Love story: Nova Scotia couple gets engaged at Taylor Swift’s Toronto show

It’s a love story and baby, she just said “yes."

A Nova Scotia couple fulfilled their wildest dreams Thursday night when they got engaged at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Toronto.

Taylor Evans – yes, his name is Taylor – got down on his knee and popped the big question to girlfriend Nicole McPhee during the superstar’s romantic ballad “Lover.”

“That’s our song since we started dating,” explained McPhee during an interview from their hotel room in Toronto on Friday.

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The superfans from Sydney, N.S., started dating at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. With many traditional dating spots closed, they spent many of their first dates driving around listening to their favourite singer.

“Nicole didn’t believe me that I actually like Taylor Swift until she started putting songs on and I knew every lyric,” said Evans. “We’re both Swifties.”

“He might be a bigger fan than I am!” joked McPhee.

When Swift announced she would be taking her international Eras Tour to Canada, they knew they had to try and get tickets.

Evans also knew all too well that would be the perfect time to propose -- and McPhee was ready for it.

“It’s kind of just like the perfect circle,” he said. “We started dating listening to Taylor Swift, we always kind of joked around if we’d see Taylor Swift it would kind of be the perfect time to propose, so everything just kinda … lined up, so to speak.”

“I had like a little bit of a feeling it might be coming,” admitted McPhee. “We’d talked about it, we’d gone ring shopping long ago, so I was kind of thinking maybe. But I was very surprised when he did it at ‘Lover’ and not ‘Love Story’ because that’s the one that everybody else does. So, there was still that nice big surprise.”

Taylor Swift performs during the opening show of the Toronto dates for The Eras Tour on Thursday, November 14, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young)

McPhee says the crowd of Swifties around them went wild when they realized what was happening.

“There was lots of screams, there was lots of tears, everybody started giving us bracelets,” she said.

While the concert proposal was the icing on the cake, the couple has been enjoying the Swift-themed events since they arrived in Toronto on Tuesday. They say it all feels like “one big party.”

“Our hotel lobby has been playing Taylor Swift music non-stop the entire time, so everyone’s down in the lobby dancing, having a great time, trading friendship bracelets,” said Evans, who will also be celebrating his 32^nd birthday before they leave on Sunday.

As for the concert itself, they say they’ve never experienced anything like it.

“Amazing. I can’t even describe the energy that was in there,” said McPhee.

“You could feel the stadium move under you feet,” said Evans of the Rogers Centre, which hosted almost 50,000 fans for the first Toronto show Thursday night. “It was crazy.”

The couple, who welcomed a baby girl in March, doesn’t have any concrete wedding plans yet. But Evans does know what song they will be dancing to at their reception.

“Lover’s going to be our first dance song, absolutely.”

For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page.