{"id":337441,"date":"2026-06-15T20:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/337441\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T20:49:08","slug":"rockport-couples-renew-vows-in-celtic-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/337441\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockport couples renew vows in Celtic ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARANSAS COUNTY, Texas \u2014 Fifteen couples gathered in Rockport to renew their vows in a ceremony rooted in an ancient Irish tradition called hand-fasting.<\/p>\n

Noel Stephenson organized the Saturday night celebration. She and her husband used the occasion to mark their 10-year anniversary.<\/p>\n

Rockport couples renew vows in Celtic hand-fasting ceremony celebrating lasting love<\/p>\n

“It’s a story about love, commitment, recommitment, renewal, starting over. It just turned into a love story that started with us and doesn’t stop because the community is doing it as well,” Stephenson said.<\/p>\n

The tradition centers around an ancient Irish ritual called hand-fasting.<\/p>\n

“It’s a cord that’s about two and a half feet long and you drape it over your wrist and it’s called hand fasting. You pull together, the two of you, form a knot, and then you never remove that knot and it stays in your home,” Stephenson said.<\/p>\n

\"tying<\/p>\n

Jada Strayer<\/p>\n

Aransas County Judge Ray Garza officiated the ceremony, making each renewal official.<\/p>\n

“I’m just honored that I’m part of this event. I’m honored that Noel had asked me to renew vows of 15 people, it’s just great,” Garza said.<\/p>\n

For couples like Laura Gear, married 40 years, the secret to lasting love is simple.<\/p>\n

“Have fun. Just have fun. Every day is an adventure and keep it that way and just marry your best friend,” Gear said.<\/p>\n

\"tying<\/p>\n

Jada Strayer<\/p>\n

As the ceremony began, each couple created their own Celtic knot while celebrating with their Rockport community.<\/p>\n

Melissa Mastrodomenico, also renewing her vows, reflected on the timing of the event.<\/p>\n

“Yesterday was my 6th year anniversary, so being able to do this is wonderful,” Mastrodomenico said.<\/p>\n

After renewing their vows and tying the knot, the couples celebrated another chapter of love together.<\/p>\n

For the latest local news updates, click here<\/a>, or download the KRIS 6 News App.<\/a><\/p>\n

Catch all the KRIS 6 News stories and more on our YouTube page<\/a>. Subscribe today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARANSAS COUNTY, Texas \u2014 Fifteen couples gathered in Rockport to renew their vows in a ceremony rooted in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[18614,155,157,156],"class_list":["post-337441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-aransas-county","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}