February  4 , 2011 (Los Angeles, CA) - Nick Lachey chatted with his "lifelong crush" and ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT's own Nancy O'Dell about how he popped the question to his longtime love Vanessa Minnillo, calling it his "best romantic effort."

"You gotta take it in stages. If you set the bar too high than you set yourself up for failure," Nick told Nancy of proposing to Vanessa late last year. ET caught up with the singer-turned-actor while he and his gal were guest starring on CBS' "Hawaii Five-O." "This was a carefully calculated plan," he continued on about the proposal. "You have to set the romance but you have to take it in phases. This was phase one."

Vanessa revealed that her hubby-to-be got down on both knees to ask her to marry him, a pose Nick referred to jokingly as the "full begging position."

However, this excited bride still has some wedding planning to do. Vanessa admitted to ET, "Gosh, I gotta get started on that. ... So much to do!"

Coincidentally, Nick and Vanessa play an engaged couple on "Hawaii Five-O," airing Feb. 14 on CBS. 

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