Spanish for "I do".

Sain has come a long way since Carlos Baturin and Emilio Menendez met 30 years ago. Back then they lived under the right-wing dictatorship of Francisco Franco. "Just for being gay we could have been put in prison," Baturin recalled.

So it was particularly poignant when Baturin, 56, a psychiatrist, and Menendez, a window dresser for Spain's biggest department store, became the first couple to tie the knot under the country's new same-sex marriage law on July 11. "It's hard to believe that it actually happened," Baturin said.

The wedding was supposed to be intimate, with a dozen family members gathering at a city hall in a small town outside Madrid. But the press caught on, and scores of reporters showed up. "So it wasn't the quiet wedding we expected," Baturin said, "but after 30 years together it's nice to be married."

The groundbreaking new marriage law, pushed by the Socialist government and signed by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on July 2, made Spain only the third country to fully legalize same-sex marriage, behind the Netherlands and Belgium and ahead of Canada, where marriage equality was signed into law on July 21. The change drew intense opposition from the Roman Catholic Church in Spain.

But despite their overwhelming Catholic faith, two thirds of Spaniards support same-sex unions, and about half are in favor of the new law's provision allowing gays to adopt.