WEDDING BILLS: The summer wedding season is...

WEDDING BILLS: The summer wedding season is starting, and Ventura County couples aren’t letting economic worries spoil their big day. “People are not cutting back too much,” said a Thousand Oaks wedding consultant who goes by the name Sue-Nett. . . . Where are they cutting costs? Photography and liquor. “Drinks cost a ton of money,” she said. . . . As for jewelry, “the economy is not stopping a lot of people,” said Ken Koven of Hart’s Jewelry in Thousand Oaks. “But they’re taking longer to save up for what they want.”

CHICANO STUDIES: It’s not like UCLA, where students have staged a hunger strike for a Chicano studies department (A17). But Mexican-Americans at Oxnard College have quietly made progress in getting courses in Chicano affairs. The college, where 35% of the students are Latino, just completed its first year in which the curriculum included Chicano studies classes, including Chicano history, psychology and sociology. “We hope to add literature and art,” said history teacher Tomas Salinas. . . . Moorpark and Ventura colleges also offer Chicano studies, but they too lack separate departments. “Students believe there is a need,” Salinas said. But with budget cuts, “It’s just a pipe dream.”

STREETWISE: Who do you call when your sidewalk is blocked by parked cars? Can anything be done about the bottleneck on the Olsen Road exit from California 23? And how do you turn a two-lane street into a four-laner? Street Smart knows (B1).

NEW LAWYERS: Are they smarter in Santa Barbara? The nonprofit corporation that runs the Ventura and Santa Barbara colleges of law has announced how graduates did in the California State Bar examination. In Santa Barbara, the pass rate was 100%, but in Ventura only 15 of 24 students, or 62%, passed on their first try. . . . Dean William M. Fischbach noted that both schools exceeded the statewide pass rate of 54%.

When We Wed

The top months for weddings in Ventura County. July: 494 June: 480 August: 449 *

The least favorite months: January: 291 December: 297 October: 325 Source: County Clerk’s 1992 records.