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.
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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.
Bexar County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff and artist Andy Benavides look over design ideas for the upcoming, updated Bexar County marriage license on Friday, October 22, 1999. The new license reflects various icons from around the county such as the Alamo, armadillo and Fort Sam Houston to name a few.
Kin Man HuiAnd 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.
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Out-of-towners are traveling hundreds of miles to San Antonio to seal their marriage on the document.
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.
Ali could have gotten married in husband Usman’s native Pakistan or in Dubai, where they met, but she chose to get married in Bexar County. That’s because Bexar County is “my home and the marriage license is beautiful.”
A poster-sized version of the license is displayed in the first-floor lobby of the clerk’s office in the Paul Elizondo Tower on West Nueva Street.
Roxana and Joshua Collins loved the marriage license so much that they enlarged it to the size of a poster, cut it into strips and added it to a monograph initial of their last name. It’s displayed prominently in their house.
Roxana CollinsLocal Victoria Garcia-Johnson wanted to prevent the ink on the license from fading, so she carefully placed it in a scroll tube. Locals Mike and Jennifer Martinez thought it was so pretty that they framed and hung it on their wall.
Roxana and Joshua Collins, of San Antonio, loved the marriage license so much that they enlarged it to the size of a poster, cut it into strips and added it to a monograph initial of their last name. It’s displayed prominently in their house.
“It was just so pretty,” Roxana Collins said. “It’s a beautiful government form, which is strange.”
Texas is home to some of the nation’s most colorful marriage licenses. Two big bells are at the top of Galveston County’s marriage license. “United in marriage” appears in huge loopy cursive swirls on Travis County’s license. And until 2019, Harris County’s license had an ornate image of a woman signing a book with a groom looming nearby.
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But most Texas counties have at least one symbol connected to marriage on the license. Not in Bexar County.
The document says “Holy Union of Matrimony” in large bold letters over a watermark of the county’s official Coat of Arms. But that’s about it.
All 18 images along the borders of Bexar County’s marriage license are connected to the area’s history and traditions. Among them are the historic red courthouse, a romantic cowboy scene of the Old West, and references to the region’s German settlers.
For Nanette Ali, whose mother drove from Waco for the license, the fact that it has little to do with marriage doesn’t matter.
“Not at all,” Ali said. “I think that it’s actually pretty cool.”
Others aren’t so convinced.
Former Bexar County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff is a historian who knows a lot about all facets of life in early Bexar County
Bob Owen/San Antonio Express-News“You have to look to see that it’s a marriage license,” said Richard Gold, a Republican candidate for Bexar County clerk. Gold spent 20 years as a records manager for the clerk’s office.
“I’m not saying that I don’t like it,” Gold said. “There’s a lot of stuff on there. It just looks really busy.”
So what do cowboys and European settlers have to do with marriage? Not much, Rickhoff said – at least not directly.
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The marriage license is meant to pay homage to all the components of the clerk’s office, he said.
The clerk’s office issues marriage licenses and records of marriages, maintains documents on property in the county, and is the keeper of the records for all county and probate courts. It also holds historical documents that predate the establishment of the county.
Clerk Lucy Adame-Clark’s own marriage license is displayed in a case in the basement next to a portrait of her and her husband Michael. It’s just a few steps away from the window where couples submit their marriage license.
Timothy FanningDuring Rickhoff’s 24 years in office, the clerk’s office rarely received feedback on the marriage license. The abrupt change barely made headlines and most locals who were married before 1999 don’t even know the design changed.
Lucy Adame-Clark defeated Rickhoff in the November 2018 general election, becoming the first Latina and the first woman to hold the office in Bexar County. During her transition, she said he asked if she wanted to change the design of the marriage license.
“I said: ‘Mr. Rickhoff, I’m a native to San Antonio, and I’m a third-generation Texan,’” Adame-Clark remembered. “‘I am very proud of your marriage license, and I will keep it as is, if you don’t mind it.’”
Adame-Clark’s own marriage license is displayed in a case in the basement, next to a portrait of Adame-Clark and her husband Michael. It’s just a few steps from the window where couples submit paperwork for their marriage licenses.
Timothy.Fanning@express-news.net
