The 49 couples wait on parish priest Fr. Dennis Baricuatro to administer their wedding vows (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO).
FORTY-NINE couples tied the knot in a mass wedding sponsored by the San Remigio municipal government as part of the town’s 153rd founding anniversary yesterday.
Among the couples who got hitched were 28-year-old Anecito Castillo and Emily Verallo, now Emily Castillo.
The two planned to get married next year but heard about the municipal government’s initiative of sponsoring a mass wedding for free.
“Kay mao akong plano unta kung naa palang kwarta akoang pamilya. Pero imbis ma-pari kay na padre de pamilya nuon ko (If my family had the money, I would have gone and become a priest. But instead of becoming a priest, I became a father),” Castillo said.
The couple, who had met three years ago, had been living together since August 2014.
With Emily having given birth to a baby boy three days ago, the couple changed their plans and get married this year.
The San Remigio municipal government sponsored the free mass wedding in coordination with the San Juan Nepomuceno Parish Church.
Fr. Dennis Baricuatro, parish priest, said they waived the marriage license fees and payments to the church for the mass wedding so more common law couples would be married.
Fr. Baricuatro said there were senior couples who were too shy to get married due to their age.
He said the mass wedding is a fitting way to celebrate the end of the Year of Mercy. Most of the couples had been living together for years and some already had children.
San Remigio Mayor Mariano Martinez said the oldest couple was a 66-year-old woman and a 59-year-old man while the youngest couple were in their early 20s.
The municipal government gave each couple a cake for their receptions at home.