California woman who sought love through her 'Marry Lisa' billboards says she's in love

A Bay Area woman who went viral for her unconventional quest using billboards to find Mr. Right, says she’s in love and applications are closed.

The backstory:

We first introduced you to Lisa Catalano back in September, after she had paid for a series of billboards along Highway 101 stretching from Santa Clara to South San Francisco as part of her campaign to find her future husband. 

The billboards featured a photo of her and directed potential suitors to her website, MarryLisa.com, where she had curated a profile of who she was and what she was looking for in a partner. She also later expanded her "Marry Lisa" campaign to taxi top ads and other promotional efforts.

If interested, candidates who seemed to be a potentially compatible match were asked to fill out an application.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE: California woman launches billboard campaign to find a husband

What she's looking for

On her website, Catalano was open and honest about her primary objective and hopes: "Wants marriage and kids within the next 2-3 years with the right man!" she wrote.

She also listed other non-negotiables. They included having a partner who was college-educated, led a healthy lifestyle, did not smoke or do recreational drugs, did not have a criminal record and was politically aligned with her.

In addition, she detailed areas of flexibility, including her target age of 35–45, and said preferably, though not set in stone, her future partner has never been married and doesn't have any kids. 

As for the physical attributes, "Generally speaking, Lisa is attracted to more clean-cut looking men, slim to medium build, no or minimal tattoos/piercings. She has no height requirement," she wrote on her website.

‘Applications closed!’

What we know:

This month, Lisa Catalano proudly announced, "Applications closed! Lisa’s in love and has a boyfriend."

The update was accompanied by several photos of a beaming and smiling Lisa with her new man.

It should be noted that she didn’t reveal his identity in the photos, with only the side or back of his head being shown.

"I want to be completely respectful of his privacy," Catalano told KTVU, adding, "It was never a condition for dating me that any man needed to be comfortable going public!"

On her website, what she did share was that she was "the proud girlfriend of a kind, intelligent, attractive San Francisco Bay Area man who meets all of her very reasonable non-negotiables and also her ‘nice to have’ preferences."  ​

Catalano also revealed that while her boyfriend did see a "Marry Lisa" billboard in South San Francisco back in October, it was actually a match on a dating app that led to their initial connection in January.

The 42-year-old was clear all along that the billboard campaign was only part of the multipronged effort to find a husband as she stayed on her dating apps as part of her quest.

She said after they were matched, she directed him to her website. He never filled out an application, but they forged forward and decided to go on their first date. 

Becoming exclusive

Dig deeper:

"Not wanting to rush the process, they went on 19 dates over 3.5 months before becoming exclusive," Catalano shared.

While wanting to protect his privacy, she did share a few details with us about her new boyfriend, including the fact that he’s 35-years-old. 

She described him as very nice, laid back and easy-going. "He’s unbothered by my website and billboards and my very public search for a husband," Catalano shared.   

And while her journey to find her partner has been an extremely unusual one, she said, "I’m happy to say that my dates and relationship is very normal!"  

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Thousands of applications 

In the end, she received roughly 4,000 applications from September 2025 to May 2026, with 3,221 deemed "actual, genuine" submissions.

She said she reviewed every single application personally. 

​"The majority of the men were out of her geographic area or did not meet even some of the very basic compatibility traits she was looking for in a partner," her website detailed.

Catalano said she narrowed down the applicants to just 20 men, all residing locally here in the Bay Area. And then she went on first dates with only five of them.  

How much she spent

As part of Catalano’s update, she also provided a detailed breakdown of how much her Marry Lisa campaign cost her. She had previously refrained from sharing that information.

"I would say that what the amount is, people are gonna be shocked. But I'm actually not going to get into any financial specifics about this whole thing until I am totally done with the project," Catalano explained to KTVU back in September.

And yes, some might be surprised at the final figures.

"Now that I'm in a committed relationship, I am going to give a full breakdown behind all the financials, behind the billboards, behind the website, everything that was involved," she recently said in an update video. 

By the numbers:

When weighing the billboards, the taxi tops, and the costs associated with setting up, hosting and operating the website, the total came to about $1,980, Catalano said.

When factoring in additional expenses, including wardrobe for photo and video shoots, make-up, photography equipment, the grand total amounted to roughly $4,750.

"A lot went into this. Around the time I went viral I had only spent several hundred dollars on billboards, plus the website expenses. Then I went viral and the other related costs kicked in," Catalano explained.

 She also pointed out that the costs to put up the website and billboards did not even amount to 50% of the total.

And the billboards, which were what made her a viral story, were only about 20% of the costs, she noted. 

"So overall, I think I did pretty well," Catalano said in her video.

The future

Looking ahead, she’s over-the-moon happy about the possibilities with her new partner.

"We have had some discussions about our future, and we are both optimistic about the outlook," Catalano shared.

She described herself as someone who has always been very creative with a do-it-yourself mindset.

"This was my most ambitious DIY project and I was really doing it all without much of a blueprint," she said, adding that in the end, she ultimately found what she was looking for.

"I accomplished my goal," Catalano said. "I’m in a relationship! I’m so extremely happy and thankful I met such a wonderful man."