Derek Hough Says Fiancee Hayley Erbert Is ‘Impossible to Surprise,’ Breaks Down His ‘Special’ Proposal

Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

Derek Hough Says Fiancee Hayley Erbert Is ‘Impossible to Surprise,’ Breaks Down His ‘Special’ Proposal

Meant to be! Derek Hough gushed over his fiancée, Hayley Erbert, after confirming their engagement earlier this month. “I just love calling her my fiancée,” the 37-year-old dancer exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, June 6, while promoting his Las Vegas residency, Derek Hough: No Limit, which runs from now until September 2022. “I think that word now feels right to the way I feel and to my commitment to her and to our love and story and life together. … Hayley is The One.” The Make Your Move actor, who announced his engagement via Instagram on Thursday, June 2, explained that the 27-year-old Kansas native’s personality and ease with being a pet mom made him confident about popping the question. “I know she’s just going to be an amazing mother and amazing wife and she’s so thoughtful, so caring, so loving,” Hough said on Monday. “Just seeing the way she is with our animals, I mean if she’s even a quarter of the way she is with our animals how she is with our kids I just can’t wait to see her be a mom.” The former Dancing With the Stars pro got down on one knee at the couple’s home after spending the day seeing Yosemite. Hough says the candled-filled living room setting felt more suitable for the pair who work and live together. [sendtonews type="float" key="osBHXcoxYq-2832057-14453"] “We travel around the world and doing all these amazing adventures, we love all that, but what we love even more is coming back home and being in our place together,” he explained. “It felt special to transform the house into this beautiful sanctuary with candles and flowers and of course our special songs and music that mean a lot to us, playing at the same time.” Hough, who knew Erbert for one year before they began dating in 2015, told Us that the whole night went as planned — although it has since become a blur. “I don’t think I remember anything I said,” he confessed. “I think we just hugged and cried for 20 minutes without words. It was honestly even more beautiful than I could have imagined with all the flowers and the candles.” Event planner Troy Williams exclusively told Us on Thursday that his team transformed Hough and Erbert’s house into a magical space filled with over “250 candles and 1,600 roses.” He teased, “It was like Mission: Impossible” trying to keep everything a secret. The So You Think You Can Dance? alum, for her part, shared a close-up photo of her Paris Jewellers sparkler on Saturday, June 4, captioning the snap, “Engaged has a nice ring to it 💍😉 Caption by my fiancé @derekhough.” Scroll down for exclusive details about the proposal from Hough himself: [podcast_block]

Credit: John Salangsang/Shutterstock

Derek Hough Says Fiancee Hayley Erbert Is ‘Impossible to Surprise,’ Breaks Down His ‘Special’ Proposal

Meant to be! Derek Hough gushed over his fiancée, Hayley Erbert, after confirming their engagement earlier this month. “I just love calling her my fiancée,” the 37-year-old dancer exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, June 6, while promoting his Las Vegas residency, Derek Hough: No Limit, which runs from now until September 2022. “I think that word now feels right to the way I feel and to my commitment to her and to our love and story and life together. … Hayley is The One.” The Make Your Move actor, who announced his engagement via Instagram on Thursday, June 2, explained that the 27-year-old Kansas native’s personality and ease with being a pet mom made him confident about popping the question. “I know she’s just going to be an amazing mother and amazing wife and she’s so thoughtful, so caring, so loving,” Hough said on Monday. “Just seeing the way she is with our animals, I mean if she’s even a quarter of the way she is with our animals how she is with our kids I just can’t wait to see her be a mom.” The former Dancing With the Stars pro got down on one knee at the couple’s home after spending the day seeing Yosemite. Hough says the candled-filled living room setting felt more suitable for the pair who work and live together. [sendtonews type="float" key="osBHXcoxYq-2832057-14453"] “We travel around the world and doing all these amazing adventures, we love all that, but what we love even more is coming back home and being in our place together,” he explained. “It felt special to transform the house into this beautiful sanctuary with candles and flowers and of course our special songs and music that mean a lot to us, playing at the same time.” Hough, who knew Erbert for one year before they began dating in 2015, told Us that the whole night went as planned — although it has since become a blur. “I don’t think I remember anything I said,” he confessed. “I think we just hugged and cried for 20 minutes without words. It was honestly even more beautiful than I could have imagined with all the flowers and the candles.” Event planner Troy Williams exclusively told Us on Thursday that his team transformed Hough and Erbert’s house into a magical space filled with over “250 candles and 1,600 roses.” He teased, “It was like Mission: Impossible” trying to keep everything a secret. The So You Think You Can Dance? alum, for her part, shared a close-up photo of her Paris Jewellers sparkler on Saturday, June 4, captioning the snap, “Engaged has a nice ring to it 💍😉 Caption by my fiancé @derekhough.” Scroll down for exclusive details about the proposal from Hough himself: [podcast_block]

Credit: Stewart Cook/Shutterstock

Why Derek Proposed Now

“I think now was the perfect time to propose not because it was the perfect time, just because it was time!” he confessed, explaining that he had a lightbulb moment during an event where he introduced Erbert as his girlfriend. “I remember stopping and just feeling like that felt so wrong and that felt like a small word to use for the strength of our relationship.”

The Hairspray Live! star told Us: “I knew sort of in that moment I was like, 'She’s not my girlfriend anymore, we’re so much more than that.' Ever since then I’ve just been planning and thinking about when and how and figuring out how to propose.”

Credit: Courtesy of Derek Hough/Instagram

What Made the Moment Special?

Hough chose to get down on one knee at his and Erbert’s home, telling Us that the location really made the proposal “so special” and right for them as a couple. “I was going to do it on a big boat or on a cliff somewhere or this amazing exotic location, and the more I kept planning those proposals, I just kept thinking to myself, 'Something doesn’t feel right about that,'” he recalled. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the most special place for us is our home. This is where we built our relationship, this is where we quarantined for two years and spent every single day together and through all that we became closer and more in love and stronger.”

The Nashville alum noted that it was “very special” that he was “able to surprise” his love. “She’s impossible to surprise. The fact that she had no idea, I really felt like that was a big win for me because she was really caught off guard,” he continued. “And that was always my hope and I was able to make that happen.”

Credit: Courtesy of Hayley Erbert/Instagram

How Did Hayley React?

Hough called his fiancée’s initial reaction to him popping the question “priceless” especially since she didn’t see it coming. “I had her gone all day on this helicopter ride to Yosemite which is one of our very special places. At the end of the day, she was pretty tired and kind of ready to go home and just eat some dinner and relax,” he remembered. “When we pulled up, she saw a little bit of candlelight in the window. Her initial reaction was, 'Babe you’re going to burn the house down, did you leave the candles burning?'”

The Emmy winner told Us that he didn’t react to Erbert’s candle comment, instead he just “walked up” to the house quietly. “The whole time she just kept saying, 'Babe, what’s happening? Babe, what’s happening?' When we walked into the house the music was playing and everything was just perfect,” he said.

Credit: Alberto Rodriguez/Shutterstock

Why Hayley Is The One

“We’ve been through so many ups and downs over the past seven years, and I know that we can get through absolutely anything,” the former World of Dance judge revealed as to how he knew the professional dancer would be his life partner. “We will grow as we go and that we will grow together. We’re both willing to put in the work and willing to change together and do whatever it takes to be together. I think just knowing that there’s this love [makes it so] there’s this confidence in our relationship.”

Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Does Anything Feel Different?

The DWTS judge revealed how excited he is to perform with Erbert during his Las Vegas residency now that they are engaged, teasing that their usual joking about their marriage status mid-show is no longer necessary.

“It’s quite funny because for my Vegas residency No Limit at the Venetian there was a little skit in the middle of the show where I basically fake proposed every night. It got the audience cheering, and then they were disappointed because I didn’t do it,” he told Us. “It was kind of a funny bit, so now we don’t have that.”

The Utah native noted that it is “so special to do something that you love with someone that you love.” Moving forward he is happy that the couple can still be together on stage night after night. “And now, to do it with my fiancée, it's so special,” Hough said. “Dancing with her each night and sharing that stage with her and sharing it with the audience and sharing our love. It’s very unique and very special.”

See the newly-engaged couple perform as part of the Derek Hough: No Limit residency at The Venetian Resort in Las Vegas. The show goes through September 2022 — and tickets are available here.

With reporting by Diana Cooper