Ashlee and Pete Fall into Engagement

Looks like Ashlee Simpson can finally rest her head on something real. The pop star and her alt-beau Pete Wentz are engaged, according to a statement posted Wednesday by the couple on the networking site FriendsorEnemies.com. "We know there has been a lot of speculation recently about Pete and I and we wanted our fans to be the first to know, because you guys are the best. Yes, we are thrilled to share that we are happily engaged," Simpson wrote. "Thank you for all of your support and well wishes—it means the world to us. We consider this to be a very private matter, and we wanted to be the first to tell you and to hear it straight from us."A source close to the couple tells E! News that Wentz asked the Simpson family patriarch Joe for his permission at one point over the last two weeks."He doesn't look like it, but Pete is a very traditional guy, and he knows Joe is too," the source said. "He never would have asked her without Joe's permission." Joe likes Wentz because "he is not Nick Lachey," the insider added. "Pete is the furthest thing from a macho man, and Joe likes that.""It just means that he hasn't asked my dad yet," Simpson hinted in February when asked about the "promise ring" she was sporting while taping an interview for Fuse TV's The Sauce. (For the record, she also denied the ever-ready pregnancy rumor.) Simpson and the Fall Out Boy bassist have been dating since late 2006, although both initially denied rumors of a burgeoning romance. But by mid-2007, the starry-eyed duo were all about the relationship dish, with Wentz telling In Touch, "I have never met somebody who makes me feel the way she makes me feel."  The couple have dealt with plenty of other types of rumors since, however, including the months-old buzz that Wentz's band was tired of his association with Simpson because of her less-stellar musical pedigree—vicious gossip his mates vehemently denied. Simpson is "nothing short of awesome," guitarist Joe Trohman wrote on his Friends or Enemies blog in December. But although the connection is obviously there, Wentz wouldn't venture so far as to guess what his fiancée might want to wear on the big day. “I would not even try to step in and design Ashlee’s wedding dress,” Wentz told E! Online Senior Editor Marc Malkin on Wednesday—shortly before announcing the big news—while discussing plans for his new clothing line, Clandestine. “I don’t think she would want that—thank God. Anyone who would want a wedding dress designed by me, I would not want to marry them.” So, Vera Wang it is, then.