pull out the coin that I have engraved with ‘will you marry me’ (originally planned for the fountain) out my pocket, pretend that Tia has dropped it, and get her to read it as I get down on one knee and proceed to ask her to marry me. The response – Stop, are you sure? And eventually Yes. So we are Engaged! Many photos follow, along with phone calls and texts to family and friends. We celebrated with an amazing dinner at Poogan's Porch (thanks again Katie and Lou), and set out on engaged life.