Over four years after going Instagram official in May 2020, Olympic gold medalist Shaun White and actress Nina Dobrev are engaged. White and Dobrev announced the news on Instagram less than twenty-four hours ago. However, Vogue reported that the champion snowboard surprised the Vampire Diaries star during a “mundane week in late October.”

While Dobrev suspected her ‘boyfriend’ to make a move, she thought it would take some time. So when White went down on one knee and pulled out a 5-carat diamond ring, the actress was over the moon. Besides their friends and relatives, Dobrev’s dog Maverick, the most special member of her family, expressed its jubilation without even uttering a word.

Maverick, whom the 35-year-old actress adopted in 2017, has been like a child to her. In fact, even Shaun White has grown to adore his fiancée’s dog, making Maverick an essential part of the engagement plan. After announcing the engagement on social media, Dobrev shared multiple Instagram stories, including a snapshot of her beloved dog.

The Canadian actress uploaded an Instagram story that showed Maverick wearing a unique scarf for the special occasion. “My parents are getting married,” read the writing on the scarf that Maverick wore. Interestingly, Nina Dobrev’s beloved dog also has a connection with the celebration of love. On February 15, 2018, Dobrev revealed Maverick’s birthday was on Valentine’s Day.

“Happy Birthday to my little Valentine. It’s so fitting that I find a love puppy, born on Feb. 14th (let’s be real, she’s a rescue. I have no idea when she was born. But the shelter said she was 10 weeks old when I got her, which would have been around the second week of February, so I obviously chose FEBRUARY 14TH… duh),” Shaun White’s fiancée wrote on Instagram.

This little detail only made Maverick’s inclusion even more crucial for Shaun White. The 38-year-old needed all the luck he could get on his side, as he devised an elaborate proposal plan.

How Shaun White left Nina Dobrev speechless

“She’s an extremely organized person who is rarely surprised, but she loves being surprised,” the three-time Olympic gold medalist told Vogue. So White had to plan accordingly. The snowboarding icon booked The Golden Swan in New York and fixed the date. He even arranged for the engagement ring, days ahead of the planned proposal.

In fact, Shaun White regularly changed the hiding spot for the ring inside their home. However, Nina Dobrev’s choice to stay home and rest before their planned trip to Africa threw a wrench in his plans. So, the former skateboarder decided to seize an ordinary moment for the proposal. Since the couple often gets invitations to public events, he faked one to entice Dobrev out of their home. The former athlete told his publicist to mail Dobrev an invitation to a fake “CFDA/Vogue dinner with Anna Wintour.”

However, when Dobrev arrived at The Golden Swan, she was greeted with flowers and candles and none other than Shaun White, appropriately suited up for the occasion. “I just froze and stared at him.” the actress later told the real Vogue in an exclusive interview. To say the plan was an elaborate one may be an understatement. So it’s no wonder even Maverick honored the occasion with a special scarf.