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Unlike the rush during the short window that same-sex marriage was legal in Utah last December, there was no massive run on marriage licenses in county clerks' offices Monday.
There's a reason for that, said some of the same-sex couples at the Salt Lake County Clerk's office.
"I think we're in the clear," said Zachary Smallwood of Midvale, who will marry Jason McDermaid with the license they secured Monday.
They were among the roughly 15 same-sex couples who got marriage licenses at Salt Lake County. Eight of those couples were promptly married in the hallway outside.
Smallwood and McDermaid plan to be married on their ninth anniversary of dating — Nov. 2.
"Now we get to celebrate our love the way other couples get to," McDermaid said.
Suzanne Marelius and Kelli Frame were the first couple to show up at the clerk's office. They got their license at 11 a.m., and began planning an Oct. 23 wedding.
They preferred not to be part of the "assembly line" of couples getting married in December. "It's more our style, being able to plan and have our friends and families here," Frame said.
She's not worried about her marriage later being nullified.
"It just doesn't seem like this is a tide that can be pushed back anymore," said Frame, who called it "actually beautiful" that the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged same-sex marriage is being decided in the states.
It will be the second marriage for Jillian Dallon and Julie Maughan, who went to San Francisco to be married last year.
But it was fitting that they marry Monday, their eighth anniversary of dating, they said.
"It's making history. In Utah we couldn't do it before," said Dallon.
The couple was married by Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, who conducted several marriages Monday outside the Salt Lake County Clerk's office.
He also married Ariel Ulloa Gonzalez and Gregory Enke, who said they'd been together eight years.
"In the state of Utah, you are now legally spouses!" Dabakis said to cheers at the end of the brief ceremony, each man holding red roses brought by Enke's sister.
The pair had watched Utah's court case unfold, and even traveled to Denver to hear arguments before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court.
"We've been watching and waiting and now we can come out to our friends and families and say, 'Now it's official," Gonzalez said.
Enke said it was difficult for both men to listen to the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the weekend, because they found no change in message or tone concerning same-sex marriage.
Both men are former Mormons; Enke said he was a stake high council member before he decided to leave the church.
"We have felt very discouraged because the church has not been supportive of us," Gonzalez said.
Monday's Supreme Court decision, however, "helps you feel validated," Enke said. "It just means we're a family legally as well as emotionally."
Sheri Ault and Leslie McWilliams have been together 18 years, and decided Monday morning to add marriage to their bucket list — and to tick it off the list.
They were married outside the Salt Lake County Clerk's office by Tara Sudweeks Willgues, who performs non-denominational marriages as Rev. Heron.
"We've been just like a married couple," Ault said. "This is just a formality."
The two were packing to move to Florida when McWilliams' granddaughter called to tell them the Supreme Court news.
Laekin Rogers and Yolanda Pascua have dated only a year, but "when you know, you know," said Rogers.
The two were married Monday at the Salt Lake County Clerk's office.
"It means the world," Pascua said. "It's real. We're being given the opportunity to be just regular people doing regular stuff."
Lynda Coleman and Alisha Matthews watched Gov. Gary Herbert's comments on television Monday morning and were at the clerk's office in the early afternoon.
"It's hard for us to swallow that it's real," said Coleman, who married Matthews outside the clerk's office. Coleman said she was moved "to finally have the world accept us."
She added: "We weren't going to take a chance" of missing out again.
Mike Collard and Diana Winkfield were among the straight couples getting licenses at Salt Lake County Monday, and they also were married in the hall outside.
Their friend Buddy Eyre presided. Eyre married his partner, Sam Stuart, last December during the short time same-sex marriage was legal in Utah.
"They are our best friends and they said they didn't want to get married until we could all get married," Eyre said.
Twitter: @KristenMoulton —
Video: Trib Talks on same-sex marriage
On Tuesday at 12:15 p.m., Sen. Jim Dabakis and Rep. Kraig Powell will join Napier-Pearce to discuss the broad impact of Monday's decision and how state legislators will approach the legal revamp in January.
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