It has slot machines and desert heat. It even has a connection to Elvis. Now Palm Springs wants to be the Las Vegas of gay marriage.

So do West Hollywood, San Diego and San Francisco.

The race to roll out silken aisles for pairs of brides and grooms after last month's sanction of gay marriage by the state's highest court has been fueled by the promise of economic riches for those who win the weddings. The first full day when marriages can take place is Tuesday.

"It's our slower season -- it's our value season, if you will. You can get a great deal if you're coming here," said Michael Green, owner of the Triangle Inn, a gay boutique hotel, and president of the Palm Springs Hospitality Association.

"Yeah, people can go to any city in California, but there's a certain cachet to going to San Francisco or Palm Springs, than going to San Diego ... San Francisco and Palm Springs are the quintessential destinations for gay people ... We stand to benefit the most."

Four of the top 10 most popular vacation destinations for gays and lesbians are in California -- Palm Springs, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego -- according to research by Community Marketing Inc., a firm that focuses on gay and lesbian demographic surveying.

"We're all sort of scrambling right now for own cities," said Bill Hynes, vice president of sales and marketing for the West Hollywood Convention and Visitors Bureau.

That city rolled out a print advertising campaign in 1 million copies of Pride Magazine not long after the court ruled, stating that West Hollywood is "THE place for weddings and honeymoons."

But the pursuit of wedding riches was slow for most cities as they waited for the court to decide whether it would stay the ruling until after the November election.

Some tourism groups and destinations didn't want to put offers and advertisements out there, just to go back to square one if the court halted gay marriages. And would-be grooms and brides hesitated, not knowing whether the court might foil their expensive wedding plans.

A November ballot measure could still potentially nullify the marriages. But since the court decided last week not to stay the ruling, destinations like Palm Springs have mobilized their gay marriage efforts.

"There was a lot of caution until last week," said David Paisley, senior projects director for San Francisco-based Community Marketing.

Millions at Stake

A report from the UCLA School of Law estimates that the same-sex unions could bring in $683.6 million in direct spending to the state in three years. The study, by professors Brad Sears and M.V. Lee Badgett, assumes that 51,319 couples from California, about half of the state's gay couples, and another 67,513 same-sex partners from out of state will wed in California in that time. It also estimates that those couples will spend a quarter of the $30,580 their straight counterparts would spend on average on their weddings.

"We all know this is a tough summer," said Steve Pougnet, the second openly gay mayor of Palm Springs. The May ruling is a chance for the city to reconfirm itself as a marriage capital "for everybody," he said. "I think there's a huge opportunity."

Pougnet didn't wait long after the state Supreme Court overturned a ban on gay marriage in California to convene tourism leaders across the Coachella Valley to brainstorm. He also became deputized to officiate weddings in Riverside County, and he is scheduled to marry Dean Seymour and Philip Colavito, partners for eight years, at the Indio courthouse at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

The money trading hands in California won't just be limited to buying flowers, decorations and DJs. A November ballot measure that would change the California Constitution to ban gay marriages is likely to create a windfall of political spending.

"You will have a lot of people spending money on television, radio and newspapers ads saying, 'This is a sin,' " and vice versa, said Jack Kyser, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation.

Spending in Palm Springs

Dick Moll, 73, and Wallace Pinfold, 61, part-time residents of Palm Springs and full-time residents of Maine, plan to get their marriage license Tuesday in Indio. That evening, they'll wed in a Palm Springs home with a minister and four guests watching.

After returning to the northeast to continue fighting for "equal marriages" there as board members of Equality Maine, the two will come back to Palm Springs in the winter.

"In January, we will have a heck of a party to celebrate this," Moll said.

He wouldn't say what their budget would be, just that it would be large, catered and "a good excuse for a party."

Moll's affection for both Pinfold, whom he met seven years ago, and Palm Springs ultimately influenced their decision to wed in the desert. Moll said they both tend to buy products or visit destinations where they know they'll be treated equally, so cities' efforts to establish a gay-friendly reputation for weddings can go a long way.

The city of Palm Springs asked Burke Rix Hines & Associates, a government affairs firm with offices in Palm Springs and Santa Monica, to corral the wedding industry in the city and prepare for the "onslaught of pent-up wedding demand, if you will," said Scott Hines, one of the firm's partners.

The group, working pro bono to promote Palm Springs businesses, has organized a downtown celebration from 7 to 10 p.m. next Saturday complete with weddings cakes, a cash bar, dancing and possible weddings. The firm has also set up the Web site www.marriedinpalmsprings.com, where couples interested in getting married in the desert can find venues, florists and photographers.

Hines said gay weddings probably won't be a tourism savior for Palm Springs, which has lost retail and visitors to resort cities farther east in the Coachella Valley, but he said, "I think every little bit helps, and that's the point."

Out of 20,516 Palm Springs households surveyed for the 2000 census, 832 were same-sex partners. A 2006 survey of the Riverside and San Bernardino metro area showed that of 1.2 million households, 10,554 were same-sex partners. The census doesn't account for single gay men or women.

Desert hotels, including the Miramonte Resort & Spa in Indian Wells and Hotel Zoso, have started shifting marketing dollars that would have been spent elsewhere to reach the gay and lesbian wedding market.

About six gay couples are considering The Parker Palm Springs for the site of their ceremony or reception, including Seymour and Colavito.

Despite hosting one wedding a week on average including commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples, the hotel is just now creating a Web site geared toward weddings as a result of the gay marriage ruling, said Thomas Meding, general manager.

Less Marketing Elsewhere

Elsewhere in Southern California, hotels and destinations aren't planning to overhaul their current system of doing wedding business.

The Riverside Marriott, despite being one of 20 Inland hotels that Community Marketing approved as gay-friendly, has no plans to market the hotel any differently than before, said General Manager Tom Donahue.

The San Bernardino Convention and Visitors Bureau has nothing planned either.

Nothing will change at Disneyland, where gay couples have been allowed to use the full "fairy tale" wedding packages inside the park for about a year.

The Temecula Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau has taken the same tack. The group has no intention to market directly to engaged gay and lesbian couples or plan specials or packages among its hotel members, but instead will market the region as a whole, said Denis Ferguson, chairman of the bureau's board of directors.

Lindsey Garza-Johanson, of Moreno Valley, and her partner of five years picked Temecula, where they dated, as the place they will get married.

Garza-Johanson, 31, said she and partner Donna vanNieuwenhuyzen, 37, visited Wiens Family Cellars late in the day after stopping at a couple wineries and getting lukewarm receptions. The Wiens staff offered discounts on food and free wine at every table, she said.

Couples such as Garza-Johanson and vanNieuwenhuyzen -- California residents staying closer to home for their wedding -- will mean just as much to the state's economy as out-of-state couples, experts say.

"Most people getting married will be locals, getting married in their local communities," said Paisley, of Community Marketing. "Every county can benefit from this."

Staff writer Jeff Horseman contributed to this report.

Reach Kimberly Pierceall at 951-368-9552 or kpierceall@PE.com