Ross Mathews weds Wellinthon García in Mexico

Comic and TV personality Ross Mathews and Long Island educator Wellinthon García were married Saturday in Mexico following a 14-month engagement.

"Happiest day of our lives!" posted Mathews, 42, across his social media, with an image from People magazine's article covering the nuptials. "The happiest day of our lives," echoed García, 40, on Instagram, where Mathews said in the comments, "LOVE YOU, MY HUSBAND!!!" Comedian Chelsea Handler, commenting on Matthews' Instagram post, wrote, "Yay! Look at you two!! Congratulations!!"

"It's official my #grooms are #married," wrote celebrity wedding planner Mikie Russo, 43, a Smithtown native, on his own Instagram account.

Mathews told People, "It was a destination wedding" at the Almar Resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. "So we invited 130 people, thinking maybe 50 people would come. But 110 people came — and I'm thrilled!"

The Los Angeles-based Mathews and the New York-based García, who is director of curriculum and instruction for the Elmont Union Free School District, experienced "anxiety" when determining a wedding locale, Mathews told the magazine. But actor and talk-show host Drew Barrymore, on whose program frequent guest Mathews had announced the engagement in February 2021, "told us, 'Do it where you're supposed to do it, and the people who are supposed to be there will be there.' So we chose the place where we first met."

Barrymore, Mathews said, went on to serve as the couple's flower girl.

Describing the ceremony, Mathews said he and García used local musicians for the wedding music. "It was important to us to get local people to contribute to this wedding," Mathews said. "We're there in Puerto Vallarta for a reason; we want the culture there."

The two wrote their own wedding vows. While composing his, Mathews recalled, "I just started to cry. It was so overwhelming, thinking about all the things I wanted to say to him."

They planned to spend some days at the resort with their guests, then continue their honeymoon at the nearby Las Alamandas Resort, a more intimate locale with just 18 suites.

García joined the Elmont school district in 2013 as a teacher at the pre-K through 6th grade Covert Avenue School, where he eventually became assistant principal. He later was assistant principal at the district's Alden Terrace School in Valley Stream, and earned his doctor of education degree in Educational and Policy Leadership at Hempstead's Hofstra School of Education.

Prior to his work on Long Island, García had been a technology/data coordinator and a teacher in New York City public schools.

"I don't know what happens next, but I know we're going to be happy," Mathews told People of his new marriage. "This is the beginning of something amazing."