Why Didn't Faith Hill Accept Tim McGraw's First Marriage Proposal?

Country music stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are celebrating 25 years of marriage, taking to social media to share the sweet story behind their engagement. The country duo first met back in 1996 and wed just months later. Since then, the celebrity couple has welcomed three children: Gracie, Maggie, and Audrey.

"I'm getting ready to go on stage, and I had this sort of case that had this big mirror in it," said McGraw in a Twitter video, thinking back on his engagement to Hill, just moments before a big concert. "She's standing there, and we're talking, and I said, 'Look, let's get married.' And she says, 'You're asking me to marry you at a country music festival in a trailer house.' And I said, 'Well, it's pretty apropos if you think about it.' She goes, 'Are you serious?' And I said, 'Well yeah, I'm serious.'"

Unfortunately for McGraw, the singer had to jump on stage for his set before he could find out whether Hill agreed to be his wife. "I came off the stage and went back into my dressing room, and Faith wasn't there, but I looked at the mirror. In lipstick, it said, 'Yes! I'm gonna be your wife.'"

Although the sweet memory lives on in the McGraw-Hill household (the couple even kept the mirror!), the "Just to See You Smile" singer also revealed that the music festival engagement wasn't the first time he proposed ... it was just the first time Hill said yes.

Looking back to 1996, fans may remember Faith Hill was engaged to record producer Scott Hendricks before meeting her now-husband, Tim McGraw. In fact, Hill met McGraw while she was still engaged but revealed to People in 1998 that she had no regrets leaving one relationship for the other. "If someone is going to judge my character because I was engaged to somebody and then I left him for somebody else — 'Oh, okay, now she's a slut and a bad person' — I can't control that. But I wasn't about to let Tim slip through my hands," Hill told the magazine. And McGraw wasn't about to let Hill slip out of his hands, either.

In a Twitter video celebrating his 25th wedding anniversary to Hill, McGraw revealed he asked her "quite a few times" to marry him, and "she kept saying no. She said, 'I'm not going to get involved with another country singer, it's just not going to work out.'" Twenty-five years later, McGraw remembered the moment Hill did say "yes" as "best day of [his] life."

To keep their marriage fresh, Hill and McGraw told People in 2018 that as they "get older it's less about the big gestures and more about just spending the time together at home." The two also opened up about their tradition while touring, with Hill telling People, "Tim and I share a quick quiet moment together before hitting the stage ... always praying."