‘Drama, value and meaning’: Behind Bexar County’s strange and colorful marriage license

Gerry Rickhoff wanted to make the Bexar County marriage license look less like a livestock certificate. He was the county clerk, and he wanted a document that evoked warmth, something a married couple could hang on their wall – something they could take pride in. Mission accomplished. In 1999, Rickhoff, a history buff and avid outdoorsman who sometimes lives in his Ford F-250 pickup truck, added a small portrait of an armadillo to the marriage license.

Rickhoff hired artist Andy Benavides. The pair dyed the paper yellow to look like old parchment. They added a portrait of the Alamo, a man and woman dressed in traditional Mexican clothing, a Texas longhorn, the most romantic stretch of the River Walk and 14 other symbols that represent Bexar County’s lengthy, diverse and complex history. To Rickhoff, he added “drama, value and meaning” to an otherwise dull legal document. “I wanted to evoke something out of you,” said Rickhoff, who held the Bexar County clerk’s post for 23 years. And it’s paid off. Twenty-three years after the first couple took home Bexar County’s folksy and colorful marriage license, it has become a highly sought novelty. Out-of-towners are traveling hundreds of miles to San Antonio to seal their marriage on the document. Some have come as far away as Seattle and New York. Rachel Hudson drove 180 miles from Waco to San Antonio for her second marriage in 2012. She thought the license was gorgeous and showed it to her daughter, Nannette Ali.