‘The Voice’ Alum Emily Ann Roberts Announces Engagement: ‘I Get to Marry My Best Friend’

The Voice alum Emily Ann Roberts is getting married! The Season 9 finalist announced her engagement to her longtime boyfriend, Chris Sasser. on social media, along with a few photos of the couple after the proposal.

“I GET TO MARRY MY BEST FRIEND,” Roberts posted alongside the pictures. “I’m so thankful that the Lord brought Chris into my life at just the perfect time and for all the love and support he’s given me every single day for the past 4 and a half years.. Here’s to having forever!!”

Roberts had no idea when Sasser invited her to go hiking that she would return with a diamond ring.

“My boyfriend and I had plans to go on a hike in Asheville, North Carolina,” Roberts told PEOPLE. “I was barely wearing any mascara, I didn’t have my nails done and I was just wearing workout clothes, but we were just supposed to be going on a hike.”

It wasn’t until an Eric Church song came on that the 21-year-old realized something might be happening that day.

“As we were driving, [Sasser] was being extra sentimental,” Roberts recounted. “We were listening to the radio and Eric Church’s song ‘Like Jesus Does’ came on and he started crying a little bit and told me that the song reminded him of me. The whole thing got me wondering, but he had always said he wouldn’t ask me to marry him on my birthday or a holiday, so I didn’t know.”

Roberts life has been a whirlwind since her time on The Voice, but Sasser has remained her calm and steady voice of reason through it all. She just released “God Must Have Told You To,” from her latest Someday Dream EP, which she didn’t write, although it reminded her of Sasser the first time she heard it.

“This is actually the only song on my EP that I’m not a writer on,” Roberts told PopCulture.com. “I heard it a couple years back, and it just stopped me in my tracks, because I am in such a precious relationship. I have a really sweet boyfriend, and he’s been with me since before The Voice and all throughout that process, and then this whole crazy journey since The Voice.

“Just the way that he goes with the flow, and just has adapted to this new normal that we both live now, it’s like God must have told him to. Seriously,” she continued. “And there’s so many things he does, and things he says that really is just what I’ve always prayed for. So, when I heard the song, I felt like it was written for me and for our relationship, and so I knew I had to record it.”

Roberts came in second on The Voice in 2015, on Blake Shelton‘s team. Purchase Someday Dream by visiting her website.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Evolution PR / Summer Simmons Photography