CHICAGO _ When they decided to get married, there was no formal proposal.
The day they made the trip to apply for a marriage license was one they both happened to be off work.
But Edgewater residents Anthony Aranda, 50, and Terry Beauchamp, 49, could not escape fanfare Wednesday as they became the 10,000th same-sex couple issued a marriage license in Cook County since gay couples were allowed to wed in February 2014.
Both said they had no idea the milestone had been fast approaching when they decided to apply for the license Wednesday morning.
"This, we did not expect at all," Beauchamp said.
The couple met 18 years ago through friends when a tiff between other dinner attendees left them to get acquainted.
"We just sipped our wine and looked at each other and said, 'How about them Cubs?'" Aranda said. "And here we are."
They decided to get married a year ago. They will celebrate next month with a reception at Reza's in the Andersonville neighborhood. Beauchamp runs the That's Our Bag luggage store and Aranda is a flight attendant for United Airlines.
Marriage equality advocates cheered the approaching milestone earlier in the week but said they hoped that the tally, which includes civil unions converted to marriages, would be the last of its kind.
"I look forward to the day in the not-so-distant future when we lose track of the number of same-sex marriages," said Brian Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois. His wedding this year marked the county's 9,191st same-sex marriage license. "We are the last wave of married couples who will have to tell the story that when we first met, marriage was not a legal option for our future."
When Illinois passed its marriage equality bill in 2013, it became the 16th state to grant same-sex couples spousal rights such as hospital visitation, medical decisions and health care coverage.
Cook County issued its first same-sex marriage license in February 2014. It was the first county in Illinois to do so after a federal judge in Chicago ruled that the county could begin issuing licenses to gay couples before state law took effect June 1.
The month Illinois' law became effective, Cook County issued close to 1,500 same-sex marriage licenses, according to data provided by the county clerk.
In 2014, Cook County issued 6,184 same-sex marriage licenses _ representing about 16 percent of all marriage licenses _ and it issued 2,588 the following year.
So far this year, the county has issued 1,214 same-sex marriage licenses.
Aranda and Beauchamp said they probably would have gotten hitched earlier had it been legal, but they don't expect their lives to change much beyond tax status.
"As far as day-to-day, no," Aranda said. "I just need to get used to saying 'husband' instead of 'partner' _ but that's probably about it."
Beauchamp said when they began dating, he and Aranda couldn't even envision marriage as an option down the line.
"It's great that it has gotten to the point that it's become an everyday occurrence," he said. "It's gotten to the point that it's commonplace."
