Wedding bells are ringing for Canadian country singer andactress MacKenzie Porter and singer and actor Jake Etheridge! The star of sci-fi series Travelers and the up-and-coming singer/songwriter, who was a regular on Nashville during its final season, got engaged on May 30 and are set to be married a yearlater on May 30, 2020. Congrats to the happy couple!
Jake proposed to her at their home in Nashville after aromantic eight-course meal with wine tastings at a new Indian restaurant intheir neighbourhood, MacKenzie told HELLO! Canada. She said the way he got down on one knee was perfectin that it was private and intimate.
MacKenzie and Jake met in 2012 and have been dating since 2014. Photo: © MacKenzie Porter
“I told him from the beginning that if he proposed, I wantedit to be like, not in front of anybody, very simple,” she said. “When we walkedhome, he let me go into our house first and all the lights were off, there werecandles all over the floor, rose petals all over the floor, his favourite recordwas playing, he had champagne on ice, and there was this little circle ofcandles and roses, I guess. He kind of led me into the circle, and then gotdown on one knee and said all of the amazing things, and it was really perfect ‘causeit was in our home. It was exactly what I wanted.”
The couple met in 2012 when they came together to write asong. MacKenzie was dating someone else at the time, but when that relationshipended, she and Jake started hanging out regularly, and their friendship developedinto a romance. The sister of Canadian Idol winner Kalan Porter told HELLO! Canada her relationship with Jake has alsoweathered a lot of travel and long distance and stood the test of time. She filmedboth Travelers and Hell on Wheels while they were dating,while he toured Europe.
Here’s a look at the gorgeous engagement ring Jake gave MacKenzie! Photo: © MacKenzie Porter
“At the time that we started dating, I was living in Canadastill,” she said. “There’s been so many times that we haven’t been together and everybody alwayssays how hard long distance is, and it is hard, but for us it was always like,we knew there was no other option. It was either do it, or not be together, andwe knew we didn’t want to not be together.
“That’s always been a bit of a hardthing, but we’re both doing what we love and supporting each other.”
MacKenzie, who describes herself as “not a big frills person,”told HELLO! Canada she and Jake want to have their wedding in her hometown ofMedicine Hat, Alta., preferably in her parents’ backyard. It will be the firsttime their families meet each other, and she said she knows they’ll love eachother.
“I have a massive family – that’ll be the only thing that willbe big,” she said. “So I think probably, like, a hundred people. As small andas intimate as we can get it.”
As for honeymoon plans, MacKenzie said nothing is set instone yet, but said she’s floated Italy as a possibility, while Jake seems keenon Thailand.
“We’ll have to figure some place out,” she said. “Maybe we’lldo both. We’re still so new to being engaged that we haven’t really talkedabout that, but something a little bit wilder, like maybe Thailand, would becool.”