Modern Family in the Making

Raed, originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Carlos Gonzalez, born in Central Mexico but raised in San Antonio from the age of seven, share a beautiful home in Houston’s Meyerland area. The charismatic duo met at a mutual friend’s birthday bash and connected thanks to Carlos’ cheeky confidence.

As a friend introduced Carlos to Raed, the two shook hands. Carlos, with a slight grin, said “Nice meeting you—for the third time.” Raed was slightly embarrassed, but the two never let go of the other’s hand throughout the exchange or for the rest of the evening.

“We continued talking a good five, six, or seven minutes until I told him, ‘Do you want a drink?’ And I dragged him to the bar, holding his hand,” recalls Raed. “There was a little balcony outside, and we spent most of the night out there talking. We noticed too many similarities in what we were looking for and wanted in life, so it got kind of serious.”

While Raed made the first move by inviting Carlos for dinner at El Meson, it was their second date at the tapas restaurant Baso that really stood out. “I told the waitress that it was his birthday, so they brought him the whole fireworks thing,” Raed recalls.

“That was cute,” adds Carlos. “We met on March 20, and my birthday is on March 7, so it wasn’t too far off.”

For Raed, the attraction to Carlos was instantaneous. “That first night, I told him, ‘You’re gonna marry me someday,’” he admits. “We were just having too much fun together. It was so different from what we had experienced before in other relationships, and it really changed us.”

“I noticed he was funny, and he had a sexy goatee,” Carlos remembers of his first meeting with Raed. “I appreciated his line of work. Being an immigrant and him being an immigration lawyer, I could totally empathize and sympathize.” Carlos was enamored by their similar morals and experiences, and that’s what convinced him that Raed was the one.

“We were on a trip in Santa Fe,” says Raed of the proposal. “Santa Fe is very well known to tourists for its jewelry, and I thought, ‘Well, we can get a ring there together.’”

Before checking into their hotel, Raed took Carlos to a jewelry store. Carlos found a pinky ring he really loved, and Raed purchased it surreptitiously. “I was distracted and neglected to make the hotel reservations correctly. When we got to the hotel, there was no reservation, and all the hotels were full,” Raed confesses.

With a little luck, Raed and Carlos were able to book a charming AirBNB, and upon checking in, Raed found an ad for a private chef who would cook and serve a nine-course meal. “It turned out that the chef was Puerto Rican,” says Raed. “He made us this lavish nine-course meal, and during the meal, I proposed, and Carlos got his pinky ring.”

With the goal of being fathers, the couple started planning their family, but discovered that the legal team they were working with around the surrogacy and IVF process expected them to already be married. They quickly remedied the situation with  a trip to Las Vegas, where they secretly got married at the world-famous Little White Chapel on October 10, 2022.

Several months later, without revealing their Las Vegas elopement, they invited friends and family to a wedding ceremony on October 14, 2023, at San Antonio’s Hotel Emma. Picture a storybook wedding with guests seated and the couple standing in front of everyone. Carlos turned, grabbed the microphone, and said, “Hello, everybody. Thank you all for being here, but today, there’s not going to be a wedding.”

“You could hear the silence,” explains Raed. “You could only hear a guest that squeezed my cousin’s hand so hard one of her nails broke.” Then a video of their Las Vegas wedding played, to the surprise and ebullient cheers of their guests. The couple explained why they needed to get married sooner.

Pulling off their extravagant and luxe San Antonio celebration required the help of several superheroes. They offer heartfelt praise to Carlos’ maid of honor, Joi Adamson, an event planner who stepped up to the plate when the planner they hired fell short. Hotel Emma staff members Cara Jacobson, Meghan Ross, and many others were enthusiastic about helping coordinate what was to be the first gay wedding at the venue. Grupo KaChe, a Houston-based wedding band, was equally enthusiastic about the opportunity to perform at a gay wedding and supplied the reception with a 12-piece orchestra for the elegant black-tie event.

The couple has the highest praise for Freesia Designs, who supplied their floral arrangements. “The wife is the owner and main designer, and her husband is a structural engineer, so together they create elaborate pieces,” explains Raed, who was also impressed with Fine Art Wedding Photography for their work. “They are professional and always made sure we were happy with the final product,” he says, “including editing a few things out of all the pictures, like lipstick on our blazers and the blue light projected on us inside the venue. 

Also adding to the elegance of their memorable celebration was JC Invitations. “They pulled some all-nighters for us,” Raed adds, “to make sure our invites and swag bags were on point and in keeping with the theme of classic elegance.”