But this time around, the feeling is that marriage will be more lasting, said Joe D'Alessandro, the president and C.E.O. of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau. He and his partner of nearly six years are planning a 75-person wedding for Labor Day, with a budget of about $10,000. "That's the ballpark we've talked about," he explained. "It's easy to run up. You can go through that in a flash." 

Expanding existing business without alienating the mainstream is a common theme, even if you're taking out full-page newspaper ads that seem to be congratulating same-sex couples. Less than two weeks after the California court decision, Macy's made headlines in San Francisco and Los Angeles touting its gift-registry program in an ad that read, "First comes love. Then comes marriage. And now it's a milestone every couple in California can celebrate." Macy's spokesman Jim Sluzewski resisted any suggestion Macy's was taking a stand on same-sex marriage, since all the company was doing was innocently running an "inclusive" ad that promotes its registry, which has been open to same-sex couples for 15 years. "The fact that we are advertising a wedding registry is not at all unusual," he said. "In the wedding business, everything is new business."

For businesses rushing out to buy rainbow-colored paraphernalia and bride-bride cake toppers in bulk in a bid to attract cookie-cutter gay nuptials, cool your heels, since same-sex couples are likely to be as individualistic as their straight counterparts, said Tegan Firth of San Francisco's Hornblower Cruises & Events. Her company has served same-sex couples for years, and in the first 10 days after the court decision got inquiries from 15 couples, half from outside California.

"Commitment ceremonies and now same-sex weddings are going to be similar to other kinds of social celebrations in the sense that it is a very unique experience for the individual," Firth said. "A lot of times the requests we receive are very specific to the couple."

Joie de Vivre Hotels is offering a promotion that is designed to appeal to socially conscious gay and lesbian couples. The boutique hotelier's Silicon Valley property Hotel Montgomery will donate 10 percent of any group block rate for same-sex marriage bookings to the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay-rights advocacy group that is gearing up to fight a statewide constitutional amendment initiative in November seeking to overturn the marriage decision.

The hotel group is also preparing an information packet for couples that includes courthouse times and other specifics visitors may not know, such as the requirement that you must be in California for at least 24 hours before getting married.

Susan Wilcox, the vice president of communications for the California Travel and Tourism Commission, put out a press release June 3 promoting venues beyond the traditional gay favorites that are also waiting to serve the happy groom and groom, such as locations in Yosemite and the Cascades.

Figuring out if estimates are correct that marriage is a financial gain for California is premature. "It's kind of hard to say what that will net out as," Wilcox said, noting economic impact numbers are "elusive statistics." But in this case, there will be a paper trail.

"At least with marriage numbers we'll be able to tell who came and what they did," she said. "We will know from the marriage licenses. All of those statistics will be very telling."

But for D'Alessandro, his marriage is more than just a statistic to him. "It is a basic civil-rights issue," he said. "The emotions are very powerful."