2,012 couples wed in Tijuana

TIJUANA, Mexico, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- Officials in Tijuana, Mexico, said 2,012 couples participated in a mass wedding presided over by Mayor Carlos Bustamante.

The municipal government said the couples gathered in Friendship Park Tuesday and married in a ceremony that has become an annual tradition in the city to encourage couples to take advantage of the free marriages offered by local officials, SanDiegoRed.com reported Wednesday.

"When they say that families are disintegrating in Mexico, I tell them that in Tijuana they are coming together," Bustamante said at the ceremony. "Proof of this is the 2,012 couples who are marrying today."

Officials said the mass wedding was one of the largest in the city's history but far from a record for the country. A recent mass wedding in Juarez, located just across the border from El Paso, Texas, involved 6,242 couples.