"This is it," country music star Scotty McCreery tweeted Saturday morning.
The 24-year-old American Idol Season 10 winner married his high school sweetheart and girlfriend of six years, Garner native Gabi Dugal on Saturday in front of 200 friends and family in the North Carolina mountains, according to multiple reports.
Last September, McCreery popped the question during a hike on a trail near Grandfather Mountain. He got down on one knee with the Blue Ridge Mountains for a backdrop and proposed with a ring he helped design, The News & Observer reported.
“I’ve been planning this moment for so long that it feels surreal for it to have finally happened,” the singer said in a news release at the time of his proposal. “Gabi is the perfect girl and my true love, and I cannot wait to begin building our life together as husband and wife.”
McCreery's song "This Is It" from his album, "Seasons Change" is about the couple's engagement.
Dugal, 24, is a graduate of the University of North Carolina and works as a pediatric cardiac nurse at Duke University Hospital. She must not mind too much that McCreery is an avid N.C. State Wolfpack fan.
“We’ve been dating six years and have known each other our whole lives. That kind of story doesn’t happen too often nowadays,” McCreery told People Magazine before the wedding. "I support her dreams and she supports mine."
The couple exchanged personal wedding vows. She wore a v-neck Morilee gown with lace accents, he wore a classic black tuxedo. Their first dance was to Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love," People reported, and guests were served Cajun food, steak, pasta and pie instead of wedding cake.
Dugal described their wedding venue as like "a little castle in the woods," which McCreery called "Very 'Beauty and the Beast,'" People reported.
The couple met in kindergarten in Garner, where Dugal reportedly wrote "Mrs. Gabi McCreery" on her heart-decorated diary, The News & Observer previously reported. Dugal and McCreery started dating six years ago during their senior year at Garner High School.
One of McCreery's music videos — "The Trouble With Girls" — is shot at the couple's high school, and features Dugal. His "Feelin' It" video was filmed in the North Carolina Outer Banks and also featured Dugal.
In his 2016 book “Go Big or Go Home,” McCreery wrote of his own “trouble” with Dugal when, after weeks of talking and texting, he remained unclear whether they were, in fact, dating.
“The trouble with girls is they’re always two steps ahead of us guys. ... The trouble with boys is they’re a bit clueless,” he wrote.
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