Stories & Photos By Klein Aleardi

Today’s dating scene may look pretty bleak, but there’s still a little love in the air in South Jersey. And we can prove it. So grab your chocolates. Smell the roses. And tuck in for some South Jersey love stories.

Priscilla & Ken

At Paul VI High School, Ken was your quintessential popular football player (and homecoming king).

Priscilla was a theater nerd obsessed with musicals and track. 

But this isn’t a John Hughes film: the nerdy girl and the popular guy don’t end up together…yet. 

First, they went off to college. Years later, they reconnected and became friends when they each took a coaching job at Paul VI. 

But Priscilla was in a relationship. 

So they went on with their lives – Priscilla competed at the Olympics for Antigua and Barbados, and Ken took a different coaching job in Wildwood. 

“My boyfriend, Ken and I would all get drinks together, we were cordial,” Priscilla says. “Then Ken moved to Wildwood and he was like, ‘You guys can come down whenever and have a place to stay.’”

And when Priscilla and her boyfriend broke up in 2018, she decided to take Ken up on that offer and planned for a night of being single in Wildwood. She was ready to mingle, and Ken was “talking” to someone at the time anyway, so the thought of something happening between them never crossed her mind. 

Over in Wildwood, Ken expected Priscilla to arrive with her boyfriend. But she didn’t. 

“Priscilla walks in looking like Priscilla does,” Ken says. “She commands a room. And I asked her, ‘Where’s your boyfriend,’ and she told me they broke up. I was like, Priscilla’s single? Game on.” 

So they went to the local party-spot, and all night, Priscilla wondered why no guys were talking to her. 

Ken knew exactly why. “Every time a guy came up to me and asked if we were together, I said yes,” he says. “Every guy there, including a professional football player, was interested. But this was my one shot.” 

He took that shot, and it stuck. They officially started dating a few months later and moved in with each other three weeks after that. Then they got married the following year. They’ll celebrate 8 years together this November. 

“We were like, ‘We’re the last two weirdos,’” Priscilla says. “I know with every fiber of my being that he is my last weirdo.”

Jess & Von

Jess and Von grew up just a block and a half from each other, but it took traveling hundreds of miles for them to fall in love.

Yes, they met at the bike decorating contest for the Somerdale 4th of July parade when they were both in elementary school. And Von was friends with Jess’s older brother throughout high school. (They’re about two years apart.) 

For half of this power couple, it was a bit of love at first sight as Jess fell in love watching Von do the morning announcements each day. 

But for Von, Jess was younger and not exactly on his radar. Because, you know…freshmen. 

So Jess watched from afar, the two went to separate colleges and then Von left South Jersey with a plan to never move back.

But they followed each other on Instagram. So Jess saw Von come to life in his stories, posting everything from scenic bike rides to his faith and values. And she liked what she saw. 

As she got more and more frustrated with each pandemic-era Zoom date, Jess decided to shoot her shot with Von. She sent him a message asking if he wanted to go out the next time he was back in town, and he happened to be on his way back for a visit. 

One date turned into two, which turned into phone calls and pandemic-approved, creative dates like picnics at Cooper River Park and walks along the Camden Waterfront. 

Despite the long distance, Jess and Von knew they had found endgame almost immediately. As in, just four months later. 

“We were on our way to Atlantic City, and I said, ‘This is kind of it for me,’” Jess says. “And he said, ‘This is definitely it for me.’ And that started off the conversation of what the future looks like for us.” 

That included deciding whether Jess would move to NY or Von would move back 

to Jersey. And that’s how Von ended up back in his home state living with a cat even though he’s “not really a cat guy.” (That’s love.)

Two years later, they got engaged. A year after that, they bought a house in Merchantville and started renovations. The following year, they got married. And this past December, they celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary. 

Loretta & Sonny

For a few years in his 20s, Sonny had dreams about a woman. He couldn’t quite see who she was, he could only ever see a silhouette, but he was always trying to reach her, this literal girl of his dreams.     

Then he walked into Loretta’s Williamstown home. And after that day, the dreams stopped. 

“We didn’t see each other until we were about four feet away from each other,” Sonny says. “And then our eyes met and I was like, ‘Wow, this is the chick.’ And that was it.” 

Loretta’s side of the story wasn’t as peaceful.  

“I had no make-up on!” Loretta says. “My first thought was, ‘Oh my god, I meet this guy who could be the one and he’s seeing me at my worst, right out of bed, no makeup.” 

But spoiler alert, Sonny didn’t care. In fact, his first impression of her was that she was “really cute.” And Loretta thought the same thing. “Today I call him handsome, but back then, he was cute.” 

So when Sonny left the house, his partner – they were at the house to do some plumbing work – asked him, “So what you gonna do?”

The answer was easy. “I said, ‘I don’t know, but I got to get my act together, because this is what I’m looking for.”  

They started dating over the phone, and 42 years and seven kids later, they’re retired in that same house where they met. 

Dustin & Noah

Some love stories start with a dating app. Others start with Instagram stalking.

And some start with a little of both. 

Dustin and Noah initially met when they matched on pretty much every dating app you can name. But nothing more than a mutual Instagram follow ever came from the matches. 

For a few years, the two followed each other online and watched their lives unfold. And those matches were always in the back of their minds. 

But Dustin was the one to take the leap and asked Noah to go see Kung Fu Panda 4. “Who knew there were that many,” says Dustin. “I think it was my way of trying to sus out if he would be too serious. I was tired of dating people like that. And he was game.” 

Sometimes, sliding into DMs turns into something special. 

“I was just excited to hang out with him,” says Noah. “I would have watched a blank screen.” 

Kung Fu Panda 4 led to many dinners, which led to a tennis lesson (Dustin is a tennis pro), and now the two have been together for nearly two years. They live in Collingswood but spend most of their time at the tennis club where Dustin is a director and where Noah has become an avid player. 

And yes, they’re in love. 

“I knew the first time I met him,” Dustin says.

And for Noah? “Yeah, it was pretty instant.” 

Sam & Ben

With friends like these, who needs dating apps?

Sam and Ben were set up by a mutual friend…but that friend didn’t know he was setting them up. And neither did Sam and Ben. 

While they lived about three blocks from each other, the now- engaged couple naturally met in Canada. 

It was on a skiing trip planned by that mutual friend. They had both been on a few of these organized  trips before, but never the same trip, at the same time.

During one trip to Whistler, though, the two became travel buddies, which started a beautiful friendship with puzzles and snowboarding, a little bit of flirting and eventually deeper conversations. Plus, very similar tastes in music.  

But, of course, Sam was in a relationship. “I also didn’t think Ben was interested at all. I just got uninterested vibes.” 

He was, though. It just took some time – and a break-up, obviously – for him to show it. 

“I started sending her songs, which is a language of our own,” says Ben, who grew up in Cape May. “We talk to each other through music. Every other day, we’re sending each other songs.” 

A few months after the ski trip, Sam and Ben were spending tons of time together, and when Sam planned a trip to Maine for the 4th of July, Ben decided to take a chance and tag along. 

By the end of that weekend, Ben says, “We were like, ‘We’re dating.’”  

And while they took their time getting past the friend zone, they made up for lost time. 

At the end of last year, just six months after they officially started dating, the couple returned to Canada for another ski trip, and Ben popped the question. 

“He surprised me because I chose the place for us to stop to take a picture,” Sam says. “He set his phone up and started professing his love, and I kept interrupting. I didn’t know it was a monologue.” 

It was a bit chaotic. So much so that in addition to tackling Ben in a bear hug when she saw the ring (an heirloom from his grandmother), Sam actually never answered the question. Because Ben never actually asked. 

“She kept saying, ‘Are you serious’ and, ‘Are you sure,’” Ben says. “I did finally ask her, though, once we went to get champagne and celebrate, when I actually settled down from the nerves. And she said yes.”