{"id":172727,"date":"2026-02-11T01:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172727\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:17:13","slug":"sacramento-viewers-spotted-their-pastor-during-the-super-bowl-halftime-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172727\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento viewers spotted their pastor during the Super Bowl halftime show"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Super Bowl this past weekend, a wedding scene stole the show midway through Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny\u2019s halftime performance<\/a>. The artist’s high-energy set took a brief pause, and a couple was married on stage with the celebrity artist as their witness.
Chase Garibaldi, a member of Sacramento\u2019s Project Church<\/a>, did a double-take from his living room couch, where he watched the game with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, \u2018That guy looks like Antonio,\u2019\u201d Garibaldi said. \u201cAnd then it hit me. I was like, \u2018This is a real wedding.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Garibaldi recognized the pastor on stage who married the couple, Antonio Reyes<\/a>, who leads his church\u2019s South Sacramento location. Reyes was officiating the real wedding live on one of the biggest stages in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Garibaldi was not the only one to spot Reyes officiating the wedding. Within minutes, social media across Sacramento started buzzing<\/a> about the news.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstagram started going crazy,\u201d Garibaldi said. \u201cPeople were excited in Sacramento to see someone local involved in the Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a real wedding\u201d<\/p>\n

Reports later confirmed<\/a> the couple had originally invited Bad Bunny to their wedding, before being asked to marry on his Super Bowl stage.
For Reyes, the moment was as surreal as it looked on television.<\/p>\n

\"\"A couple was married during the Super Bowl halftime show as artist Bad Bunny performs at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. The ceremony was officiated by Sacramento pastor Antonio Reyes.AP Photo\/Frank Franklin II<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it was a real wedding,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cEverything was planned for that to be a real wedding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes said the wedding was part of a broader vision for the halftime show. He says the entire show was meant to highlight real people and everyday moments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you watch the whole show, they had a taco row, they had someone doing nails,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of them are real people, actually doing that. It was a real thing where they were trying to communicate to people and really for people to see themselves in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes was invited through a longtime connection in Los Angeles, where he previously pastored for more than a decade. At first, he didn\u2019t know what he was being asked to take part in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were looking for a young pastor who speaks Spanish who can officiate a wedding,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what it was for. We assumed it might be a celebrity couple, but we didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until Reyes had to sign nondisclosure agreements and realized the ceremony would take place during the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife starts screaming in the kitchen,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cShe\u2019s like, \u2018Benito, the Super Bowl.\u2019 And I\u2019m just confused at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Project Church, leadership knew Reyes would be gone for rehearsals, but few understood why. He said he needed to ask the church\u2019s lead pastor for time to step away for rehearsals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very hard to keep it to myself,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cIt was harder for my wife than for me because she wanted to tell a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chrissy Cole, a lead pastor at Project Church, said the church fully supported Reyes once they understood the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were looking for a real officiant because this was a real couple,\u201d Cole said. \u201cHe\u2019s an actual pastor and could marry a couple by the state of California law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole said the church didn\u2019t announce anything ahead of time.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce he came on stage, we were like, \u2018Yep, that\u2019s him,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cWe were so proud watching.\u201d<\/p>\n

On-stage experience<\/p>\n

By the time Reyes stepped into the stadium, the scale of the moment finally hit him.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as you step into the stadium, you feel it,\u201d he said. \u201cYou feel it in your chest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Phones were locked away during rehearsals to prevent leaks before the event, and Reyes said the pressure was real, not just for him, but for the couple he was about to marry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI even told them, \u2018You look at me, I look at you,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cLet\u2019s live in the moment and not look at the whole crowd right now, because you\u2019re going to get overwhelmed.\u201d
The pastor said he\u2019s choosing not to speak for the couple, Thomas Wolter and Eleisa Aparico<\/a>, and leaving questions about the experience to them. He says he does not want to take away from their moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reyes was the only person on stage besides the performers who had a microphone.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo pressure,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

Reyes, who grew up in Michoac\u00e1n, Mexico, before moving to the U.S. as a teenager, said the moment carried weight far beyond football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel honored to be part of such a monumental moment for a lot of Latinos,\u201d he said. \u201cNot just the show, there was a bigger message being communicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days since, Reyes said he\u2019s heard from people as far away as Mexico who recognized him on television and reached out to him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very crazy experience for them to see someone like them on a stage like that,\u201d Reyes said.<\/p>\n

Reyes returned to Sacramento to a flood of messages and support from people who attend his church.
He will hold his next service this Sunday, but is still unsure how much or when he will share about it at the church.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSundays are very sacred for me,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s a message that needs to be communicated, and that\u2019s more important than what I experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n