With Wool E. Bull, Durham Bulls' mascot, as best man and Mayor Bill Bell to give the bride away, more than 1,000 people "married" Durham during a sun-drenched street fair Saturday.

"It's almost time to break out the suntan lotion," said Ryan Fehrman, who was manning a booth for Genesis Home, one of five local nonprofits receiving proceeds from Marry Durham.

According to its organizers, Marry Durham grossed about $25,000 - the goal was $12,000. Minus expenses, the money is earmarked for the Eno River Association, Latino Community Development Center, Scrap Exchange and Walltown Children's Theatre along with Genesis Home.

In all, Marry Durham organizers counted more than 2,000 people entering the festival zone along Rigsbee Avenue downtown. Most of them were on hand for the signature event, a 10-minute ceremony in which those gathered took vows to honor the city's diversity and strength and to protect the city and its reputation.

"Today we marry each other, beyond race, beyond gender, beyond class, beyond sexual orientation, beyond religion," said Carl Kenny, an ordained minister and Durham News columnist who performed the ceremony in clerical vestments.

Kenney was hardly the only participant dressed for the occasion. WUNC-FM program host Frank Stasio served as master of ceremonies in black tuxedo with a Duke-blue cummerbund, and Wool E. Bull abandoned his usual baseball uniform for a suit in honor of the occasion.

A string quartet, Justin Robinson and the Mary Annettes, performed the processional as local dignitaries including U.S. Rep. David Price, Bell, county commissioners Vice Chairwoman Ellen Reckhow and N.C. Central University Chancellor Charlie Nelms made an entrance and took front-row seats.

Wedding attire and variations thereof were in abundance through the crowd. One gentleman appeared in top hat and tux on stilts, another in formal-dress shirt with black Bermuda shorts and a lady wore a strapless white mini-dress with a veil streaming down her back.

"I even brought a ring," said bridegroom Richard Milward.

For some, the dress-up opportunity brought welcome surprises.

"This is my original wedding dress from 36 years ago!" exclaimed Judy Kincaid. "I pulled it down from the attic and it fit!"

Dan Read wore the same gray pinstripe suit and pink necktie he had on when he married Marie Mangano, who accompanied him in the dress she wore to her high-school prom in 1974.

"This is better than Centerfest," said downtown-Durham resident Kate Dobbs Ariail, referring to the annual downtown arts festival held each fall since 1974. "They went to such extraordinary lengths to make it so charming."

In the ceremony, Kenney said that Durham is made stronger by its "mix of views and ideologies," and as if to illustrate his point two protesters stood just outside the festival area. One, wearing a McCain/Palin T-shirt, carried a sign reading "Citysexuals are an abomination" and, on the reverse, "God hates Durham," while his companion, in a University of North Carolina T-shirt, had a sign saying "It's Sodom and Gomorrah not Sodom and Steve."

They made their point without incident.

"This is a hot place to be," said Phil Lehman. "To see all these young people."

Besides the "wedding," Marry Durham had Korean barbecue, hot dogs and hamburgers, cupcakes and assorted other food for sale. The longest line was at the stand for Locopops, a gourmet Popsicle company that began in Durham and has expanded to several other Triangle locations.

Souvenir T-shirts, glassware and cowbells were on sale, beer at Fullsteam Brewery and two nightspots along the street and music - as the afternoon wore on, a blues band in Lloyd's Lounge competed with impromptu drummers across the street and a brass band playing while festival revelers in Mardi Gras-style getup danced around it. Frilly hats were everywhere, along with bullhorns in several variations.

Resident Patrice Nelson said the costumes were her favorite feature of the afternoon.

"It was a riot," she said.

"Just kinda fun," said Fehrman.

"My God, what a glorious city!" said Stasio.