With two words, Rich Ephgrave and Darron Deal on Saturday linked themselves together forever: "I do."

"I now pronounce you joined in life and love," the Rev. Tessie Mandeville said as the two men and dozens of other same-sex couples took commitment vows at the Atlanta Pride Festival.

Mikki K. Harris / mkharris@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

From left, Carrie Wilkie and Stacie Williams listen to the prelude of the Atlanta Pride Festival's commitment ceremony at the Atlanta Civic Center on Saturday. The couple is committing to each other on their third anniversary.

Mikki K. Harris / mkharris@ajc.com

Jason Dulworth and Dennis Taylor of Oxford, Ala., wait for the start of the Atlanta Pride Festival's commitment ceremony

RELATED: • Photos of commitment ceremony • Photos of festival participants • Festival guide | Events schedule

Ephgrave, 34, and Deal, 26, wanted the world to know they were devoted to one another. And though the state of Georgia outlaws same-sex marriages, the couple said this ceremony was important to them.

"It's important to stand up in front of my friends and family and make a commitment to Darron," Ephgrave said.

That was the point of the Committment Ceremony, executive director Donna Narducci said. "This public commitment is a powerful statement about couples and their devotion to one another," she said.

Fifty same-sex couples came to the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlantic Civic Center to pledge a lifetime together. There were wedding dresses, suits and a few tuxedos. But many participants were dressed casually.

Deal, a nurse originally from Lakeland, Fla., and Ephgrave, an Atlanta software account manager, wore matching tuxedo T-shirts.

"Neither of us wanted to rent tuxedos," Deal said. "And it's Atlanta in July. It's too hot."

What both men said they appreciated about one another was their willingness to be open about being gay. Also, each man's family accepts the relationship, Ephgrave said, which makes their union sweeter.

"My last boyfriend was in-closet with his family and at work," he said. "Darron's mom calls me more than she actually talks to him."

Saturday's committment ceremony offered many couples the chance to openly express their love to their families. It has been a staple of the city's annual gay pride celebration since 1991, when people leading an alternative lifestyle sought an alternative to marriage.

Always the most popular part of the weekend-long Pride Festival, the ceremony typically sees 100 couples participating.

Narducci suggested the venue and date change — the recent drought forced the event from its usual Piedmont Park location in June to the Fourth of July holiday weekend at the Civic Center — may have contributed to the drop in the number of participants this year.

"Or it could also be that more people, rather than settling for a commitment ceremony, are getting married in California or Massachusetts or Canada or Spain, where gay marriage is allowed," she said.

The Georgia General Assembly banned same-sex marriage in 1996. Eight years later, lawmakers approved an amendment to the state constitution prohibiting same-sex marriage, and voters overwhelmingly ratified it.

The federal Defense of Marriage Act prevents same-sex couples from receiving federal rights and benefits in any state.

The issue resurfaced recently, when in May, California became the second state after Massachusetts to afford gay couples the same marriage rights as heterosexual couples.

But Ephgrave and Deal didn't see the need to move to California or Massachusetts to marry. Particularly not for the sake of settling affairs, should one of them die.

"I don't think either of our families would put up any road blocks," Deal said. "Both of our families know each other. They know what our wishes would be."

In the end, Deal said he and Ephgrave can do without the legal underpinnings of marriage.

"It's a piece of paper," he said. "When two people are committed to each other and love each other, I don't understand what the big fuss is about."