NEED TO KNOW
- Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement on Instagram on Tuesday, Aug. 26
- An exclusive source tells PEOPLE that the proposal was “a big secret to keep quiet,” and that Kelce was both “nervous” and “excited” to pop the question
- The source added that the enchanting garden proposal was “so them”
Travis Kelce’s proposal to Taylor Swift was a big gesture — and an even bigger secret to keep.
An exclusive source tells PEOPLE that the Kansas City Chiefs tight end, 35, was a mix of nerves and excitement when he popped the question to the “Cruel Summer” singer, 35.
“The proposal was so them. It was beautiful, yet simple and in a way also casual,” a source exclusively tells PEOPLE. “That’s how they started out — simple, casual dates to get to know each other in private.”
The couple announced the news of their engagement in a joint post on Instagram on Tuesday, Aug. 26, sharing several photos from their enchanting garden proposal. On bended knee, Kelce proposed to Swift with a massive old mine brilliant cut diamond ring that he designed with jewelry designer Kindred Lubeck of Artifex Fine Jewelry.
The insider says that the “unique and beautiful” sparkler “fits her perfectly.”
“He was nervous if she’d like it,” the source added. “He was pretty nervous about the whole proposal, but so excited. He’s very happy everyone knows now. It was a big secret to keep quiet.”
Shortly after the engagement news broke, Kelce’s father, Ed, revealed in an interview with News 5’s John Kosich, that the proposal actually took place “maybe two weeks, not quite two weeks ago.”
“I told him repeatedly, you know, you could do it on the side of the road, do it any place that makes it a special event … when you get down on one knee and ask her to marry you,” Ed said.
He continued: “He got her out there, they were about to go out to dinner, and he said, ‘Let’s go out and have a glass of wine’ … they got out there, and that’s when he asked her, and it was beautiful.”
Ed also spoke with Australian radio’s The Jimmy & Nath Show with Emma, where he revealed that his son asked Swift’s father, Scott, for his blessing to marry his daughter a month ago.
“I was talking to Scott Swift and Travis went to ask him for permission, and this was probably a month ago, and Scott said, ‘Well come on, when are you going to get this done?’ ” Ed remembered.
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Ed said, like Scott, he’d been pressing Kelce to propose to Swift, and is happy he finally did so.
“He didn’t come to me for advice so much as I went to him to tell him, you know, ‘To get this done,’ ” Ed recalled, later adding, “I think it’s wonderful. These are two young people madly in love with each other and I think this is great.”
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