Country music star Chris Lane and former “Bachelor” contestant Lauren Bushnell are now engaged.
Over the weekend, the 34-year-old singer proposed to Bushnell, 29, at her family home in Oregon, according to multiple reports.
“I knew she wouldn’t want some elaborate crazy proposal,” Lane told People magazine. “So, I decided to keep it pretty casual.”
He said he asked Bushnell’s parents for ideas but ended up deciding that “the family cookout would be the most laid-back setting.”
He added that he thought Bushnell would “appreciate the simplicity of me proposing to her in her parents’ backyard.”
When he brought up the idea about proposing on Father’s Day, Bushnell’s father, Dave, “said that it could only add to his Father’s Day and that’s when I decided Sunday, June 16 was the day,” Lane told the magazine.
For the special occasion, Lane played a song he wrote for Bushnell titled: “Big, Big Plans.”
“Right now we’re back in her hometown / and I’m down on one knee” he sang. Right after, he led her to part of the backyard and got down on one knee to propose.
He told People magazine that while he was “pretty confident” Bushnell would say “yes,” he was still incredibly nervous.
“I pretty much blacked out. The next thing I knew, she said ‘yes’ and the nerves just lifted! It’s an explosion of excitement, pure joy, and love,” he said.
As for Bushnell, she told the magazine, “I lost it. It was the happiest moment of my life!”
“I can’t stop smiling. I feel so incredibly blessed that every misstep, mistake, and heartache has led me to you. I couldn’t be happier to call you mine, forever,” Bushnell wrote on Instagram. “Thank you Christopher Eric Lane for softening my heart and making it whole. Never going to stop telling you how much I love you and I will hold onto you forever and ever!”
Lane proposed with a “3.5-carat emerald cut diamond set on a delicate, diamond-accented band, with an estimated cost of $60,000-$80,000” Kathryn Mooney, VP of Strategy & Merchandising for Brilliant Earth, told ET Online.
Lane knew what type of ring to get because a few months prior the two had gone ring shopping for fun and Bushnell revealed that design was her favorite, he told People magazine.
While Lane said he expects most of the wedding planning will go to Bushnell, he said he would most likely choose the pastor who officiates, as that is important to him.
While the two had been friends for years, the friendship turned romantic last fall. Lane and Bushnell made their first public appearance together at the BMI Country Awards in November.
Lane shared a video of his song “Big, Big Plans” featuring the proposal on YouTube.
“Watching the video back was almost just as emotional as the proposal itself—I still get teary-eyed even thinking about it,” Bushnell said of the music video to People magazine.
“Seeing all those memories in one place and then reliving the best day of my life is pretty special!” she added.
