Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys is engaged

Remember when he told you he’d never break your heart? Well, Nick Carter, the youngest of the Backstreet Boys, is engaged, he announced Friday.

“Big question...great answer,” the 33-year-old wrote with an Instagram picture showing himself with fiancée Lauren Kitt, 29.

But the proposal was hardly as simple as that post, he told People. First, the ring burned a hole in his pocket for nearly two weeks before he popped the question. Then he had to exert some elbow grease to pull off his romantic inspiration: a boat trip to a secluded island he knew from when he was young. But he hadn’t used his boat in about six years — two years longer than he’d been dating Kitt.

“It took me five days literally on my hands and knees, scraping up my body [to fix it],” Carter told the mag. The couple, some friends and Kitt’s father were eventually transported out to the island.

After proposing and hearing a “yes,” a shocked Carter had to be prompted by his bride-to-be to stick the sparkler on her finger.

“I wasn’t expecting it. It just felt very surreal,” said a very happy Kitt. Now they just have to work around the Backstreet Boys’ touring schedule to set a wedding date, which is in itself sort of surreal.

Oh, also: One reason the ring might have been burning that hole? That puppy is a full seven carats, according to People. Good thing that Kitt is a fitness specialist as well as an actress. That’s some heavy lifting.

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PHOTOS: Celebrity portraits by The Times