Same-sex marriages resume in Calif.

Michael Winter and Elizabeth Weise | USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO -- In a surprisingly swift action, a federal appeals court Friday afternoon authorized the resumption of same-sex marriages in California, two days after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the invalidation of Proposition 8.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a stay of an injunction that ordered state officials to stop enforcing the voter-passed initiative, which a lower court judge declared unconstitutional in 2010.

After Wednesday's Supreme Court decision, the court initially said it had up to 25 days to act. Gov. Jerry Brown immediately directed that the state's 58 counties should resume issuing marriage licences to same-sex couples as soon as the 9th Circuit acted.

After the court's Friday action, Brown declared that same-sex marriage "is now legal in California" and that marriage licenses must be issued "immediately."

In San Francisco, where the appellate court is located, the first same-sex marriage following the action occurred Friday just before 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET). One of the two couples who challenged Prop. 8, Kris Perry and Sandy Stier, were first on the list to receive a license, which was issued at 4:15 p.m.

Attorney General Kamala Harris went to City Hall to perform the nuptials.

"About to marry the #Prop8 plaintiffs Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier. Wedding bells are ringing!" tweeted Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney.

After Harris said, "I now declare you spouses for life," the hastily assembled crowd burst into raucous cheers.

Perry and Stier thought they would have to wait for 25 days but as soon as word came down that the Ninth circuit court of appeals had lifted the stay, the couple sprang into action. "My first thought was 'Let's go," Perry said.

"We've waited so long," Stier said. "It's a great day for us, for San Francisco, for the United States."

After the brief ceremony Harris said "this is about the long struggle for civil rights. I applaud the Ninth Circuit for acting so quickly"

Kris' mother, Laura Hubbard, was in San Francisco making travel arrangements when she got a call asking her to get to City Hall as soon as she could. "It's sort of unreal still," she said, her voice catching. "It was a wonderful experience. It's just so great when a mother can see her daughter so happily married. "

The other couple in the landmark lawsuit, Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo, are set to be married in Los Angeles at 6 p.m. PT (9 p.m. ET), said Ron Flynn with the San Francisco City Attorney's Office.

The San Francisco clerk's office is staying open Friday until 8 p.m. to issue licenses, Flynn said. Weekend hours were not yet set, he added.

Legal experts have said it's possible that officials in some conservative counties will balk. Imperial County, in Southern California, had sought to join the Supreme Court appeal in defense of Proposition 8 but was ruled to not having legal standing for such an action.

"It's finally real," said Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, which was lead counsel on behalf of same sex couples in the 2008 California case. "It was one thing to know intellectually that we'll be able to marry in California. But the minute I saw the one-sentence ruling from the Ninth Circuit all the worry and concern I've had inside was gone. I feel like I can take a deep breath for the first time in five years," Kendell said.

The Supreme Court's ruling had already energized San Francisco's annual Pride Week, celebration, but the Friday's unexpected events electrified the city. Even before the court action and resumption of marriages, an estimated one million people were expected to turn out for Sunday's parade and festivities.

By 5:00 a long line had formed at the city clerk's office of couples waiting to get marriage licenses. The city clerk had been preparing for weeks, deputizing multiple city employees to perform weddings. Every few minutes the waiting crowd roared its approval as another newly married couple entered the gilded rotunda of San Francisco's Beaux Arts city hall.

Cassie Coleman, 44 and her wife Rosa Sanchez, 42, were "fourth or fifth in line," Coleman said. She works in the legal department of the San Francisco Unified School District. "A paralegal walked in with the Ninth Circuit decision and said "Did you see this?"

Coleman immediately texted Sanchez with the news but there was a pause in her response. "Sorry, on a conference call," Sanchez finally texted back. "Can you believe it?" Coleman said.

Sanchez, who works in the City Attorney's office, texted that she would go get in line while Coleman ran over from her nearby office. They were married by former San Francisco supervisor Bevan Dufty. When asked her wife's age Coleman paused. "Wow. That's the first time anyone's ever called her my wife. It feels good. "

The wedding bells first rang in February 2004, when then-mayor Gavin Newsom ordered that marriage licences be issued to same sex couples. In the soaring, ornate rotunda of City Hall, Newsom, now the state's lieutenant governor, performed the first same-sex marriage, and nearly 4,000 same-sex couples were wed until the California Supreme Court halted and invalidated the marriages a month later.

In May 2008, the same court ruled that gays had the right to marry, but six months later California voters approved Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that defined marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

The state's high court subsequently ruled the initiative to be valid, but said an estimated 18,000 same-sex marriages that occurred before the election were still valid.

In his declaration Friday, Brown also said that registered domestic partners in California could be issued a marriage license. Additionally, he said that same-sex couples legally married in another jurisdiction "will be considered already legally married under California marriage licensing and certification laws and they should not be issued a new marriage license."

California assembly member Phil Ting was one of the people deputized to perform weddings. "I just did my first one. As people come out of the county clerk's office they're assigned an officiant," he said. "It's wonderful. It never gets old seeing people who have loved each other for so many years finally be able to marry each other."

Many spectators cheered and expressed support outside the courthouse.

"It's great. It's freedom. It's equality," said Gracie Ramsower of Lodi, Calif., standing outside City Hall.

CONTRIBUTING: Nancy Blair