A cake with two brides

Angelika and Gudrun cut the cake

By CNN's Avril Stephens

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Angelika and Gudrun Pannier have again exchanged the rings they first gave each other five years ago -- this time as part of a legally recognised union.

The first ceremony had been a private affair between the two with no significance beyond their own personal vows to each other.

But the second this week was attended by family, friends and hordes of photographers and journalists ready to mark the union and its legal and social importance.

The pair were the first to tie the knot under a new German law which allows homosexual couples to wed.

The new law passed last year does not give the same tax privileges as heterosexual married couples, but homosexuals will also have to apply to the courts for a divorce, and they will receive the same inheritance and health insurance benefits.

Angelika, 36, told CNN: "There is still a lot more to do, but it is the first step.

"Before, everything was separate, like our bank accounts and insurance, but now it can be one. That makes day to day life more easier."

About 25 guests attended the official partnership ceremony at the wood-panelled registry office in Berlin's Schoeneberg district.

The couple who wore black tuxedos and white bow ties sealed the exchange of vows with the rings and a kiss.

The rings were the same they had given each other in April 1996 after meeting through a lonely hearts column the year before.

"The first time was just between us and for us to make sure that our relationship was right. Everyone else was able to get married but now we can also."

Gudrun added: "We exchanged rings symbolically five years ago, but this is the real thing."

The couple, both 36, had been waiting since that first exchange of rings for a change in German law that would allow their union to be legally recognised.

The civil servant in charge of the ceremony said she had been up late through the night deciding what to say during the service.

A short poem was read out, but the couple's hopes of playing a Barbara Streisand song fell through when they could not find an electric socket.

"The wording was very similar to a heterosexual civil ceremony, but we were not asked whether we 'took this man' as our husband," Angelika said.

They were chosen to be the first homosexual couple to sign the new partnership contract by their party The Greens, which had lobbied hard for the new law.

After the ceremony they cut the three-tiered cake, topped with two model brides, and left to share a quiet lunch with their guests.

They do not plan to go away on a honeymoon, but they hope to visit San Francisco next year.