Getty Lauren Alaina at the 2018 CMT Awards
Country star Lauren Alaina just capped off an amazing year by announcing she’s engaged to be married. The “American Idol” alum, who was runner-up to Scotty McCreery on the show in 2011, was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry in February, signed a major record deal with Big Loud Records in July, and now is engaged to her beau of over two years, whom she’s kept a secret from the public — until now.
Lauren Alaina Announces Her Engagement at the Grand Ole Opry
On November 19, 2022, Alaina announced her engagement during a performance at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, bringing her reluctant fiancé onstage to introduce him to her fans after more than two years of keeping her relationship under wraps. The following morning, she posted photos from the night on social media, revealing her engagement and the identity of her future husband: Cameron Arnold.
On the post, Alaina wrote, “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. I didn’t know happiness and excitement like this existed. I can’t wait to be Mrs. Cameron Scott Arnold.”
She added an engagement ring emoji and created a new hashtag, #Laurnold, combining her first and his last names.
Alaina only recently revealed that she’s been dating someone special. During an appearance on Audacy’s Rob + Holly Show in February, Alaina shared that she’d been in a relationship for a year and a half with someone she described as “tall and handsome,” adding that fellow country star Jon Pardi had given his stamp of approval.
“I’ve just never posted about him or anything because he’s just mine,” she said at the time. “He’s just a regular guy. He’s a business guy, goes to work every day in a suit. He’s a normal guy, he’s from Georgia, I’m from Georgia and Jon Pardi likes him!”
Lauren Alaina Says She ‘Negotiated’ With Her Fiancé to Get Him Onstage
In an Instagram video posted by Country Now, Alaina could be seen urging Arnold to come onstage during her performance at the Grand Ole Opry as the crowd cheered.
Once he walked out from backstage and joined her, she said, “Everybody, this is my fiancé. I told him he had to come out here and we had to get a picture! So, we’re doing it because this is the circle and I’m going to hold my hand up and do the thing.”
Alaina then quickly posed for photos, lifting her left hand up to show off her ring as Arnold smiled. He then walked back offstage as she said, “Make some noise for my future husband everybody!”
Laughing, she shared with the audience that Arnold’s appearance in the spotlight required a bit of negotiating.
“He did not want to do that,” she exclaimed. “He likes to be in the shadows, and 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!”
Alaina revealed that the engagement happened the night before, on November 18, and that she hadn’t told anyone yet.
“Nobody knows! I haven’t told anybody, so I told you first,” she shared as the audience cheered.
The timing of the engagement allowed Alaina to share the news in one of her favorite places. Back in February, when she was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry on February 12, she said the achievement had always been a dream of hers, along with getting married.
“Since I was a little girl, I dreamed of this moment,” Alaina said during a tearful speech, according to CMT. “Most little girls dreamed of their weddings. I dreamed of this. Hopefully, now I can have a wedding, too, and we’ll be set.”
After announcing her engagement, she told the audience, “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.”
Lauren Alaina Says She Was Speechless After Engagement
Though Alaina has kept the identity of her beau quiet, he revealed their relationship in an Instagram post on August 4, 2021, sharing a photo of them dining at The Continental, a restaurant on the ground level of the Hyatt Hotel Nashville. Joking that his girlfriend had just found a job, he revealed in the post that it was their one-year anniversary of dating.
Arnold wrote, “We’ve come along way in a year…she found a Job!!!!!!! Happy 1 year” and added celebratory emojis.
Like Alaina, Arnold hails from Georgia. According to LinkedIn, after earning his undergraduate degree at Auburn University in Alabama and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Middle Georgia State University, he moved to Nashville in 2015. He now works as the Vice President of Sales for an insurance company based there.
Despite sharing frequently about her hope of getting married soon, including her elation over getting the bride’s bouquet at HARDY’s recent wedding, Alaina told the Grand Ole Opry crowd that she didn’t expect Arnold’s proposal and was speechless after it happened.
“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,” she said. “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!”