Saturday’s Morristown Jazz & Blues Festival had many highlights, with five superb acts and weather to match.
But a pair of spectators stole the show.
Hundreds on the Morristown Green cheered when Luis Reyes popped the question to Olivia Maxwell after Frank Vignola’s Guitar Night at Birdland Band concluded its set.
Video: A Jazzy Proposal at the Morristown Jazz & Blues Fest:
“You are perfect for me, and I love you with everything that I am,” Reyes said into a microphone, in front of the stage. Maxwell’s son Quincy delivered the ring. (“Let’s give her son a round of applause!” Reyes said, giving his best impersonation of a game show host.)
When he dropped to one knee and asked Maxwell to marry him, she needed no time to think it over.
“Absolutely, yes!” she exclaimed.
The couple work in the administration at Middlesex Community College. Reyes, of North Brunswick, said he has known Reyes, a Morristown native, for 17 years but they only started dating within the last two.
“We grew to be friends over a long time,” explained Reyes, who carefully planned Saturday’s secret mission. He catered a festival picnic for a party of seven that included grandparents.
Reyes slipped away from the group to take his place near the stage. On cue, Festival Producer Don Jay Smith beckoned to Maxwell over the massive sound system.
Looking surprised, she left behind the charcuterie and rosé and made her way through the crowd.
The couple kissed enthusiastically to close the deal, and Mayor Tim Dougherty, the Festival’s founder, joined them to pose for the paparazzi.
It probably was the most-witnessed proposal on the historic Green since New Year’s Eve 2014, when Michael Schmidt, then chairman of First Night Morris County, asked for the hand of his former Morristown High School classmate, Kacie Welsh.
Coincidentally, the Schmidts happened to attend Saturday’s Festival–with their children, Palmer, 5; Ellery, 3; and Alden, 1.
The Festival presented James Langton’s New York All-Star Big Band, Canadian singer/trumpeter Bria Skonberg, teen blues sensation Veronica Lewis and headliner Walter Trout in addition to Vignola’s ensemble.
We’ll be posting more about their performances, with photos and video. In the meantime, you can find videos that we livestreamed on our Facebook page.
MORE COVERAGE OF THE 2022 MORRISTOWN JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL
Congrats!!! MHS Class of 1994 still stealing the spotlight!