Man Buys News Ad to Propose Marriage
Monday, January 14th, 2008In an upper East Side restaurant sat Jason Lederman, 23, who took out an ad in the Sundays Daily News asking Matti Lieberman, 22, of Midwood, Brooklyn. “Matti, will you marry me?”.
Matti’s hand shot up over her mouth as a waiter handed her a copy of the NY Daily News, and surprise - to a stunned nod: “Yes.”
Jason slipped the diamonds marquis-set, white gold engagement ring onto her finger and a diamond bracelet - a traditional gift in Orthodox Jewish wedding proposals - onto her arm.
In an effort to keep her from seeing the ad until he was ready to pop the question, Lederman’s one-eighth-page ad ran only in yesterday’s Manhattan editions.
“Anticipation is key,” he said of his coup.
To do that, Lederman hired two actors and got them to approach the couple as they walked into a mandolin concert on E. 70th St.
“Are you the guy from the newspaper?” one of the actors asked Lederman, who, feigning ignorance, responded, “I don’t know what you mean.”
That left Lieberman, twisting her program all during the concert.
“Did he get arrested and not tell me?” Lieberman said she wondered as the music swelled, until the waiter in the upper East Side restaurant handed her the copy of the Daily News.
The only clue that Lederman was going to propose, Lieberman said, was that her mom - whom Lederman had told a week ago - suddenly became very interested in her vacation time.
“My mother was following me around with a calendar,” said Lieberman, a career counselor at Magen David Yeshiva High School in Bensonhurst.