Derek Hough asked his longtime girlfriend Hayley Erbert to marry him after he had a big realization.
In an exclusive interview, the couple talked about how getting used to calling each other “fiancé” and “fiancée” was hard at first.
“I had been saying “boyfriend” for so long. The other day, I took my dog to the vet and thought, Boyf—iancé?” said Erbert, 27.
“That was one of the biggest signs for me that it was time to propose,” Hough, 37, said. “I called her my girlfriend at an event, and it felt really wrong.”
“It was almost like a cheap way to describe how we feel about each other. So I thought, This is a good sign.”
After seven years together, Hough and Erbert got engaged on June 2. They shared the news on Instagram.
Troy Williams of Simply Troy Lifestyle + Events helped the judge of Dancing with the Stars plan the special moment when he would ask her to marry him with a ring made by Paris Jewellers.
“A long time has passed. We didn’t just say, “It’s time,” “He kept going. “We mostly joked about things like, “Hey, we should do this at our wedding or invite this person or do this and that.”
She’d be like, ‘Babe, we’re not even engaged yet.'”
Erbert pointed out that they were “slowly talking about future plans” and that it “wasn’t really a set situation.”
Since they had been together for a long time, Hough knew he had to make the moment extra special, so he chose their shared home.
“It’s funny, I changed my mind so many times about so many different places. Hayley and I have some special places where we like to go, and I would go there and do things.
I kind of changed my mind at the last minute, “he said.
“I was like, you know what? All of these cool things are already things we do. We go on trips all over the world and have adventures, so we’re always glad to get home.
That’s where our relationship really solidified and grew stronger “he added. “I was like, I’m going to transform our house.”
With 250 big candles, 1600 roses, orchids, white peonies, and pampas grass as an elegant backdrop, the couple had everything they needed to make a proposal that would be remembered forever.
“Once she said ‘yes,’ everything changed,” says Williams, who chose the floral colors to match their home. “It was such a beautiful, special moment that was so them.”