Awaiting Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision today about a stay on his Perry ruling, lesbian and gay couples lined up at San Francisco’s City Hall to take advantage of what might prove to be a narrow window again for legal same-sex nuptials in California.

Rod Wood, 56, and his boyfriend of seven years, Roger Hunt, 52, were the first in line at San Francisco City Hall. The San Francisco couple said they wanted to be there in case the window of opportunity to wed was small.

Wood proposed to Hunt two days ago, and the couple got rings Wednesday night at the Stonestown Galleria. If the two get married, they plan to celebrate their honeymoon by taking a motorcycle trip to the Sierra.

"I’m trying to remain calm, but I don’t want to be devastated if the stay is lifted," Hunt said.

Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker intends to rule today on whether same-sex marriage can resume. Last week, Walker invalidated Proposition 8, which was passed by voters in 2008 and bans same-sex marriage in California, but he immediately put in place a stay that froze enforcement of his ruling.

And the City and County of San Francisco appears to be fully prepared to provide legal services at the Marriage Licenses window as soon as is possible:

One couple, Teresa Rowe, and her girlfriend of five years, Kristin Orbin, both 31, arrived at 4:30 a.m. from Fairfield. They were playing it safe; rather than wait in line at the clerk’s office, they were sitting on the steps of City Hall to see whether Vaughn would lift the stay.

The clerk’s office, meanwhile, was girding for the likely onrush of same-sex couples seeking to get married.

"We’re fully prepared,’ said deputy county clerk Alan Wong. "We’re fully ready."

Both of the state’s two highest elected officials, in briefs to the Court, have urged the judge not to use potential administrative delays as an excuse to hold off on allowing California to resume marrying same-sex couples:

Schwarzenegger said the state was well-equipped to handle the marriages of gays and pointed to the fact that an estimated 18,000 gay couples were wed in California before Proposition 8 passed.

"Government officials can resume issuing such licenses without administrative delay or difficulty,” Schwarzenegger’s office said in written arguments to the court.

The governor called Walker’s repudiation of Proposition 8 "consistent with California’s long history of leading the way in recognizing the rights of gay and lesbian families to order their relationships and manage their day-to-day lives."

Brown also told Walker that possible administrative difficulties should not be used as an excuse for denying gays the right to wed. Brown said his office last year opposed a pretrial request to block Proposition 8 only because the legal and factual issues had not yet been explored.