Here come the brides.

Guests from six states and at least two continents flew to Hawaii to see local surfer Joanne Howard, 33, marry 32-year-old Denise Baron Luna, formerly of California, Wednesday in Waikiki in one of the largest same-sex weddings held in the isles since the Marriage Equality Act took effect late last year.

"We’re at about 230 guests, and I’d say 70 of them are coming in from California, Kentucky, Washington, Oregon, New York, Florida, Europe and Guam," Howard said Monday. "They are keeping us running. We’re doing one airport pickup after another."

It’s also arrival time for Hawaii’s same-sex marriage market, which between Dec. 2 and May 1 made up 15 percent of all marriages in the state.

Since the act gave members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities marriage equality and opened up business and tourism opportunities throughout the state, 1,417 same-sex couples have tied the knot in Hawaii. Pent-up demand among mostly local residents made December, at 533 same-sex marriages, Hawaii’s busiest LGBT month to date.

Michael Golojuch Jr., chairman of the GLBT Democratic Caucus, said fees from the same-sex marriages in December alone covered the estimated cost of the special session that Hawaii lawmakers held last fall to consider the marriage equality bill. He added that by May 1 fees for same-sex marriage licenses brought the state an additional $91,000 in revenues.

"That’s not a bad for something that our opposition said would only affect a few people," Golojuch said. "I also chair Honolulu Pride, and I’m getting calls daily from couples on the mainland who are planning trips to Hawaii because of marriage equality."

Most people who get married in Hawaii are from out of state, and state Registrar Alvin Onaka said he expects same-sex couples won’t be an exception. From Dec. 2 to May 1, 49 percent of all same-sex couples who applied for a marriage license included at least one out-of-state party.

"We expect the percentage of same-sex couples coming from out of state to get married in Hawaii to keep going up based on the fact that Hawaii is a great destination and there are a number of states that don’t allow same-sex marriage," Onaka said.

Rob Goodwin, 35, and his partner, Lewis Simpson, 46, are coming to Hawaii to get married July 25 because same-sex marriage isn’t legal in their hometown of Tampa, Fla.

"Honestly, we never thought that this day would come," said Goodwin, who won a free wedding package from GayTravel.com that includes a seven-night stay at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort and Spa. "I remember watching the same-sex marriage debate in Hawaii in the early years and thinking that it would never happen. Now just look at the numbers. … Way to represent, Hawaii!"

Hawaii isn’t wasting any time making up for the nearly 20 years that it took to become the 14th state to implement marriage equality, said Don Bentz, executive director of the Equality Hawaii Foundation.

"Hawaii always has been a popular wedding destination state regardless of the couples who were getting married," Bentz said. "Now that we offer everyone the freedom to marry, we’ll be able to capture even more of the destination wedding and honeymoon industry. I mean, would you rather get married and honeymoon in Hawaii or somewhere like Idaho or Arkansas?"

There’s no doubt that demand for Hawaii among same-sex couples has intensified, said Kevin Rebelo, owner of HawaiiWedding-.com.

"We’ve seen business increase by about 50 percent since same-sex couples could legally wed in Hawaii," Rebelo said. "Our business used to be 10 percent gay, 90 percent straight. Now it’s 60 percent gay and 40 percent straight. We’ve been swamped since March, and 30 of the 40 weddings that we’ve done in May were for the same-sex market."

Beth Churchill, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Aqua Hospitality, said the company, which has actively catered to the LGBT market for the past eight years, has also seen an uptick in LGBT traffic since December.

"Before, we’d advertise get married in California and honeymoon in Hawaii," Churchill said. "Now it’s come here for your wedding and your honeymoon. We’ve had a good response, and I think it’s only going to get better — it’s still early, and the destination is really just getting started in reaching out to this community."

Many other visitor industry companies, ranging from Hyatt to Starwood to Hilton and even Hawaii’s largest travel wholesaler, Pleasant Holidays, are moving quickly to capture a share of the same-sex travel segment.

Jerry Gibson, vice president of Hilton Hawaii, said Hilton Hotels & Resorts is offering a "Stay Hilton, Go Out" travel package that offers inclusions such as complimentary welcome beverages and a one-year subscription to Out magazine.

"Hawaii has always been one of the top destination wedding markets in the world, and we are excited that the new legislation has started to bring even more couples to our islands," Gibson said.

Pleasant Holidays President and CEO Jack Richards said the company began working to promote same-sex weddings as soon as the Legislature passed a marriage equality bill.

"We think that this market could be a growing market for Hawaii. However, we haven’t seen a lot of promotion from the hotel side, and we don’t believe that hoteliers are very organized at this point," Richards said.

So far, Richards said that Pleasant’s Destination Wedding Travel department has brought two same-sex weddings to Hawaii. However, he thinks the numbers will improve as hotels embrace the concept and add wedding areas near the beach, a wedding concierge and other important features.

"Right now it’s hard for Hawaii to compete with the wedding facilities and the all-inclusive pricing in Mexico and the Caribbean," he said. "Honeymoons … now that’s a different story."

Starwood Hotels and Resorts is among the Hawaii hotel chains that have seen the same-sex honeymoon market grow, said Kelly Sanders, the company’s area managing director Waikiki.

"We’ve seen some local same-sex weddings and a few same-sex destination weddings, but we are seeing lots of honeymooners," Sanders said. "The passing of the bill just makes the LGBT market more comfortable because it says that they are welcome and this is a destination that wants their business. I do see the market expanding."