On October 11, 2008, as Amanda was flying to New Orleans to celebrate her mother's birthday, Jeff was heading to Jacksonville to put everything together for a perfect proposal.

Here's what the plan was:
With Amanda's car parked at the airport, Jeff had conspired with Amanda's friends to make a phone call telling her that her car had been damaged and towed away, but the airport would be providing alternative transportation for her to get home. To keep her from putting things together and figuring it out, they decided to make the call during her flight from New Orleans to Jacksonville and leave a message that she would get upon landing. The message said that her car had been involved in an incident in the parking garage, and instructed her to go to ground transportation when she got off the plane to get a ride home. After an expected arrival time of 3:00, Amanda's ride home would be a stretched limousine with Jeff inside with roses, a bottle of champagne and the engagement ring. From the airport, the plan was to head to a nice dinner and then enjoy some more champagne on the beach.

Here's what actually happened:
So it turns out that Amanda actually turns her phone off on airplanes and doesn't turn it back on until after she leaves the airport. Not only was her flight an hour late, but when Jeff got a phone call at around 4:00 from Amanda that she was halfway home, that's when things got interesting.

With the help of Amanda's friend, Jolene, Jeff, already in panic mode, quickly hatched a new plan. Jolene called Amanda asking for her immediate help in getting her car to the shop. Amanda agreed and headed over to Jolene's house so she could follow her to the dealership while Jeff and the limo driver were racing across town to catch up.

Having left the airport about 30 minutes before the limo, Amanda was waiting at Jolene's house for about an hour. Jolene had been waiting for Jeff to get there, so when he finally showed up, she went in her house to get Amanda. When Amanda came outside, she was shocked to see a limo parked in the cul-de-sac (the site of their first kiss) and Jeff standing there as well. After repeatedly asking, "What are you doing here?", Jeff finally managed to get her into the limo where he proposed to her and she accepted. On the way to the celebratory dinner, they each called their families to share the good news.

The morals of the story:
1) Check your voicemail when you get off of an airplane.
2) Always have a back-up plan when you try to surprise someone, they don't know it's a surprise and might not cooperate.