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Huntsville's Wedding Week celebration of same-sex marriages next week has moved off the Madison County Courthouse Square and into adjourning Big Spring International Park East. With crowds in the hundreds expected for the county's first same-sex marriages, a city spokeswoman said, "The courthouse square was simply too small."

Event organizers say they retain the permit for gathering under the brick gazebo on the west side of the square and can use that area for people unable to make it down the steps into the park.

Wedding Week spokeswoman Heather Reed said today that she met Wednesday with the agencies involved - city, county and police - and everyone is cooperating. "The city was extremely helpful," Reed said, and so was the office of Madison County Probate Judge Tommy Ragland.

Reed said the week's organizers know the first two couples who will apply for marriage licenses and get married, but she did not name them. The Wedding Week organizers have 36 couples signed up so far to get married in the park.

Also today, the State of Alabama issued a new marriage license replacing gender reference in applicants with the gender-neutral term "spouse." Those licenses are being sent to probate judges across the state in time for use Monday.

Same-sex marriage will be legal in Alabama beginning Monday under a federal judge's ruling unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. The high court has already declined to intervene in a similar situation in Florida, but is expected to decide the issue of gay marriage nationwide in June.

(Updated at 2:40 p.m. to reflect that the square location will still be available for couples who cannot make their way down the stairs to the park.)