Lauren Alaina is engaged! The country star revealed the big news during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday night.
"It was a night I will never forget. I got to celebrate the best year of my life. I became a member of the Opry family in February, so I thought they should be the first to know I had been asked to be in another family as well," Alaina, 28, told PEOPLE exclusively of her engagement to Cam Arnold, 34.
"This is the first time I'm showing Cameron to the world. He has and will continue to be a sacred piece of my life. He keeps me grounded and gives me a piece of a normal everyday life that I didn't have before him. We have been together for two and a half years, and we are just getting started. I can't wait to be Mrs. Cameron Scott Arnold. I'm so excited for everyone to know who he and we are. The best is still to come."
Onstage Saturday evening, Alaina was quick to acknowledge the new ring on her finger. "I was welcomed into this family and it was a dream of mine as long as I can remember," referencing her induction into the Opry earlier this year. "I didn't think this year could get any better, [but Friday] I got asked into another family! After he proposed to me, I said, 'You have to come out on this stage at the Grand Ole Opry.'"
Alaina then introduced her fiancé, Cam Arnold, to share in the happy occasion.
"Everybody, this is my fiancé," she announced. "I told him he had to come out here and we had to get a picture — we're doing it because this is the circle and I'm going to hold my hand up and do the thing. Make some noise for my future husband everybody!"
Arnold — a partner in a Nashville-based insurance firm — prefers to stay out of the public eye, but made an exception to celebrate the couple's engagement, walking onstage to kiss his bride-to-be.
"He did not want to do that! He likes to be in the shadows. He was like, 'You're not making me come out there' and I said, 'You are not not getting a picture in the circle. So — we negotiated and he came out for the picture," the "Getting Over Him" singer explained with a laugh. "This is the most important place in the world to me and he's the most important person to me, so it was pretty amazing to put 'em together."
Pointing at her ring finger, she added, "And also — did really good. I talk a lot — as y'all have seen! — and I did not speak for about 45 seconds when I looked at this ring and realized what was happening. I did not see it coming. It was perfect in every way and I can't wait to spend forever with him, so I wanted to share."
"BRIDE be dang'd, y'all. My best friend, @arnold.cam, asked me to marry him, and I announced it at my favorite place in the world, @opry," Alaina captioned a series of photos on Instagram. "I didn't know happiness and excitement like this existed. I can't wait to be Mrs. Cameron Scott Arnold. 💍 #Laurnold"
Though Arnold has occasionally joined Alaina at events over the course of their time together, the American Idol alum and Arnold have largely kept their relationship under wraps. In a September 2020 interview with PEOPLE, Alaina said she was committed to waiting until her next relationship was serious to share it with fans.
"I'm going to be 100 percent sure that it's going to work out before I go broadcast anything," she said at the time. "I've been joking that I'll be pretty much walking down the aisle before I'm going to tell people about him!"
During her debut performance at the Opry in February 2022, Alaina hinted at the possibility of walking down the aisle in her near future.
"For me, to finally be officially in [the Opry] is the biggest dream come true of all time," she told the sold-out crowd at the time. "Most little girls dream of their weddings. I dreamed of this. So," Alaina added with a hearty chuckle, "hopefully now I can have a wedding, too, and we'll be set!"
With No. 1 hits "Road Less Traveled," "What Ifs" and "One Beer" under her belt, Alaina is currently working on new music for her first project with Big Loud, which she signed with in July.
