Dillon Carmichael Engaged to Girlfriend Shayla Whitson

Dillon Carmichael is officially off the market! The "Hot Beer" singer popped the question to Shayla Whitson, his girlfriend of two years, on Saturday (Feb. 6), during a romantic photoshoot that was ostensibly a celebration of their second anniversary of dating.

"As soon as I got down on one knee, she said 'yes,'" Carmichael recounts to People, who shared photos of the special moment. "I was so nervous that I pretty much blacked out! I don't remember anything after that."

The pair first met back in late 2017, when Whitson attended a show Carmichael played in their mutual home state of Kentucky.

"I even went over to my guitar player that night and was telling him about how beautiful I thought she was, right there in the middle of the show. I thought there was an angel standing there," Carmichael remembers.

He was too shy to go up and talk to that angel, but fortunately, Whitson came up and broke the ice. While they spent a little bit of time getting to know each other before they started dating, Carmichael says he always knew that his relationship with her was special.

"I had told my band I was going to marry her before we were even dating because I just knew it," he recalls. "I would even tell her, 'I'm going to marry you one day,' before we started dating, which is kind of an absurd thing to say. But now that it's actually happening, I guess it's not that absurd."

By the end of 2019, the couple weren't just dating: They were living together, and shared a dog named Parker. Whitson also co-starred in the lyric video for Carmichael's romantic 2019 release, "I Do for You," which was shot on their property.

"It was at our house, and that is actually our dog, so the whole thing was a blast," Whitson told Taste of Country at a red carpet event in Nashville in late 2019. "It was so much fun, and you can see how much we care for each other and love each other. The comments on it, even — you can get the picture. People were like, 'It seems so real!' And that's because it is."

Carmichael added that having his real-life love co-star in the video added an important layer of authenticity to "I Do for You."

"We were laying in bed one night talking about, 'What does this song mean,' and what the video would be. I think originally the idea was that she wasn't gonna be in it. And then we get a call from management, and they're like, 'We really think Shayla should be in this video,'" the singer recounts. "It was so funny, because [we had just been] talking about that. So we were at our house, on our land, built fires on our property, shot the video at home inside our house. It just really felt so genuine and turned out great."

Whitson added that being in the public eye is a new experience for her, and she's grateful that the reaction from Carmichael's fan base has been so overwhelmingly positive.

"It's something I never thought I would be doing, ever!" she exclaims, speaking about her experiences of acting in music videos or attending red carpet events at Carmichael's side. "I'm from a really small town in Kentucky, so all this is awesome. A once-in-a-lifetime experience, for sure."

She adds that she doesn't mind being the inspiration for songs like "I Do for You," either. "He means every word he says and everything he says in that song. So I haven’t even really thought about it that way, honestly," she explains. "I’m just proud of him."

Now that the pair are officially engaged, Carmichael says, they're not in a rush to the altar. "We will be shooting for a one-to-two-year engagement," he tells People. "That will give us time to accomplish some of the goals we have before we get married. We're not in a hurry. We have made a commitment to each other and now we can just take our time."