When Joshua Tan first showed 8days.sg photos of his engagement photoshoot hours before he announced the good news on Instagram yesterday (Dec 30), the first thing we asked him was this: Photos very nice leh, she knew about the proposal, right?

That triggered a round of laughter from Joshua, 29, and his 22-year-old fiancée, Zoen Tay. She started scrolling through her photos, showing us a pic of her looking not-quite-impressed at Joshua, who was down on one knee. She even looked like she was mouthing the word, ‘No’.

“I didn’t know anything about it and he planted a bunch of decoys that managed to fool me completely!” the medical student sighed. “He told me that we were going for a photoshoot, which isn’t unusual for him, because we’ve done like two other shoots together before. Joshua’s also always springing surprises on me, so I didn’t find it out of the ordinary.”

What was a tad strange though was how, before the shoot, they had gone to a shopping mall, where Joshua gave her his credit card and told Zoen that she could pick out something that she wanted to wear for the shoot and that there was “no limit on how much [she could] spend”.

The good news for Joshua’s credit limit was that Zoen picked out something that cost less than three digits, and they headed to the Botanic Gardens for their shoot with their friend Jaegen. It started off just like any other shoot until, halfway through, Joshua launched into a romantic speech.

Which was still not quite out of the ordinary — Zoen shares that he often does that to set the mood.

Until he got down on one knee.

“Her first reaction was like, No, no, no! Not just one no but she kept saying no,” Joshua laughs. “She said no so many times that the photographer lowered his camera and asked us, ‘It’s a 'No'?’” With that, Zoen snapped back to reality and said, ‘No… I mean 'Yes!' It’s a yes to the proposal!”

What made matters worse for Joshua is that while Zoen was repeating her string of ‘no's, he had a bit of trouble getting the ring box out of his back pocket.

“You know how it is with men’s trousers, he says. The back pockets aren’t very flexible, so I was like, trying to get the ring box out while she was saying ‘No’. Not really the proposal that I envisioned.”

A day after the proposal, Joshua went on a family vacation and was off the grid for three days. When he came back to Singapore, he was greeted by Zoen who was waiting for him at Harbourfront Centre. “I just got off a four-hour ferry ride, I was wearing slippers and shorts, had sweaty armpits, and didn’t style my hair,” he laughs.

She brought him to a corner and started on her own romantic speech, which set off the alarm bells in Joshua’s head.

“I thought she was going to give me the ring back. I was freaking out, he tells us in all seriousness.

But Zoen did the exact opposite. She gave Joshua a gift of his own: a cross pendant necklace that matches hers.

“We have an ‘ai stead mai’ ring that I gave her when I first asked her to be my girlfriend. I have one too, but I lost it once when I was working out — though we don’t talk about that. I went back to the same store to get the same one, so I still wear it all the time. She said I can now add the ring on the necklace so that I won’t lose it,” the 29-year-old beams as Zoen shoots daggers at Josh with her eyes.

With Chinese New Year around the corner, the pair is ready to tackle whatever kaypoh questions their respective extended families might have for them, although they share that both their immediate families are “pretty much cool” with the engagement.

Speaking of kaypoh questions, the couple was quick to clarify one thing: the reason for their engagement is not because they have a baby on the way.

Zoen also doesn't feel like she's too young to get married. She muses: I don't feel like I'm 22. I hang out with his friends quite a lot, and they're his age or older, so I feel like (Joshua and I) are the same age.

This is something that Joshua often feels bad about. He says: Sometimes, I feel like she's missing out on things that people her age do. For example, when her friends go clubbing and she stays home instead.

They are also in no rush to get married as Zoen still has two more years before she completes her studies at UNSW Sydney. When we ask if they’re intending to have the big wedding, Joshua declares that it’s all up to Zoen, which gets her thinking.

“I haven’t really thought about when we’ll have our wedding ceremony. For now, we’re just enjoying the process of being engaged. I think having it around the same time as my graduation will be nice,” she smiles.

Joshua immediately cuts in, sharing that she’s been thinking about what kind of wedding ring will go best with her engagement ring, which, by the way, is a stunner that Joshua declined to share more details about, except that it was purchased in New York with the help of his friends who were there.

One thing that the couple agrees on is that the wedding will be an intimate affair. They’re even considering having two ceremonies: one just for them and their loved ones, and one more for the elders to invite all the people that they want to.

“We want to keep it as small as possible, but at the same time, there are certain things that the elders are understandably hoping for. They’re important to us, but we’re important too. That’s why we’re toying with the idea of having two ceremonies,” they muse.

Honeymoon wise, they have decided on Israel. The pair, who are both Christian, hope to celebrate their union in a place that is religiously significant to them. Travels to other parts of the world, they grin, can come in the years ahead.

They’ve also started window shopping for potential homes, although they’re keeping their options open to where they’ll build their love nest.

With Zoen returning to Sydney after Chinese New Year, the couple will be resuming their a long-distance relationship. But they make it a point to see each other every month. According to Zoen, the longest they’ve gone without meeting is six weeks.

“The ring is like a packet of tissue paper — a very expensive one I used to chope her first,” Joshua chuckles. “I’ve seen friends who dated for years and their relationship just fizzled out after that. I also wanted to bring our relationship to the next level, and this engagement is our promise to each other that we’ll be there for each other no matter what.”

PHOTOS: JAEGEN TAN