The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked same-sex marriages in Utah, less than three weeks after they were approved by a lower court.

Hundreds of gay couples in Utah have received marriage licenses since the ruling last month.

But the action by the Supreme Court means that gay weddings in the heavily Mormon state are on hold for now while the case is appealed to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Utah become the 18th state – at least temporarily – where gay marriage was permitted after a district judge sided with three same-sex couples who challenged the Utah state constitution that defined marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman.