ORLANDO, Fla. – Wednesday marks the first anniversary of gay marriage in Florida, with many couples getting ready to celebrate.
After a six-year courtship, Iris Pacheco and Daisy Figueroa officially tied the knot inside the Orange County Courthouse on New Year's Eve.
"Once you are here, everything just -- you get the butterflies. It just feels like, 'Oh, wow, we are doing this,' you know? It's really happening. She almost started crying and mess up her makeup," Pacheco said.
Bill Stevens and his husband, Robert, were the first gay couple to legally marry in Orange County.
"It's really cool. It was great to, you know, be part of the suit that sort of forced the hand to make sure that, you know, Orange County would be able to do this," Stevens said.
Stevens said that it is hard to believe a year has almost passed. He also said that having his marriage legally recognized by the state is more important than just the title.
"Especially, you know, as you get older, and you think about Social Security down the road and all of those things. Even spousal benefits if something were to happen. All of those things are just now covered," Stevens said.
In Osceola County, Thomas Lawson and Michael Scott were one of the first same-sex couples to get married.
"When the news broke that gay marriage would hopefully be becoming legal soon in Florida, it was very fast-tracked," Scott said.
The couple said they had the wedding of their dreams and said the level of acceptance in central Florida has increased since gay marriage became the law of the land.
"I remember even a few years ago, we had friends that were getting married and they would travel to another state where it was legal, and then when it became legal in our own state of Florida, that was a really big deal to us and to a lot of people that we know here in Orlando."
Gay marriages were performed legally in Florida almost six months before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was legal in all 50 states.