‘Dancing With the Stars’ Couple Jordan Fisher and Ellie Woods Are Engaged

Dancing with the Stars‘ Jordan Fisher and Ellie Woods are going to be dancing their way to the altar.

The couple, who had met when Fisher, host of Dancing with the Stars: Juniors and Season 25 winner of DWTS, was just 13 and had grown up being “best friends,” announced in a statement to PEOPLE that they have become engaged!

“When I talk to somebody about love and being in love, it’s less the matter of envisioning your life with that person but trying to envision your life without that person,” Fisher, 25, told the outlet. “When I realized very early on that I couldn’t picture my life without Ellie, I was like ‘I gotta do something about that!’”

Fisher did just that when, last week, he dropped to one knee cradling a custom 2.75-carat, pear-shaped solitaire diamond ring in his hand and popped the question at Woods’ parents’ beach house in their hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.

“I’m an emotional person, so I was sobbing as well,” Fisher recalled.

“It was the biggest surprise of my life!” Woods, 20, added of the moment. “I’m a very hard person to surprise so the fact that he pulled it off, kudos to you, babe.”

After asking the question and Woods saying “yes,” their best friend Nicholas “popped out of the woods” and began singing their favorite song, “Best Part” by Daniel Caesar. The couple then joined family and friends to celebrate the new step in their relationship.

“Being able to have my folks there, her folks and her brother and his girlfriend…we all go way back,” Fisher said. “It’s so, so special.”

As for what lies ahead following their engagement, the couple said that they plan to have a year-long engagement as it not only allows Woods time to graduate from the University of Alabama this summer, but it also gives them enough time to “plan a wedding without it being super stressful” — though they are already thinking about expanding their family with little ones.

“His goal in life is to have a family. I’m not an actress or in the entertainment industry in any way, so it was really important for me to find a husband that was grounded and had goals that were the same as mine,” Woods said. “For us to both agree that family was the most important thing that we get out of life was a big sign for me.”