Wedding bells for our Chief Minister

Congratulations are in order for ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr and his partner Anthony Toms who are getting married next week.

Andrew Barr and Anthony Toms at the 2009 ceremony.

The nuptials will take place on Wednesday, in Mr Toms' home town in the Hunter Valley.

Wednesday will mark the 20^th anniversary of the couple's first meeting, Canberra's first SpringOut gay and lesbian festival, which was also then Mr Toms' first visit to Canberra.

In 2009, they had to first do their civil partnership registration at the Fyshwick headquarters of the ACT Births, Deaths and Marriages Unit earlier in the week.

The civil partnership was on November 14 and the wedding will be on November 13, almost a decade apart to the day.

Anthony Toms and Andrew Barr at a "yes to marriage equality rally" in 2017.

Mr Toms and Mr Barr might have missed having a wedding during Canberra's short-lived same-sex marriage laws, which allowed weddings from December 7 to December 12 when they were struck down by the High Court.

Since national marriage equality laws were passed and same-sex marriages made legal since December, 2017, they are now free to celebrate their own memorable wedding day with family and friends.