Jessica Dent and Carolee Taylor met 17 years ago at a drag show at a former Montgomery gay club. It was practically love at first sight.

Following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Friday that makes gay marriage legal in Alabama and across the United States, the couple said "I do" as a small group celebrated outside the Montgomery County Probate Office. They sang, they cheered and were on hand to congratulate any couple planning to get a marriage license.

"There are no words to describe how it feels," Dent said, just after the ceremony.

Being legally married makes their union feel legitimate, she said.

"We believed it. We knew it. Now the world believes it. Love is what the world needs," Dent said.

The scene was played out across Alabama as a crowd gathered outside the Jefferson County Courthouse and two women married at the Mobile probate office, which closed its marriage license office for three months as the battle over same-sex marriage made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Julie Fey and Dottie Pippin, of Semmes, were first in line when the aluminum shades at the Mobile County Probate Office's marriage license window reopened.

"I never thought I'd see it in my lifetime," said Pippin, 60. "I'm tired of being a second-class citizen, you know?"

"This is the spirit of being an American," said James Robinson, Free2Be founder and executive director. "This is how the country feels when we get out from the fear and prejudice."

The celebrations came after the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday settled the issue of same-sex marriage once and for all in a 5-4 vote.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has been the court's swing vote in gay rights cases, wrote the majority opinion for himself and the four liberal justices.

"The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity," Kennedy wrote. "The petitioners in these cases seek to find that liberty by marrying someone of the same sex and having their marriages deemed lawful on the same terms and conditions as marriages between persons of the opposite sex."

Each of the court's four conservative justices -- John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas -- wrote a separate dissent.

Scalia, who joined Roberts' main dissent, wrote separately to warn of the threat to American democracy. He wrote that marriage law was of no special importance to him.

"It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me," he wrote. "Today's decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court."

'We will follow the law'

Gov. Robert Bentley urged calm amid strong emotions following the ruling.

"I agree with 81 percent of the people of Alabama who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman," said Bentley, shortly after speaking to a business group meeting in north Shelby County this morning. "Despite the court's ruling this morning I have not changed my mind."

But the governor added that now that the court has ruled that same-sex marriage is legal, he expects Alabama courts to follow the law.

"We will always obey the law. We will follow the rule of law," said Bentley.

Bentley said he knows that the ruling will result in deep emotions and feelings being expressed by those on all sides of the issue.

"It will be emotional for many but I want to urge everyone today to be calm. We can express our disagreements verbally as I have. But I have to uphold not only the constitution of Alabama, but I swore to uphold the Constitution of the United States and we will uphold the law of the United States. I will uphold the law of the nation and this is now the law."

Chief Justice Roy Moore told CNN the ruling was worse than the Court's 19th century decision to uphold racial segregation.

"I believe it's worse because it affects our entire system of morality and family values," Moore told CNN.

The Southern Poverty Law Center believes Moore is setting up a constitutional battle based on the judge's dissenting opinion Friday in an unrelated insurance company case. Moore wrote in that case: "If the Supreme Court's precedent interpreting a federal statute conflicts with the United States Constitution itself, then our duty is not to predict the next bend in the crooked path by asking, 'What would the Supreme Court do?' Moore writes. "Instead, our duty, under oath, is to ask, 'What does the Constitution say?'

"Here, that Constitution says the policyholders have a right to a jury trial. Furthermore, one may give up such an invaluable right, even in a case where an injury has already occurred and a cause of action exists, only when the waiver of that right is knowing, willing, and voluntary, and in this case it was not," Moore writes.

General Luther Strange said the ruling "overturned centuries of tradition and the will of the citizens of a majority of the states.

"While I do not agree with the opinion of the majority of the justices in their decision, I acknowledge that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling is now the law of the land," he said in a statement today. "Short of the passage of a Constitutional Amendment protecting marriage as between one man and one woman, the U.S. Supreme Court has the final say."

Rep. Patricia Todd, the state's only openly gay lawmaker, cheered the ruling and said she hoped state probate judges would immediately begin granting marriage licenses to gay couples.

"I'm ecstatic. I'm not shocked, I felt they would give a very strong clear opinion which leaves nothing to chance, which they did. I'm just tickled to death. It validates all of these marriages. Now we've got to figure out if probate judges in Alabama will cause any stink, which is a possibility of course," Todd said.

Two probate judges said they are now permanently out of the business of issuing marriage licenses.

"My office discontinued issuing marriage licenses in February and I have no plans to put Pike County back into the marriage business," Pike County Probate Judge Wes Allen wrote in a statement. "The policy of my office regarding marriage is no different today than it was yesterday."

Geneva County Probate Judge Fred Hamic also said he intends to permanently close the marriage license bureau in his office, if his attorneys don't object.

"This decision is not based on me being a homophobic, people can do whatever they want in private," Hamic said. "It is based strictly on my Christian beliefs."

'An incredibly historic day'

The decision has far-reaching implications for Alabama families who for years have been stuck in a sort of legal limbo.

The ruling may finally allow the Mobile couple who sued to overturn Alabama's same-sex marriage ban to adopt their son, their attorney said on Friday.

"Today is a good day for a lot of citizens and a really good day for the whole country," said David Kennedy, who represented lesbian couple Cari Searcy and Kim McKeand.

Searcy, who legally married Kim McKeand in California in 2008, is seeking to become the legal parent of McKeand's son Khaya, 9.

"Their son is nine years old, halfway through adulthood, and they have been trying to have this adoption done since he was six-weeks-old when they first filed it," Kennedy said. "That makes me very happy and I certainly anticipate over the coming days for them finally getting this adoption completed."

April and Ginger Aaron-Brush, of Vestavia Hills, were married in Massachusetts three years ago following a long-term relationship.

Last year, the couple filed a federal lawsuit seeking to have Alabama's ban on gay marriage overturned to force the state to recognize their marriage. The couple wants to enjoy the same rights as opposite sex couples, particularly the right to have dual adoption of their 8-year-old daughter.

April adopted their daughter but Ginger could not under Alabama's same-sex marriage ban. Now it appears the couple is ready to both have parental rights with the girl they have raised since infancy with Friday's ruling making gay marriage the law of the land nationwide.

The federal lawsuit is pending as is Ginger's adoption in Jefferson County Probate Court.

"Today is an incredibly historic day," according to a statement Friday from the couple to AL.com. "We celebrate knowing that our family bond is cemented in all legal aspects."

"We feel much content and assurance that our family is legally secure and protected. No word says family like the word marriage -- and to know that our marriage will forever be legal in our home state and in every state within this nation is surreal," the couple said.

'An awkward place'

Members of the clergy were divided in their response, as well.

"I have couples that have been together for decades, waiting for this day," said the Rev. Paul Eknes-Tucker, just named senior pastor of Pilgrim Church in Birmingham. He is ready to officiate same-sex weddings, now that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning that it's legal in every state.

"That's amazing, wonderful," Tucker said of the ruling. "We've been ready. I've had emails already this morning."

"Churches are going to have to decide whether they are going follow God's law or man's laws," said the Rev. Joe Godfrey, a Baptist minister and executive director of the Alabama Citizen's Action Program, which lobbies on issues important to Southern Baptists. "It's a sad day for America."

"The ruling of the Supreme Court comes as no surprise as our country has been on a path rapidly moving away from historic orthodox Christian teachings for some time. And while I will continue to respect all persons and proclaim the Good News of God's great love revealed in Jesus Christ to all people, the same Jesus reaffirmed that God's definition of marriage involves a man and a woman. The government or the Supreme Court will not define Christian marriage for the church," said the Rev. Jeff Spiller, senior pastor, Christ United Methodist Church, Mobile.

Others are caught in between.

The Rev. Dave Barnhart, pastor of St. Junia United Methodist Church in Birmingham, favors gay marriage, but the United Methodist Church has a policy against it.

"We're in an awkward place," Barnhart said. "I feel like sometimes the culture leads the church. God moves either through the church, or around it. I'm sad that I cannot perform weddings right now. I hope that I will be able to in the future."

There are gay couples in his church, and in other United Methodist churches, that would like to get married, he said.

"I've got same-sex couples in my congregation who are engaged," Barnhart said. "They were affirmed. It's a huge event and I hope that people in the church can catch up to what God is doing with or without us. It's about all the folks who had their dignity upheld."

AL.com reporters Brendan Kirby, Erin Edgemon, Charles J. Dean, Kent Faulk, Casey Toner, Greg Garrison, Amy Yurkanin, Brian Lawson and Carol McPhail contributed to this report.