To roaring cheers from the audience, long-time sweethearts Ellen Degeneres and Portia DeRossi announced their engagement on The Ellen Show the day after the big California decision. Ellen has been an extremely influential advocate for gay rights, utilizing humor and humanity to pave the way for a better understanding of gay issues throughout middle America.

> ELLEN'S WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT ON HER SHOW

Ryan and Moe met in 2001 and were married at San Francisco’s City Hall in 2004 during the "Month of Love." After the courts voided their marriage, they decided to donate their license to the Oakland Museum of California. They have postponed any formal ceremony until they can take out a valid marriage license recognizing their union to legally marry in the state of California.

Carey and Michele met in May 2004 through PlanetOut.com. “Michele and I had both been actively meeting people online for a few months. In fact, just before we met, I had been corresponding online with four different women named Michele!” At their first meeting, Carey says she was instantly attracted to Michele. “The first thing that went through my mind was: I am going to marry this woman.” Michele proposed to Carey the following year in a hotel room in San Francisco. “She was on a business trip and I flew in for the weekend to visit her. Her plan was to propose in the Japanese Gardens the next day, but she was too excited and ended up proposing to me the night I arrived. She had called my parents a few days before to let them know she was planning to propose, which I thought was really sweet.”

They had their wedding at The Satisfied Frog in Cave Creek, Arizona. “They have a gorgeous outdoor courtyard area, with a large white party tent. We were married on a wooden bridge over a small pond, under the stars.” They have plans to get pregnant or may look into adoption in the next couple of years. “We know we want one child for sure. I may be able to talk Michele into two.”

Costas and John met through friends one evening and ended up getting married on the same day one year later. “John proposed to me in bed. It was a Saturday night, after we’d been going out for about two months, and just out of the blue he turned and asked me to marry him. He said, ‘You’ve been taking care of everybody for so long, let me take care of you now.’”

They had their wedding in London at the Islington Town Hall, a month after Civil Partnerships were legalized in the UK. “The ceremony was in this chamber room that resembled Parliament with these ornate woodcarvings, every seat had a microphone and a book table – it looked like a men’s smoking club. My friend who I’ve known since I was 14 married us. I wore Dior Homme and jeans, John his best suit.” Though they first planned to a have a simple ceremony with just five or six close friends, after calling and texting people with the news a few days prior to the wedding, more than 80 friends showed up. “The great thing was that all of our friends got together to celebrate. Friends from all over the world came. It was a fantastic party. It started Saturday morning and ended Sunday evening.”

Teri and Nate saw each other at parties before Nate finally asked her out. “Nate thinks I didn’t even know who he was for the first few meetings. Not true! I just thought he was a cute, flirty kid – not the type who wanted to settle down. Obviously I was wrong.” The day Nate proposed, they were driving up to Sonoma for the weekend. “Nate was so quiet and acting very weird. I thought he wanted to break up with me and was racking my brain trying to figure out what went wrong. As soon as we checked into the hotel, Nate got down on one knee and proposed – he couldn’t wait. We rented bikes and cruised around the vineyards in a post-proposal haze. I felt high – he felt relieved.”

Their wedding was at a small resort outside of Puerto Vallarta. “There were 50 people just hanging out on the beach having a good time. I didn’t get caught up in the fluff. It was a blast, but our vows were kind of weird. The ceremony was done in Spanish, so Nate didn’t understand them. The officiant totally forgot the ring exchange. I vowed to be a dutiful wife and make babies!” Their boy Jonah is now 6 months old.