Howie's Backstreet Betrothal

08/16/2007 7:01 AM, E! Online


For one Backstreet Boy, love wasn't all he had to give. He also had a ring.

Howie Dorough has popped the question to his girlfriend of nearly six years, Leigh Boniello, with the duo planning on tying the knot later this year.

While the boy-bander has until now kept mum on the impending vow swap, the 33-year-old actually proposed to Boniello, also 33, in front of her family on New Year's Eve.

"She wasn't expecting it, and I was quite nervous—more nervous about proposing to her in front of 40 family and friends than about performing in front of 400,000 people onstage," he told People.

Dorough said he'd been "very careful" to keep quiet about the betrothal until now, but as the wedding date—which he will not divulge—is fast approaching, the time was right to share the happy news.

"We're very, very excited," he said.

Dorough, who says he went the traditional route in the run-up to the proposal, asking the permission of Boniello's mother, father and grandmother before getting down on bended knee, popped the question in a not-so-traditional way.

"He decided to pull a practical joke on me in front of my whole family," Boniello told People. "He acted like he forgot to give me one present for Christmas—it was in a large box."

Inside the box were three carrots, referring to an inside joke between the duo in which Dorough was always dangling the carrot of marriage in front of Boniello throughout their lengthy relationship.

"She was laughing and trying to tell everyone the joke and by the time she turned around I was down on one knee with the real carat," Dorough said.

The "I Want It That Way" crooner even had a hand in designing the engagement ring, a round brilliant-cut diamond surrounded by two smaller stones and set in platinum.

Boniello and Dorough first met in 2000, when the film exec turned real estate broker was hired to be the Webmaster for the Backstreet Boys' official site.

The couple plan on hosting 250 guests on their big day, which is being held at an undisclosed location. Among those 250, at least four will be very familiar faces.

"We've invited all the Backstreet Boys, including Kevin," Dorough told People, referring to former band mate Kevin Richardson, who opted out of the group's sixth studio album, Inconsolable, out Oct. 30. "Actually, Kevin was one of the first people I told about our engagement."

Dorough also said that once he and Boniello tie the knot—and the Backstreet promotional tour winds down—he can't wait to be a Backstreet boy or girl of his own.

"Hopefully I will be the next one to add to the family," he said.