Dane Cook is newly engaged!
The Good Luck Chuck actor/comedian proposed to his singer/fitness instructor girlfriend Kelsi Taylor after five years of dating, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. Cook popped the question to Taylor on Wednesday, July 13.
“I was so ready to ask her. I was completely zen about it,” Cook, 50, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “The evening of the proposal was incredibly beautiful, the weather was perfect, sunset was spectacular, and I was just quite simply very happy.”
He adds of the moment, “I was asking my best friend, the woman who I’ve shared some of the greatest times of my life with, to marry me so we can start the next chapter our of lives together. I was also thinking of how absolutely stunning she looked.”
Meanwhile, Taylor, 23, says she couldn’t believe it was happening: “The second he began to reach for his back pocket, my stomach flipped. I couldn’t have asked for the moment to have been more perfect. All that was going through my brain was, ‘Wait, is this actually happening right now? Is he proposing?’ “
“I was also just really focused on what he was saying to me because I was trying desperately to etch the words into my brain,” she continues. “They were so beautiful, I really wanted to soak it in.”
Cook says it was the “best feeling ever,” and, afterward, “We sat together on the deck, shared laughs, held hands and watched that giant moon sparkle across the ocean.”
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Courtney Cook
Cook says he’d been planning the proposal for months and decided to do it on a trip to York Beach, Maine, which holds a “special place in our hearts.”
“When we started dating, we went there on our first trip together so to return five years later was meaningful to us,” he says. “It’s a place I spent much time in growing up so I have such fond memories there. After my mother passed away, she asked me and my siblings to release her at her favorite spot, the breathtaking location, at the tip of Cape Neddick Point, Nubble Lighthouse, where our vacation cottage is located. It felt like the right place.”
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Courtney Cook
Adds Taylor, “The fact that he had been planning this for months, designed the ring and coordinated everything so seamlessly without me knowing was just blowing my mind. It was such a pinch-me moment.”
“I hugged my mom and couldn’t wait to FaceTime the rest of my family and share the news. My family loves him so much so they were beyond excited for us,” she adds.
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Courtney Cook
Cook shares that he and his new fiancée have made “a ton of plans” and “set a lot of goals” for their future together.
“We just want to continue to inspire each other, to build a family together, stay mindful and encouraging always, and to keep laughing through it all,” he says.
“I’m about to spend the rest of my life with my favorite person and my best friend — what is there to not look forward to?” adds Taylor. “Family has always been such an important part of my life and the idea of expanding it and starting our own family together with the man of my dreams just fills my heart.”
