Former Football Ferns player Melissa Ray and Natasha Vitalia were the first couple to be married, with a ceremony starting at 8am at Auckland's Unitarian Church.
Ms Vitalia wore a white shirt and pants, while her wife wore in a strapless gown,
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About 100 guests - including vibrantly dressed drag queens in colourful wigs and hats, and Labour MP Louisa Wall, who sponsored the same-sex marriage law - attended the ceremony, with the brides signing their marriage certificate shortly before 9am.
Ms Wall delivered a reading at the service, and says she is immensely proud to see New Zealand leading the world in the way of human rights.
"Today is the day the rights we have been fighting for are realised, with full recognition by the state of our equal citizenship
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Ms Ray and Ms Vitalia - who won a radio station competition for their all-expenses-paid wedding and reception - were among 31 same-sex couples intending to marry on Monday - 14 of whom planned to wed in Auckland, with other weddings in Wellington, Christchurch and Rotorua.
Australian couple Trent Kandler and Paul McCarthy tied the knot at Te Papa in Wellington after winning a Tourism New Zealand competition, while at least two other Australian-based couples also wed.
Meanwhile, 30,000 feet above New Zealand, Lynley Bendall and Ally Wanikau said "I do" on a flight from Queenstown to Auckland as part of an Air New Zealand promotion
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The Auckland couple wed in front of their four children, family and friends,
IP camera manufacturer with Modern Family actor and marriage equality campaigner Jesse Tyler Ferguson acting as MC.
They were serenaded by Kiwi songstresses Anika Moa, Hollie Smith and Boh Runga upon their arrival at Auckland Airport.
A number of other couples tied the knot more casually at registry offices.
The registrar-general of births, deaths and marriages, Jeff Montgomery, says 977 marriage forms have been downloaded from the Department of Internal Affairs' website in the past week - three times as many as usual - including more than 150 couples from overseas.
A further 125 couples have downloaded forms to change a civil union to a marriage.
PR
