TRENTON — When New Jersey made it legal for same-sex couples to enter into civil unions in February 2007, Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster took their time to plan a ceremony. It wasn't until September of that year when the longtime couple celebrated their union in front of about 100 guests on a fishing pier near their home in Ocean Grove.

“We wanted family there,” Bernstein remembered. “It didn’t seem as urgent.”

But when same-sex marriages became legal in the state last fall, Bernstein and Paster quickly obtained a license and were wed in a small ceremony at a local restaurant.

“We had worked so long and so hard for this,” said Paster, 66, who has been in a relationship with Bernstein, 72, for 14 years. “We just wanted to do it immediately.”

They weren’t alone. A total of 2,955 gay couples were married in New Jersey from Oct. 21, when same-sex weddings began under the orders of a state judge, through the end of March, according to the state health department.

At the same time, 43,619 heterosexual couples were wed. That means about one of 15 marriages performed in the state during that period were for same-sex couples.

Monmouth County — home to Asbury Park, which has one of the state’s largest gay populations — was the site of the most same-sex weddings: 324. Camden was second at 298, followed by Essex with 258. Salem County had fewest at 10.

Gay rights advocates and researchers say the numbers are about what they expected — and are in line with what happened in other states such as Massachusetts and New York.

“The figures don’t strike me as high or low,” said Steven Goldstein, the founder of gay-rights group Garden State Equality.

John Mikytuck, the group’s interim director, said the numbers are in line with the population, considering about 4 percent of New Jersey’s 8.8 million residents identify as being gay.

“If you break (the numbers) down, it’s about 500 marriages a month,” Mikytuck said. “That means there are 150 marriages every weekend. That’s a heck of a lot of ceremonies.”

“What’s great is: Anyone who wants to get married can,” he added. “The sky’s the limit as far as the number goes.”

When New Jersey legalized domestic partnerships — which provide only a fraction of rights to same-sex couples — in July 2004, 1,733 were formed in the first month alone. But when civil unions — which grant same-sex couples many of the same rights as married couples, without the title — became available in 2007, only 1,514 applied in the first six months.

“People didn’t see civil unions as being equivalent,” said Lee Badgett, a professor at University of Massachusetts-Amherst and research director at UCLA’s Williams Institute, which studies sexual orientation law. “There is no symbolic or social value. I think that discouraged people taking advantage of them. I think you’ll see many more get married.”

Gauging how many same-sex couples across the country have gotten hitched since 2004 — when Massachusetts became the first of 14 states to legalize gay weddings — is difficult. Many states keep different sets of statistics. In New Jersey, couples declare their sex when they apply for a license, according to the health department.

A Pew Research Center study from June showed 71,165 gay couples had married in the U.S. The report noted at least 12,285 couples were wed in New York state in 2011 and 2012.

In New Jersey, many expected a big rush to the altar when Gov. Chris Christie’s administration sought to appeal the judge’s ruling to legalize gay marriage to the state Supreme Court.

“If somebody gives you a reward and you are afraid they’ll take it away in the next breath, you do what you can do,” Bernstein said.

But the Republican governor soon dropped his fight, and while dozens of couples married just after 12:01 a.m. Oct. 21, Christie’s decision gave more the opportunity to plan their nuptials in advance.

“Many have the philosophy of: We’ve waited so long, how could we not set a date where relatives from across the country can come?” Goldstein said.

Activists said they expect the pace will increase as the wedding season begins next month.

“That’s going to be the ultimate test,” Goldstein said. “I think you’ll see a huge spike in weddings. Just as you would for opposite sexes.”

Badgett said gay marriages could bring up to $94 million to New Jersey’s economy over the next three years. She suspects many couples from Pennsylvania, which does not allow gay marriage, will also cross the border to get hitched.

Some wedding planners and florists say they haven’t yet seen a big boost in business. But Barry Herman, who runs an entertainment company in Livingston that books wedding bands and DJs, said he’s already lined up about a dozen weddings for gay couples over the next year. That, he said, far outpaces the number of ceremonies he booked just after civil unions were legalized in the state.

“That was just a tiny ripple that didn’t mean much,” Herman said. “But this has been a lot bigger.”

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