Say "Yeah Buddy" to Jersey Shore Star Pauly D, Nikki Hall's Love Story

Jersey Shore’s Pauly D Gets Engaged to Nikki Hall During His DJ Set in Las VegasIt’s almost T-shirt, er, wedding time for Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio. The Jersey Shore star, who is now engaged to his longtime love Nikki Hall, proposed during his DJ set at the OMNIA Dayclub & Skybar in Las Vegas Sept. 27. And while he caught Nikki by surprise, she said yes faster than you could shout, "Cabs are here!" "We’ve spent these years choosing each other, growing together, building a life we love, and never rushing a chapter just because the world was ready to read it," the influencer wrote on her Instagram Sept. 28. "No pressure. No timeline. Just ours—and God’s. & as always, His timing was perfect. The easiest YES I’ve ever said @djpaulyd." And you better believe Pauly D’s castmates were ready to stalk his whole life on the boardwalk—or rather all the photos and videos from the proposal on Instagram. Under a clip of their costar popping the question, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi dropped clapping emojis while Jenni "JWoww" Farley left a series of hearts. Meanwhile, Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola posted tearing up emojis, and Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino commented, “Congratulations.” As for Pauly D’s BFF Vinny Guadagnino, he joked he was having a harder time with this evolution of their bromance. Posting a video of himself standing out in the rain as Pauly D and Nikki celebrated inside with “Dancing on My Own” playing in the background, he teased, “I’m not ok. Congratulations @djpaulyd and @nikkisaintclaire.”But actually, Vinny played a key role in Pauly D and Nikki’s love story. Back in 2019, the two pals searched for love on the dating series Double Shot at Love with DJ Pauly D & Vinny. It was there that they met contestant Nikki, and sparks flew between her and Pauly D. "There’s such a connection there," he said during an episode, "and it’s both physical and mental." While there was drama in the house with the other women, Nikki ended up being one of Pauly D’s final two. "I really do believe that, when we met, my heart legit whispered to me, 'That’s him,'" she said during the finale. "I really do love you, and this just wouldn’t make sense going forward without you." After Pauly D sent fellow finalist Derynn Paige home, it looked like he was choosing Nikki. But in a shocking turn of events, he said goodbye to her too and chose to leave the show single. "It’s just that she fell in love so quickly. I feel like it’s too much and too soon," the DJ noted. "I’m afraid of this love. I’m afraid it’s the wrong love."Photo by Manny Carabel/Getty Images for MTVHowever, Pauly D and Nikki got another shot at love when she returned for season two, Vegas Ex-Scape, the following year. And after a series of ups and downs—including a declaration of love after a night at the club—the pair decided not to rush their romance. "I do feel like I have to move at Pauly’s pace because he’s the one that has issues with acknowledging what this is. I already know what it is," Nikki said in a 2020 episode. "Love is patience, loves takes time. I’m OK with us taking it slow because at the end of the day, I know love is worth it." At the reunion, the two confirmed they were still dating and had moved in together. "We gave it a real shot," Nikki shared. "We’re in a healthy bubble. We’re happy. We’ve been getting along great."Instagram / Nikki HallOver the years, they continued to grow their relationship—with fans getting peeks into their romance on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. And speaking of family, Pauly confirmed in 2023 that Nikki had met his 13-year-old daughter Amabella from a previous relationship. "Big milestone," the 46-year-old told People at the time. "Yeah and they love each other, so I'm happy." And Nikki had expressed her hope to take more big steps, including tying the knot and growing their family one day. "I would love us to get there, but we haven’t even had an actual conversation about getting married,” she said on an August episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. "If he’s my person, I’m fine waiting. It’s the time clock thing. I want to have at least one kid." Noting she “would love to be related to Bella” and that she calls her "my own," Nikki explained she just wanted to make it official with Pauly D. "I just want to be his person. I want to change my last name and that’s it," she continued before joking, "and like a five-six carat ring." And just like his gelled hair, Pauly D isn’t going anywhere. As he and Nikki celebrate their engagement, fist pump your way through these Jersey Shore secrets.Gregg DeGuire/MTV/FilmMagic1. The show was originally set to air on VH1 and was more of a competition series, titled America's Biggest Guido and only featured male guidos. The only JS cast member who was part of that initial pilot was Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.2. When the concept changed, with producers realizing they needed women as well because they "fight," per casting director Doron Ofir, The Situation was their first housemate. He made quite the impression during his casting interview, too. As creator SallyAnn Salsano recalled to Vulture in 2019, The Situation was like, "'Okay, let me just take my shirt off first.'""I was like, 'What?'" Salsano added. "I have never in my life met someone that felt more comfortable upon not knowing you. He's like, 'Enough said, right?'"3. Working as a bartender on Long Island, Jenni "JWoww" Farley actually auditioned for another VH1 reality show: Paris Hilton's My New BFF. But a few weeks later, she got a call about a little show about guidos instead. E!4. For Paul "Pauly D" DelVecchio, who was working as a DJ in Rhode Island, he was contacted via MySpace (that's 2009 for ya.) But what sold the casting directors was a certain amenity he had in his home when they filmed a day-in-the-life package as a trial. "What put Pauly D at the instant top of the list was that he owned his own tanning booth at his own house," Ofir told Vulture. "A tanning booth is like $10,000. Who's saving up coins and then buying a tanning booth?"5. Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, who already developed a taste for reality TV stardom when she appeared on MTV's Is She Really Going Out With Him? with an ex, showed up "drunk" for her audition after seeing a casting call on Facebook. "Nicole showed up in a miniskirt and she literally did cartwheels and flips," Ofir remembered. "She was extraordinary. Her application was smudged with fingerprints from her bronzer to the point that I was like, 'What happened to her application? What spilled on it?'"Jason Merritt/Getty Images6. While she's known by her infamous nickname Snooki, the pint-size reality star didn't actually go by that nickname, she just listed it on the application. As she admitted to Vulture, "Then I was like, "Oh, s--t. Now that it's stuck, I wish I'd put something else."7. Before the show moved from VH1 to MTV, another guido was selected to join the show: Joey Fist Pumps, a pretty well-known regular on the Shore. "He was literally called Joey Fist Pumps," Ofir added. "He was a union contractor, which is one of the reasons he wasn't able to do the show."Another reason: MTV wanted a few younger stars. Goodbye, Joey Fist Pumps, hello Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Vinny Guadagnino!8. According to Salsano, the iconic duck phone, which was found at a local thrift store, was a happy accident. "Our art director went out and goes, 'I saw this duck phone. It's so ridiculous,'" she continued. "I said, 'We cannot leave that in the house. It doesn't make sense.' Then the show started and I'm like, 'Oh my God, we left that duck phone in there.' Now the duck phone is the national symbol of Jersey Shore."Larry Marano/FilmMagic9. In season one, the cast really did work at the T-shirt shop, with Vinny telling Vulture, "We did the first season for nothing, zero dollars, except whatever we made at the Shore Store."10. Shop owner Danny Merk even revealed their salary to Vulture: "They started off at $10 an hour, then it went to $15, and then I think I gave them 20 bucks an hour at the very end." The hardest worker? If you asked Merk, he'd say Pauly D, with Jenni and Sammi proving talented at the cash register. Meanwhile, he says the worst employees were the Situation and Snooki. 11. After the monster success of the first season, the cast reportedly got a major pay raise, earning $10,000 per episode, per the New York Daily News. By the series' end in 2012, they were bringing in $100,000 per ep, according to The Hollywood Reporter.12. Ever wonder where GTL came from? You can thank production, who found the cast's daily routine of going to the gym, hitting the tanning salon and doing laundry so tedious and mundane they were afraid they didn't have a show. "We were writing on a dry-erase board—because we always were like, 'OK, so-and-so went here, so-and-so went here'—and every day we'd write 'gym, tanning, laundry,'" Salsano revealed to Vulture. "Then we got lazy and just started writing 'GTL.'"Kevin Mazur/WireImage13. Unlike many reality shows, over 40 cameras are rolling 24/7 on the Jersey Shore cast for the 30-50 days of filming, with Salsano once telling us, "We don't wait for something to happen, we keep them rolling." 14. The reality stars initially had no access to cellphones, TV, pen and paper and magazines, though they were initially allowed one personal call per week."The only time you're off camera is when you're in the bathroom. Even if you're in the bathroom with somebody else, they say two is a party, so they film it," Pauly D revealed to Vulture. "We took long showers to get away from cameras. But it does become second nature."15. After Angelina's dramatic exits from the cast, Deena, who had auditioned for the show before it began, was brought in as her replacement in season three. "Well, me and Nicole have been friends for, like, two years now," Deena told Entertainment Weekly in 2010, "and, you know, she needed a partner in crime, like, you know, on the show with her."Mtv/Kobal/Shutterstock16. Any guests were carded before being allowed to enter the Jersey Shore home. "People are literally given a field sobriety test to get into the house," Salsano explained to Vulture. "We have the same carding system they have at that club—that electronic thing where they run your ID—because we don't let anybody in the house that's not 21. Also, if someone is that inebriated, we'd ask people to leave."17. Could you imagine Jersey Shore with a new cast of guidos and guidettes? It almost happened, with MTV initially looking at an all-new line-up of housemates for the second season. 18. The gang's Jersey Shore home is available to rent, but it'll cost you $3,500 per night to stay in the 6-bedroom and 3-bathroom Seaside Heights landmark. But fair warning: the jacuzzi isn't part of the house, as it's actually on the roof of the t-shirt shop. E!19. When Jersey Shore first debuted in 2009, many advertisers boycotted the show and pulled their ads, including Domino's Pizza and Dell. The show also received backlash from the Italian-American organization UNICO for its depiction of guidos. "It was insane, I did not expect it," Salsano told THR at the time. "I was like, 'Why are they so mad?' If you look at the credits on the show, it's all Italian kids from the East Coast. This is our heritage; this was us as teens."20. While the cast rarely held back on the show, JWoww and the Situation revealed the struggles they kept off-camera during the show's initial run on an episode of the revival series, Jersey Shore family Vacation. Ahead of the cast's Italy-set fourth season, JWoww suffered a miscarriage, revealing she was a "f--king mess" during filming because of the medication she was taking to cope. The Situation, meanwhile, explained his erratic season four and season five behavior was due to withdrawals as he was struggling to get sober. For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App