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Everyone wins in NYC gay marriage lottery

City officials held a lottery for 764 marriage slots, but when 823 couples registered, the city decided to let all of them make it official this weekend.
Image: Supporters
Supporters of same sex marriage celebrate after Senate members voted and approved same-sex marriage in June at the capitol in Albany, N.Y.Hans Pennink / AP file
/ Source: msnbc.com news services

When gay marriage becomes legal Sunday in New York, 823 couples will say their vows in New York City, .

City officials held a lottery Thursday for 764 marriage slots, but when 823 couples registered, the city decided to let all of them make it official this weekend.

The clerk's offices in each of the five boroughs have their own limit of couples for this Sunday. Each of the outer boroughs had enough spots for interested couples, but in Manhattan where only 400 spots were available, 533 couples registered, according to .

In order to accommodate everyone, city officials decided to expand the number of ceremonies in Manhattan to 459 and the other 74 couples who applied to marry in Manhattan will instead marry in one of the other four boroughs.

Both straight and gay couples were allowed to register in the lottery Thursday and those who registered didn't have to reveal their genders, so it is unknown how many of the 823 couples intending to marry are gay, said.

The city will break a record Sunday with 823 marriages, more than the city's previous single-day high of 621 on Valentine's Day in 2003.

Couples could register in the lottery between noon Tuesday and noon Thursday. New York state's Marriage Equality Act was signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on June 24.

The law made the state the sixth and most populous in the United States to allow same-sex marriage.

Clerk's offices normally are closed on Sundays, but officials across the state said they would open them to marry same-sex couples on the first day the law takes effect.