Smith was sued by two residents of Tulsa County, Mary Bishop and Sharon Baldwin, when their request for a marriage license was denied a few months after Oklahoma’s law passed. Bishop is an editor at the Tulsa World and Baldwin is a former employee. They’ve been a couple for nearly 18 years.

Many expect the same-sex marriage issue and Smith’s appeal to be an unavoidable issue for the U.S. Supreme Court when it returns from recess Oct. 6.

Purely by coincidence, the final rescheduled wedding date for Custer and Woodard was to be Oct. 7, 2014.

A life of bear hugs

Among the remnants of factories and burned-down barbecue joints that line Charles Page Boulevard sits Woodard and Custer’s little white house with both names hand-painted on the mailbox.

That was the first thing Woodard did after he moved in with Custer in 1995, about six months into dating. They met at a dinner party, and one of their first dates was a bike ride along the Sand Springs trail. Custer was an avid cyclist, and Woodard bought a Schwinn, hoping to keep up.

While Custer, 62, was born on a U.S. Air Force base in Canada, both were from families with deep roots in Oklahoma and spent most of their lives here.