New Jersey’s craziest marriage proposals, including a mootz ball

As Bruce Springsteen said, some guys they just give up living and start dying little by little, piece by piece. Some guys come home from work and wash up and go racin' in the street.

Then some guys propose to their girlfriends by hiding engagement rings in mozzarella balls.

Bruce didn’t write that last one. You could say John Russo did.

He wanted a memorable way to propose to Hannah Jang and he found it. It was multi-cultural, totally unexpected, and cheesy as hell.

John approached Vinnie Morelli, the genius behind Vinnie’s Mootz in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Vinnie’s Mootz is described as a pizzeria-deli-Italian restaurant. John Russo described his situation to Vinnie, who assured him yes, he could figure out a way to hide a ring in a mootz ball, absolutely.

When the time came though in his nervousness he tried putting the ring on the wrong hand before catching himself. Also, at first, he stumbled on the intentionally cheesy lines he had written ahead of time.

“I don’t mean to be cheesy, but I love you very Mootz," Russo laughed. "You mean so Mootz to me!"

He got there. She said yes. The wedding will be held soon. The story will be told by grandkids a hundred years from now, I'm guessing.

Congrats to the cheesiest couple ever!

This is far from the first or last unusual marriage proposal with New Jersey roots.

Remember the Jersey guy who proposed to his girlfriend last year after installing a huge inflatable dragon on top the Empire State Building? James Marksbury is a technician who does this sort of high-altitude work. The dragon was a promotion for the HBO series “House of the Dragon.”

He coordinated the job with bringing his girlfriend high atop the famous building to propose marriage on the ledge.

She said yes.

Back in 2011, a guy used the Hoboken Film Festival to pop the question to his sweetheart. Frankie Amaya secretly recorded a six-minute short, a movie that included a marriage proposal to then-girlfriend Meagan Gutierrez. She was shocked to suddenly see him on the screen and completely floored when the plot concluded with a proposal.

She also said yes.

Speaking of movies, here’s one that could have gone better.

Five and a half years ago, a marriage proposal caused a scary stampede for the exits at a movie theater in Howell, New Jersey. Moviegoers heard what they were certain were gunshots. A panic ensued. Cops were called. Turns out it was a guy at a nearby business setting off fireworks to help a friend propose marriage.

If she said yes, it was probably drowned out by all the 911 calls

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

Report a correction 👈