Same-sex couples in a civil partnership in Northern Ireland have been allowed to get married from this morning.
People in more than 1,300 same-sex civil partnerships will be able to tie the knot from Monday, after a lengthy campaign and a law change in Westminster during the extended shutdown at Stormont.
Gay marriage was one of the issues that prevented Stormont from reforming its power-sharing executive for several years - and in its absence, parliament pushed ministers to introduce the change.
The DUP, Northern Ireland's largest party, is staunchly opposed to same-sex marriage on religious grounds and argues that the institution should be between a man and a woman.
While same-sex couples were able to get married earlier in the year, the initial reforms excluded those already in a civil-partnership.
In October, Northern Ireland minister Robin Walker introduced the new regulations to parliament, allowing people in civil partnerships to get married retrospectively.
More than 30 same-sex couples are planning to get married this week, according to Stormont finance minister Conor Murphy.
Among them were Cara McCann and Amanda McGurk, part of the Love Equality campaign, who celebrated their nuptials outside Belfast City Hall on Monday morning.
Ms McCann said: "We fought long and hard for the right to marry."
She added: "We want to thank everyone who was part of this great movement for love and equality, and which has delivered this wonderful, positive change for our society.
"It is just surreal that this day has come and we feel so much more equal and valued today once we received our marriage certificate.
"Marriage is universal, everyone across the globe knows what a marriage is.
"We grew up not saying, 'I cannot wait to get a civil partnership', we grew up saying, 'I cannot wait to get married'."
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Ms McGurk said it was an "absolutely wonderful" occasion.
"I do not think we ever thought this day was going to come in our time," she added.
"We have been campaigning and hoping for this day for many, many years and are delighted to be the first."
