Love was in the air in downtown San Antonio Tuesday night, as 141 couples became spouses at exactly midnight on Valentine’s Day: A record number since 2019, Bexar County said.
The Bexar County Courthouse plaza was filled with family and friends, waiting to watch their loved ones tie the knot. At Main Plaza across the street, couples enjoyed a block party and a lucky few won prizes.
The couples stood on courthouse stairs as Bexar County Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark stood on the courtyard at a podium, officiating the mass wedding through a microphone.
Couples of all ages and backgrounds said “I do” in unison, but for them, the moment was private — as if no one else was around.
“It’s very beautiful,” said Kirby-area resident Alicia Saucedo, who attended the mass wedding ceremony as a spectator to watch her brother, Joe Ramos, marry Rachel Ramos.
“It’s very hard nowadays to find your other half. All these people have succeeded in that. I pray and hope they have long marriages,” Saucedo said, looking on with her husband Alex Perez.
Deborah Garcia and Ronda Cruse gazed into each other’s eyes, which sparkled even from a distance. They traveled two hours from Victoria to tie the knot, two years after meeting on Match.com.
“We saw [the wedding] on Facebook,” Garcia said, “and we decided to do it,” Cruse said, holding her wife’s hand. Garcia and Cruse’s daughters and the couple’s 10 grandchildren weren’t there to watch — it was an intimate moment after a family proposal in August of 2023.
“She’s my best friend, and truly the love of my life,” Cruse said.
“Love conquers all. Especially being gay, it takes work, but love is love,” Garcia added.
It seemed as if Isabel Vasquez and Jose Ybarra didn’t stop smiling once the entire ceremony.
“It’s the most romantic city in the world. Who wouldn’t want to do this on Valentine’s [Day]” Ybarra asked just minutes before midnight and the start of the ceremony.
They met three years ago on Dec. 26, after Vasquez jokingly asked her 14-year-old daughter’s school friend if he had any single uncles.
“As a matter of fact, I do,” said her fiancé Jose Ybarra, laughing as he imitated his now-17-year-old nephew, who watched his uncle get married from the audience along with about a dozen other family members.
“I wish you so much love and I’ll never forget you on this beautiful and special day,” Adame-Clark said to the couples as they made their way to the courtyard for their first dance to Heatwave’s “Always and Forever.”
The midnight ceremony was the first of three such ceremonies outside Bexar County Courthouse on Valentine’s Day. Another 41 couples got married at the 10 a.m. ceremony at the courthouse, and 76 couples at the noon ceremony.
As the Ybarras snuck away to the “Love Lock Bridge” to put a lock on their love, Lynne Germany and Bryant Johnson arrived at the mass wedding about six minutes too late to join. They came running after a long day at work.
But they weren’t left out — at the podium under a tent, Adame-Clark opened her officiating book and married them.
The couple met in 2008 on Plenty Of Fish, an early 2000s online dating website. They remained friends and stayed in touch, and seven years later, they met up in person.
“I finally said that’s it, come here. I need to meet you,” Johnson said.
“She’s always been different to me compared to everyone’s replicas of the same person,” he said. “She likes the clarinet, just other quirky stuff and doesn’t follow the crowd.”
Germany said there were only two possibilities: He would be the love of her life or a catfish, a fake online profile user.
The couple said the future holds goats (they’ll raise them on a farm), friendship with each other — and trying not to be late to everything.
Update: This story has been updated with a final count of participants from Bexar County.
