Tim Warmels picked April Brockman, a 27-year-old realtor from Wasaga Beach, Ont., to be his bride on “The Bachelor Canada.” THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho-Rogers Media

TORONTO - Tim Warmels says he was strangely "calm" in the moments before he proposed to April Brockman on the season finale of "The Bachelor Canada."

"I thought I would be tearing up or something like that, and it was just this weird amazing relief," he said in an interview in Toronto on Wednesday.

"It was that sense of relief that this is finally, finally done. We got here. We put every single ounce of emotional effort that we had into it. And we got here. So I was like, 'Phew!'"

Brockman, a 27-year-old realtor from Wasaga Beach, Ont., emerged the winner Tuesday night after competing with 24 other women for Warmels' heart.

In the finale filmed in Tahiti, she and 28-year-old Edmonton beauty queen Trisha Vergo were the last two bachelorettes standing.

But while cozying up to her fiance on Wednesday, Brockman said she knew she and Warmels would end up together — regardless of whether he proposed.

"Whether or not he was going to propose and whether or not I was going to accept, neither of us knew. But I think we both knew that we were going to be together regardless," she said.

Warmels, a 28-year-old tech entrepreneur originally from Campbellville, Ont., said he "absolutely" was worried Brockman would say no.

"She wrote me this letter that was aired. It said at a point in the letter, 'You follow your heart and I'll follow mine.' And that was her way of basically telling me, 'If you propose and if you choose me, I'm not telling you if I'll say yes,'" he recalled with a laugh.

"So I was going into that moment blind as well, but it just felt really right."

Among the other contestants this season were Jennifer Selinger, a 26-year-old "joyologist" from Montreal, and another April Borgnetta, a 30-year-old esthetician from Victoria who preferred the term "vagician."

But Warmels recalled that he was drawn to Brockman from the moment she stepped out of the limo and that their chemistry grew as they went on more dates.

"We hit on things very, very quickly in a very deep way that (doesn't) get shown on TV. It was a deep way where I remember thinking, 'If this conversation is indicative of who she is as a person, this is going somewhere,'" he said.

"I knew that I loved her when we were at her hometown. We were talking about her past and how it affects her now... There was this moment where this thought popped into my head, 'I feel like I could figure anything out with this woman.' And that's somebody you want to spend the rest of your life with."

Brockman said she also felt a turning point when they travelled to her hometown of Wasaga Beach and Warmels met her family.

"It was just the interaction with my family and sort of more of a real-life situation, and it progressed from there," she said. "I think it was just our outlook on life, although maybe we come to that through different ways."

Many might find it hard to see their beloved dating other women, but Brockman said the competition didn't faze her.

"I got along with all the women really well and ... we keep in touch and we hang out and meet for dinners. The whole thing wasn't a competition for me at all. I was going to meet this guy and see if there was a connection, and if there was, great, and if not, I really thought I'd send myself home," she said.

Asked if it was tough for him to disappoint Trisha in the finale, Warmels said yes.

"Some people might think it's weird to sit here with my fiancee beside me and say something like this, but you know, it wasn't like those relationships didn't mean anything. But it was that my relationship with (Brockman) overshadowed that so much."

The series wrapped five months ago and the pair had to keep secret their engagement from some friends and family. Now, the happy couple can begin planning their wedding and are thinking of tying the knot next fall.

"As much as we talk about how hard the last five months have been, in terms of being secret, on the flip side of that coin, because you're secret, you only have each other to focus on," said Warmels.

"That's kind of nice in a way because it lets you really get down to the nitty-gritty and that's really amazing. Most people who are engaged have had years to figure out things about the relationship. We've had to nail the fast-forward button."

— Follow @ellekane on Twitter.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2014