Brighton and Hove is winning the race to become the UK's favourite place to hold a gay wedding.
Almost 200 couples have registered for a civil partnership ceremony in the city this year.
They will take advantage of a new law that allows same-sex partners to enter into a union that gives them similar rights to a heterosexual married couple.
Brighton and Hove City Council has keenly supported the change and will hold its first ceremonies as soon as the law comes into force on Wednesday, December 21, at 8am.
It plans to "marry" 198 couples in the following ten days. Its nearest rival, Westminster Council, is planning 132 ceremonies.
There have been 400 applications from gay and lesbian couples interested in having a partnership ceremony in Brighton and Hove.
Among the first to be married at Brighton Town Hall will be the Reverend Debbie Gaston, of the Metropolitan Community Church in Cumberland Road, Brighton, and her partner Elaine Cook, and Sussex Police employee Roger Lewis and his partner Keith Willmott-Goodall.
Brighton and Hove will be one of the first places in Britain to hold gay weddings.
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