Shamika Fauntleroy accompanied her father Tuesday morning from their hometown of Tappahannock to the VCU Medical Center, where he was to undergo surgery.

“My father looked at me when we got there and told me to go take care of my business first,” Ms. Fauntleroy told the Free Press.

She and her longtime partner, Kristea Thompson, then drove the short distance to the John Marshall Courts Building in Richmond’s Downtown, where they bought a marriage license around 10 a.m.

The two Tappahannock residents became the first African-American couple and 12th overall to purchase a marriage license from the Richmond Circuit Court Clerk’s Office after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Virginia and four other states Monday.

They told the Free Press they plan to wed as soon as they can make the arrangements.

The partners of 10 years already had celebrated their union at a Sept. 6 commitment service with family and friends at a home off Riverside Drive on South Side.

“We already had that bond, but we wanted to take care of it legally as well,” Ms. Fauntleroy said.

On Monday, the Supreme Court effectively allowed same-sex marriage to proceed in Virginia when it refused to take up a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that overturned the same-sex marriage ban.

Gay and lesbian couples hurried to Virginia courthouses shortly after the news.

Edward F. Jewett, clerk of the Richmond Circuit Court, said his office anticipated the change and, in August, changed gender references on marriage licenses to refer instead to spouses rather than husband and wife.

Ms. Fauntleroy, 28, said she was on her job as an assistant manager at a Hardee’s restaurant in Warsaw when she heard the news that the marriage ban had been lifted.

“I was like this,” she said, gleefully raising her arms with a mile-wide smile. “We had waited so long for this moment.”

She called the Essex County Circuit Court about a license, “but they had no idea what had happened and could not help us,” she said.

That’s when she and Ms. Thompson formulated plan B — to buy a license in Richmond.

“This brings me the happiness I always wanted, to be able to legally say I’m going to share my life with her,” Ms. Fauntleroy said, sitting outside the John Marshall building with her future wife.

“It’s a blessing,” Ms. Thompson, 30, an employee at June Parker Oil Co. in Tappahannock, added. “This shows things are changing in each and every way.”

The couple has raised Ms. Thompson’s 6-year-old niece, Vayonna, since birth, after Ms. Thompson gained legal custody of her. The bright-eyed child accompanied the pair to the courthouse, along with another young family member.

Ms. Fauntleroy said the ruling also gives her the legal right to share her job benefits, such as health care and pension, with Ms. Thompson. “She deserves everything I have, and I want her to have it,” she said.

The couple met as classmates at Washington & Lee High School in nearby Montross and have been together since July 11, 2004. Ms. Fauntleroy said everyone in their small community knows and respects their love for one another.

“We have a lot of support from everyone, including our family and friends,” she said. “Everyone calls us the power couple. We’re accepted by everyone in the community.”

Mr. Jewett said he was alerted at 10 a.m. Monday via email by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Virginia Attorney General’s Office and the state Office of Vital Records that his office could issue marriage licenses beginning at 1 p.m. that day. A final go-ahead was issued at 11:55 a.m.

Richmond residents Lindsey Oliver and her longtime partner, Nicole Pries, were the first same-sex couple to obtain a marriage license at the historic kickoff.

“You’re the first in line for Richmond,” Mr. Jewett told the giddy couple.

Monday was the three-year anniversary of their exchange of vows at a commitment ceremony attended by family and friends in Topsail Beach, N.C. The couple met five years ago while attending a nonprofit leadership class.

Ms. Oliver, 30, who works for the National Network of Abortion Funds, told the Free Press she learned of the ruling via Facebook about 10:30 a.m.

Ms. Pries, 42, an assistant professor at the VCU School of Social Work, said a friend texted the news to her.

Mr. Jewett handed the two their marriage license shortly after 1 p.m., as they embraced, wearing huge smiles. They paid $30 for the license and $5 for two duplicate copies of the document.

“We wanted to do it for us,” Ms. Pries said. “It was about the commitment we had already made to each other.”

A legal marriage will allow them to gain the same benefits allotted to heterosexual married couples, such as pension sharing, health care, joint tax returns and child adoptions.

“We plan to raise a family,” Ms. Oliver said.

With the license secure, the women were met by a waiting sea of media and well-wishers when they walked hand in hand out of the courthouse.

Cheers erupted from the crowd.

The couple raised their arms in victory and gave a joyful shout in unison: “Whoo!”

Supporters handed them flowers and took photos celebrating the historic occasion.

The couple worked their way through the crowd to a spot in front of the courthouse. There, they exchanged wedding vows and were pronounced married at 1:21 p.m. by the Rev. Robin H. Gorsline, president and CEO of People of Faith for Equality in Virginia. He happened to have come to the courthouse after hearing the news.

“By the authority granted to me, first by God, but also by the commonwealth of Virginia, I now declare you, Nicole Pries, and you, Lindsey Oliver, wife and wife,” the minister declared to the couple.

The two then kissed amid congratulatory shouts and cheers.

The impromptu wedding made them possibly the first same-sex couple to marry in Virginia.

They said they had no special plans to celebrate the historic occasion.

“I’m going out to dinner with another friend tonight,” Ms. Oliver said.

“I’m teaching a class,” Ms. Pries said.

Richmond couple Sam Howerton and Ryan Gardner rushed to the courthouse in their work clothes to take advantage of this historic moment. They were second in line in Richmond to buy a marriage license.

Mr. Howerton, 46, and Mr. Gardner, 52, said they hope to marry later this week.

“If it happened here, it’s going to go through the rest of the country, because this is such a conservative state,” predicted Mr. Gardner.

Also making wedding plans after buying their marriage licenses were longtime attorneys Jan Reid, 63, and Lisa McKnight, 54, who said they have been together for 30 years.

“I never thought this would happen,” Ms. McKnight said.