Bay Space girl who purchased ‘Marry Me’ billboards will get date

Love could also be free — however not for a lady who plastered “Marry Me” billboards throughout busy roads determined for a Valentine’s Day date.

“Folks will likely be shocked by how a lot I’ve spent,” Lisa Catalano instructed The California Submit. “I’ll undoubtedly launch the monetary breakdown once I’m all accomplished and am engaged.”

The splashy marketing campaign Catalano launched in fall 2025 generated greater than 4,000 functions via her web site.

She then went via every software, narrowing the pool all the way down to about 50 males, then to twenty earlier than lastly touchdown 5 first dates again within the fall.

Catalano’s Valentine’s Day outing — not with a candidate from the preliminary batch of functions — wasn’t a primary assembly, however with somebody she’d been seeing for a few month.

The pair went to see a romantic comedy earlier than heading dwelling to cook dinner dinner collectively, opting to maintain issues “easy and relaxed” fairly than courageous crowded eating places.

Whereas she has not selected exclusivity, Catalano mentioned she is having fun with the relationship course of and assembly new folks.

“It was concurrently essentially the most demanding time of my life but additionally essentially the most magical factor that’s ever occurred to me,” Catalano mentioned when requested if the search was value it. “All the time I’ve been optimistic that this can all work out.”

Any man she goes out with is required to signal an NDA to guard each herself and the lads, stopping anybody from leaking particulars or having ulterior motives.

“I simply actually wished to supply safety for myself and safety for them as properly,” she mentioned.

Catalano mentioned the majority of the expense has gone towards billboard promoting, with placements operating alongside Freeway 101 between Santa Clara and South San Francisco.

“Since I don’t have billboards in SF itself, I opted to do the taxi toppers there,” she mentioned.

In San Francisco, she supplemented the freeway advertisements with digital taxi toppers, which at their peak ran on round 20 cabs.

She stopped operating these as of Jan. 1, she mentioned. The taxi advertisements performed for roughly 30 seconds at a time, although she added with fun that she wasn’t completely certain of the precise timing.

Her preliminary marketing campaign included 12 billboard places, which she later scaled again round October to 6 to eight at a time.

For Valentine’s Day alone, she ran 14 particular “Glad Valentine’s Day from MaryLisa.com” billboards for 2 days alongside Freeway 101. The billboards seem in rotation, enjoying for about eight seconds at a time, she mentioned.

Past promoting, Catalano additionally paid for her web site area and internet hosting — constructing the positioning herself — together with promotional supplies equivalent to enterprise playing cards, flyers and customized buttons.

She bought a printer and lined the price of paper, ink and organizational provides after printing and manually reviewing 1000’s of functions on her personal.

“I did all of it manually, on my own, no assist,” she mentioned.

Within the Bay Space, the place the price of residing and promoting costs are sky-high, the endeavor has value 1000’s of {dollars}.

Past the staggering monetary dedication, Catalano — a tech veteran who now freelances whereas operating a classic clothes resale enterprise — says the emotional toll has been simply as heavy. Since launching the marketing campaign, she has been branded as “determined” by on-line critics.

“Lots of people name me determined, and for me, I don’t suppose I’m determined,” Catalano mentioned. “I feel I simply know what I need and what I’m on the lookout for.”

She mentioned the marketing campaign began out of frustration with relationship apps that weren’t producing significant conversations or dates.

“I began it as a joke out of frustration, and it simply form of snowballed from there,” she mentioned. The vitriol is usually private and aggressive.

“You will die alone and also you deserve it,” one applicant wrote. The identical particular person attacked her age and selections, including, “Shouldn’t have fumbled the bag if you had been 20, you silly c***.”

When the applying requested if there was the rest he’d like Lisa to know, he merely added: “Lol, [f***] you.”

In responding to accusations of not relationship early in life, the bachelor mentioned she was was in a dedicated relationship in her 20s.

“He was terminally unwell for a number of years and died. I needed to begin over with relationship at that time,” she added. Regardless of the hate and trolling, Catalano says the wave of help she receives has been useful.

One supporter reached out to commend her “immense braveness,” noting that he and his spouse are “rooting for her” to discover a accomplice who shares her adventurous spirit.

He shared that he makes use of Lisa’s story as a lesson for his personal daughter, telling her to “by no means accept lower than you deserve” and praising Lisa for being unapologetic about her non-negotiables and preferences.

Catalano says she opinions all functions, mechanically disqualifying anybody worldwide attributable to proximity, or anybody exterior her age vary.

“The vast majority of the functions had been simple to weed out,” she mentioned. “Lots of people crammed it out as a joke, or they didn’t meet primary compatibility necessities, or mentioned they didn’t need to get married, that are deal breakers for me.”

If you’re a bachelor between the ages of 35 and 47, the applying continues to be open.

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