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While neighboring Asbury Park began accepting applications for marriage licenses from same-sex couples on Friday, the Township of Neptune registrar will follow the directive from the state registrar to hold off until that state office gives the go ahead.

The directive was received from the state registrar’s office in an email Thursday afternoon, according to Neptune Registrar Hugh Hinds, who issues marriage licenses in the township.

The email stated that the state registrar’s office would upload to its website updated marriage license application forms that could be used by same-sex couples, when that state office was given the legal go ahead to do so, Hinds said.

Until that time, the email stated, local registrars were not authorized to issue the licenses, he said. The email was sent to all registrars, according to Hinds.

Neptune has a significant population of same-sex couples, particularly in its Ocean Grove section which saw high-profile litigation involving the prohibition of same sex couples using the Ocean Grove boardwalk pavilion for civil union ceremonies.

Ocean Grove residents Harriet Bernstein and Luisa Paster, the plaintiffs in the boardwalk pavilion case, are also two of the plaintiffs in the state case which ruled that same-sex couples in New Jersey cannot be denied a marriage license.

That case was decided last month by Mercer County Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson, who set Oct. 21 as the start date that same-sex couples may marry.

There is a 72 hour waiting period between filing the application for a marriage license and receiving the document. To obtain a marriage license on Monday to get married, Friday is the day that same-sex couples would file their applications for the license.

Municipalities such as Asbury Park disregarding the state registrar’s directive are relying on the advice of their own attorneys that a municipality must issue a marriage license to same sex couples while Jacobson’s decision is still in effect.

The New Jersey Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of the case, but it has not ordered a postponement of Jacobson’s decision — known as a stay — pending its ruling.

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