They’ve got The X Factor – David Gray didn’t get the judges’ approval, but his girlfriend said yes on tonight’s episode of The X Factor

If you saw tonight’s episode of The X Factor, you might have fallen in love with David Gray and Lauren Waguespack.

Before Waguespack could get the judges’ responses after her performance tonight, Gray burst onto the stage, asking for her hand in marriage. The plan had been a long time coming for Gray.

Though Gray looks like an entertainer, he says can’t sing at all. He went through the entire audition process with Waguespack, the singer of the duo, to prove his love.

The Baton Rouge couple met last December after Waguespack graduated from Northwestern State University.

“The day she got home, she met me,” Gray says. “I was at a point in my life where I was 30 years old. I had a great job, everything in my life I needed. It was the fairy tale. I was just missing the girl, and here she walks in.”

Waguespack was crowned Miss Northwestern State in 2012.

Though Waguespack initially planned to save money and eventually prepare for Broadway-type roles, the couple hit it off instantly, putting those plans on hold.

Their families, who both share a love of taking RV trips across the country, hit it off, too. During a visit to New Orleans for the French Quarter Festival, Waguespack’s mother mentioned that tryouts for The X Factor were being held the same weekend.

“Lauren’s like, ‘I don’t care, I’m moving towards a family,'” he says. “She says she doesn’t want to do the whole singing thing anymore. I said to her, ‘Lauren, you’ve got to go. Why not? You’re down there. It’d be fun. What’s the worst that could happen? They tell you ‘no’?'”

Waguespack still wasn’t convinced; so Gray used his charm and made a deal—he would go and compete with her every step of the way.

The first audition was at Lakefront Arena with 10,000 other hopefuls. Gray says they were herded like cattle across 21 booths on the floor. They had no clue what was going on.

“People are singing and everyone’s nervous,” he says. “Finally, here comes our turn, and Lauren wanted me to go first. I walk in, and two producers are sitting there, staring me down. I think they like my look. They ask me my name. I said, ‘Lemme stop y’all before y’all do anything. I can’t sing. I’m here for my girlfriend.'”

Baffled, the producers asked Gray to bring in Waguespack, and the couple told their story. After the back and forth, the producers were interested, but the duo still had to sing.

Gray sang Usher’s “Nice & Slow.” Waguespack did an off-the-cuff rendition of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” before singing Marc Broussard’s “If You Knew Who You Are.”

They were told they would compete further, but they had three more auditions.

The next audition, Gray “went to security and finagled a way to keep” the couple together, and they made it through.

“It was easier than the first time,” Waguespack says.

After a shoot, capturing how the couple was side-by-side during the process, Gray and Waguespack had to wait two months before they would know if they’d make it to the next audition.

Though Gray had been planning to ask Waguespack to marry him while they took a trip to Disneyworld in 2014, he knew that Lauren would compete in the next round of the show.

“I knew she was going to go, and my chances were slim to none, and slim just left,” he says. “But if we both got picked, I told myself I was going to do the proposal on national TV.”

On Gray’s birthday, they got a call back. The couple was in, and they would both perform in front of a live crowd and celebrity judges Simon Cowell, Kelly Rowland, Paulina Rubio and Demi Lovato. Gray was already figuring out the scenarios.

“You had to show up and hope for the best, but this is the one moment in my life that I’ll remember forever, and I don’t want to get this screwed up in front of the world,” he says. “I had to keep it from my family. The producers helped me a little, but it was all on me.”

During his performance, the crowd went crazy for Gray’s looks, and he mentioned why he was competing, but his performance failed to impress the judges. When Waguespack came on, the crowd erupted again, remembering Gray’s mention.

“She didn’t have a great audition,” Gray says. “She was super-nervous. But before the audience and judges could react, I busted out on stage, and told her, ‘I don’t care what the world thinks. I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the audience thinks. The only thing that matters is me and you and proposing on national TV is just a little bit of what I’ll do to spend the rest of my life with you.’ Got on one knee, proposed to her, and she was shocked.”

Waguespack said yes, and there was a minute-long standing ovation. The judges voted that Waguespack and Gray should go home and plan the wedding. It was completely all right with the couple.

“I got four ‘no’ [votes] on my competition, but I got one ‘yes,’ and that’s all I came for,” Gray says.