Every Stunning Photo of Tarek El Moussa's Romantic Island Proposal to Heather Rae Young

Flip or Flop's Tarek El Moussa, 38, proposed to Selling Sunset star Heather Rae Young on Saturday, July 25, while the couple was celebrating their one-year anniversary with a boat trip to Catalina Island, California — and she said yes!

He popped the question at the Descanso Beach Club with the sunset over the Pacific as his backdrop.

The proposal was a total surprise for Young, who walked down a beach path lined with flower petals and flickering candles to find El Moussa waiting on one knee beneath two "kissing" palm trees.

"He's so romantic that I thought he was just doing something special for me," Young says of arriving at what she thought was a dinner date on the beach. "I don't think it hit me until I was like halfway down the path."

Dressed in a tuxedo, the HGTV star got down on one knee in the sand surrounded by an ombre flower display and asked for Young's hand in marriage.

"I thought I was Mr. Cool Guy, I was calm all day," El Moussa says of the hours leading up to the proposal. "But then I was standing on the beach, and I saw her and all of a sudden, everything changed. My stomach started turning. I started shaking. I was like, 'Oh, crap. I'm not as cool as I thought.'"

Thankfully, he didn't have to worry for long, as it was an immediate "yes."

El Moussa chose an eight-carat, colorless, emerald-cut diamond for the engagement ring.

"The diamond is perfect all the way around, just like Heather," El Moussa told PEOPLE about his selection. "I also picked this ring because 8 is her lucky number."

"It's insane, I can't stop staring at it," Young says of her new jewel. "It's exactly what I wanted. It's perfect. It's beautiful."

According to El Moussa, he chose a gold band to go with the other jewelry he has gifted Young over the past year, and plans to collaborate with his future wife to add more elements to the piece over time.

"Right now I just got her the main stone, but what I want to do is design the rest of the ring together," he says. "I provide the stone and now we actually build the ring!" 

After the proposal, the pair sat down for a special dinner inside a private beach cabana with a view of the ocean, which El Moussa had decked out with even more flowers.

A photo of the couple at a black-tie affair adorned the table, surrounded by flickering candles.

A private chef whipped up a four-course meal for the occasion — and designed a personalized menu specific to the special day.

Young is a vegan, so many of the dishes were plant-based, including a heart of palm cake, heirloom tomato salad and confit eggplant medallion. Fresh crab cakes were also served for El Moussa. 

El Moussa had a neon sign custom-made to read "The Future Mrs. El Moussa" in hot pink lettering that shone down on the happy couple as they ate their dinner in a beach cabana. 

El Moussa and Young met on the Fourth of July in 2019, after mutual friends brought them together in Newport Beach, California. The pair were photographed kissing and cuddling on a yacht at the Portofino Hotel & Marina in Redondo Beach, California, later that month — making their budding romance public.

They confirmed the relationship with joint Instagram posts in early August, and El Moussa shared that he had already introduced Young to his kids — daughter Taylor and son Brayden, now 9 and 4 — whom he shares with his ex-wife and Flip or Flop co-star Christina Anstead. Young calls herself the kids' "bonus mom."

After quickly becoming a staple in El Moussa's kids' lives, the father-of-two tells PEOPLE that Young's love for his children was what pushed him to propose after just a year together.

"We were sitting on the boat one day and I looked over and she had Taylor in one arm and Brayden in the other arm and they're all three cuddling," El Moussa remembers. "That was the moment I knew I had to make her my wife and bring her into the family." 

El Moussa told 9-year-old Taylor he was proposing before anyone else — and she kept the big secret like a champ! 

"I think being engaged is so special because he chose me and I love him so much," Young says, insisting that the day of the proposal was the "best day of my life."

"I love him more than anything and he's my best friend in the whole world, I cannot stop smiling," she continues. "And I love being his fiancée — I love saying it! I'm so happy."

El Moussa couldn't agree more: "I can't wait to build this life together and just be together," he says.