Mayor Parker officiates chilly Valentine’s Day wedding at LOVE Park

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Philadelphia celebrated romance this Valentine’s Day with a special mayor-led wedding ceremony in LOVE Park.

Mayor Cherelle Parker officiated her first wedding as the city’s chief executive when she joined Mike Snader of Reading and Amy Brown of St. Lucia in matrimony in the shadow of the LOVE statue.

Brown said she couldn’t imagine a better place to get hitched, although perhaps there were warmer places to say “I do.”

“We were here about six years ago, at the same LOVE sign,” Brown said. “It’s just so sentimental to be back here again and committing to each other.”

Snader said he wanted the wedding to be low-key.

“To be honest with you, we were looking for something very simple,” he said. “Then we came across the LOVE Park thing where we could come in elope on this date and it just seemed to make sense for us.”

Brown was chilly in her wedding gown but happy to relive their memorable experience in the same spot from six years ago.

“So on our journey, we had bumped into a little bit of disappointment, and he kept on looking and searching, and he’s like, ‘You know what? It’s meant to be, let’s just do it. Let’s just go back and have a good time doing it.’ So that’s what brought us back here,” she said.

Brown said her love for her new husband was as strong as the wind whipping through the park before, during and after the brief ceremony.

Their hopes for a low-key “elopement” didn’t pan out as a throng of reporters and photographers following the mayor served as the ceremony’s unofficial witnesses with plenty of event coverage.

The Valentine’s Day wedding ceremonies at LOVE Park won’t be the last. The city is relaunching its “Wedding Wednesday” series at the park where anyone can say “I do” under the LOVE sculpture.

Sign-ups for March through August weddings are now available on the city’s website.