KEY WEST—Bartenders Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones completed their application paperwork and received the first marriage license in the Keys last week, and on Tuesday morning they exchanged vows outside the Key West courthouse just after midnight. The ceremony was officiated by Metropolitan Community Church Rev. Steve Torrence,

“Reality is actually setting in that actually we’re gonna be married,” Huntsman told NBC TV’s Channel 6 before the nuptials. “I think, finally, it’s all coming together now.”

Huntsman and Jones filed a lawsuit last year after they were denied a marriage license under the state law. A judge overturned the ban in the case but the state appealed until federal judge Robert Lewis Hinkle struck down the ban.

The Key West clerk’s office opened at 11:30 p.m. Monday and began issuing licenses after midnight.

“It’s never been about being the first (same-sex) couple to be married in the state of Florida. It’s always about correcting a wrong that has been going on for many years and to get everybody the rights they deserve,” Huntsman told Channel 6.

Julia Davis and Edie Hambright had front row seats for the ceremony. In true Key West style, they brought their own lawn chairs and set them up in front of the courthouse steps.

The couple has been together for 21 years and were legally married in New York, according to the Miami Herald. They came to the ceremony to celebrate the union of Huntsman and Jones, and to celebrate their own marriage gaining legal recognition in Florida.

“She turns 78 in July and I turn 65 in June. We just didn’t think we’d see it in our lifetime,” Hambright told the Miami Herald. “Now we have the same benefits — retirement, health benefits, death benefits. Only a state can give you that kind of stuff. We can’t be denied that.”

Follow