Love was in the air on Friday night for four couples at the city of Santa Clarita’s special event, “The Big I Do.”
The event allows couples to get married and enjoy having a wedding without all the extra stress. All four couples experienced this unique wedding with various loved ones, said their vows to each other and shared their first dance.
One couple decided to take this route because they had been trying to tie the knot for months.
“We’ve been trying to get married for a couple months, probably like half a year actually. And we were looking through a lot of courthouses like from Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara … we saw that there was finally something available,” said Stephanie Gomez, one of the brides.
With all the couples feeling the love on Valentine’s Day, Gomez added that the experience just felt so special and so sweet.
“It was faster. We didn’t have to wait … we didn’t have to worry about anything,” Rafael Gomez said while looking at his new wife with adoration.
They first met during the beginning of quarantine on a dating app and have been together almost five years this March, they recalled.
Meeting overseas, James and Chinku Paulson found love through doing nonprofit work, Youth with a Mission, in India. When talking about their story, Paulson said that when he saw his wife, he thought she was so pretty.
After getting to know her, he thought to himself that maybe she was the one, Paulson recalled.
Since they were already married before Friday, they decided to renew their vows to each other and give themselves the party they never got in the first place.
“Years back, we actually eloped, and we actually got married in court. But we never had a big wedding ceremony. I just thought it would be fun because we’re celebrating 11 years since we’ve been married. We’re redoing our vows … this is our first time having a wedding party,” Paulson said with excitement.
Santa Clarita native Paulson added that sharing this moment with the other couples is great because his family members are in other countries or other states due to Chinku being from India herself.
One other couple met each other at work. A native of Mexico, Pedro Perez works in construction and his wife, Martha Plancarte, did the accounting. They began talking and the rest was history. The newlyweds have been together a year and a half.
“I saw this event and I read about it, and I liked it. I liked all these community events. I told her about it, and we agreed to get married at ‘The Big I Do’ event,” Perez said. “It’s beautiful because you see other people also living this experience, it’s sharing. Instead of me and her, I like the experience of doing it with other couples as well.”
When asked what advice he would give to other couples, Perez said that marriage is a compromise.
“This is important to get married because this is a compromise with your partner. Men, most of the time we need to make the compromise with ourselves and, in this case with my wife. Because it’s a feeling for me … she feels protected,” Perez said.
Jonathan and Diana Mendoza decided to get married because Diana thought it was so romantic, especially on Valentine’s Day. Meeting on the dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel, they have been together going on for four years, according to the happy couple.
“We just happened to match and ever since then, we’ve never been separated,” Mrs. Mendoza said.
Mendoza added that sharing this special time is cool because they were all coming together for love.
Santa Clarita Mayor Bill Miranda joined in on the loved-up festivities with a toast and celebrating 51 years of his own marriage to his wife, Virginia.
“It’s a big event for the city because it shows the city loves our citizens, they love our young people, our couples, and we love love. It’s our way of saying thank you to our community. It’s our way of saying ‘Let us help you,’” Miranda said. “Maybe some of the people can’t afford to have a wedding like this and we’re making it possible.”
