Getty Hayley Erbert and Derek Hough walk the red carpet at the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party
“Dancing With the Stars” pro-turned-judge Derek Hough and former “Dancing With the Stars” troupe member Hayley Erbert became engaged in May 2022 after seven years together. In a new interview, they have revealed how long they want to wait to get married — and it sounds like it is not very long.
Read on to find out what they said about their upcoming nuptials and how Derek knew Hayley was “the one.”
Derek & Hayley Don’t Want a ‘Super-Long Engagement’
In an interview with People, Hayley revealed that they are “ready” to get married and don’t want to be engaged for very long.
“I don’t think either of us want a super-long engagement. I just don’t think it fully makes sense,” said Hayley, adding, “We waited [seven years] to get engaged, it’s like we’re just ready for that next chapter of our lives.”
She acknowledged that actually planning a wedding is a huge task, but she said they have a lot of help from their friends and family, plus they are going to hire a wedding planner.
“Wedding planning I’ve been hearing is crazy — so finding the venue and obviously the invites and just every little detail seems daunting a little bit. But luckily we’ll have lots of friends and a wedding planner and all sort of help,” said the dancer.
Derek Revealed That He Knew Hayley Was The One For Him Several Years Ago
In the interview, Derek said that there is an expression that says, “We all have many different relationships in our lives. It’s just whether or not you want that with different people or the same person,” and it was in that spirit that a few years ago, his relationship with Hayley changed and he knew she was the one.
“I feel like her and I have had many different versions of our relationship and a couple years ago there was a moment where we just stepped into a new version of our relationship which was a relationship where we could see ourselves being together forever,” said Derek.
The two began dating in the summer of 2015 and fans have been wondering for some time now if they were ever going to get engaged. When the big day finally arrived, Derek had to trick Hayley to get her out of the house so that the event planner he hired could set up the proposal, which entailed hundreds of flowers and candles. In fact, he set it up so that she thought she was surprising him with a helicopter ride for his birthday, so she didn’t suspect a thing.
Then when the big moment came, he told US Weekly that he barely remembers anything he said because it was so emotional.
“I don’t think I remember anything I said,” Derek said. “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.”
Hilariously, back on New Year’s Eve, the two of them played a silly game for an Instagram video where they predicted what would happen in 2022 by throwing pens at cups. The ones that stuck were that they would “get engaged,” “have two babies” and “open a dog-boarding business.” One down, two to go!
“Dancing With the Stars” returns for its 31st season in the fall of 2022 on Disney Plus.
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