(AP) – Serenaded by a gay men’s chorus, showered with rose petals and toasted with champagne, hundreds of tearful same-sex couples got married across the state Tuesday in what some are calling California’s new Summer of Love.

Wearing everything from T-shirts to tuxedos and lavish gowns, they rushed down to county clerks’ offices to obtain marriage licenses and exchange vows on the first full day that same-sex marriage became legal in California by order of the state’s highest court. They were joined by jubilant crowds that came to witness the event.

The burst of gay weddings actually began on Monday evening, when a few counties extended their office hours past 5 p.m., the moment the May 15 California Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage took effect. On Tuesday morning, though, all 58 counties began issuing licenses, and the rush was on.

San Diego County added four walk-up windows and assigned 78 employees to issue marriage licenses Tuesday, up from the usual 19. More than 200 ceremonies were scheduled, better than double the average daily load. According to the clerk’s office, 230 marriage licenses were issued Tuesday; 168 of them were issued at the County Administration Building.

Craig Morgan and Jon Van Sciver, who have been partnered for 25 years, were one of the first couples to be married Tuesday at the San Diego County Administration Building. Four years ago, the couple became registered domestic partners.

“The opportunity presented itself and there was no discussion about it – this was the next step in the progression of our relationship,” Morgan said of the couple’s nuptials. “It just happened 25 years after the engagement.”

Denise McEwan and her partner of five years, Molly Quillin-McEwan, also married outside the county offices Tuesday. McEwan said the same-sex marriage issue is an equal rights issue.

“Everybody, all human beings, should have the right to choose whether they want to be married,” she said.

Morgan echoed the sentiment: “How does somebody’s love threaten the institution of marriage,” he said.

The moment he heard the Supreme Court ruling last month, Mike Bray, 44, a computer network engineer from Oceanside, proposed over the telephone to his partner of five years, Tom Siemar, a 42-year-old interior designer. The couple wed Tuesday.

“We didn’t think it would happen in our lifetimes,” Bray said.

Bob Lehman, a retired United States Marine Corps sergeant, and his partner Tom Felkner were the first couple to be married at the County Administration Building Tuesday.

In San Diego, a lone protestor chanted outside the clerk’s office at 7 a.m. He left shortly after. Afternoon demonstrations were also planned.

Statewide, opponents of the measure were relatively quiet.

There were scattered demonstrations outside some offices and courthouses. About a dozen protesters stood across the street from the Sacramento County recorder’s office, carrying signs that read, “Marriage 1 man + 1 woman” and “Resist Judicial Tyranny.”

Courts in Sacramento and San Francisco on Tuesday rejected separate last-minute bids by groups seeking to halt same-sex marriage.

Still, around the state, protesters were outnumbered by well-wishers. One conservative activist said that the effort to pass a constitutional amendment in the fall that would outlaw gay marriage again in California could fail if the opponents came on too strong.

“The major media would love to see us engage in fierce protests and hostile demonstrations of outrage against the licensing of same-sex ‘marriages,’” said Ronald Prentice, chairman of the ProtectMarriage.com coalition, in a statement to the Associated Press. “Our battle is not against the same-sex couples who are pursuing the opportunity to ‘marry’ granted them by the activist judges on the California Supreme Court.”

Some couples came from out of state. Unlike Massachusetts, the only other state to legalize gay marriage, California has no residency requirement for a marriage license. Many gay activists are likening the moment to the 1967 Summer of Love, when young people from across the country converged on California in what came to be regarded as the birth of the counterculture.

In a shady plaza in Bakersfield, where the county clerk stopped officiating at marriages altogether rather than preside over same-sex ceremonies, newlyweds wearing Cinderella-style gowns and matching tuxedos were showered with rose petals while a photographer who set up on a park bench offered to snap wedding portraits.

Although some couples said they preferred to wait until after the election because they feared their marriages would be nullified at the ballot box, others said they wanted to make history, especially if the opportunity to get married could be lost.

“There’s a window, and we want to take advantage of that window, because who knows what’s going to happen in November,” said Jay Mendes, 40, as he and his partner of three years, Vantha Sao, 22, waited to obtain a marriage license in West Hollywood.

A recent Field Poll showed that Californians favor granting gays the right to marry 51 percent to 42 percent. It was the first time in 30 years of California polling that the scales tipped in that direction.