Courting Matrimony : Saturday County Ceremonies Are Long on Romance, Short on Cost

Each Saturday, between a dozen and 20 couples arrive at the Ventura County Courthouse, clutching a $66 marriage license and another $30 for the judge.

Held in a vacant room before the court’s dozen jurists or County Clerk Richard Dean, who rotate the shift, each first-come, first-served ceremony takes all of 7 minutes.

Afterward--perhaps after taking snapshots on the landscaped grounds of the government center--the happy couples are whisked on their inexpensive way to their new life together.

“We did it kind of on the spur of the moment,” said the former Rachel Quesada of Milwaukee, who will join her husband, stationed at the Port Hueneme Navy base, this December.

It’s a convenient, no-hassle service Ventura County isn’t required to provide. And with a total cost of $96 and time investment of less than 10 minutes, there are few county services so quick and cheap.

“That’s assuming you don’t take anybody to lunch,” Dean said of the bill. “We do this to provide a low-cost service to the public.”

Indeed, couples arrive from Los Angeles, perhaps en route to a honeymoon in Santa Barbara.

For $150, in the Ventura-Oxnard area a judge will go to your home ($200 if you live on the other side of the Conejo Grade).

Last year Dean presided over the marriage of his own daughter.

It’s enjoyable duty for judges more used to dealing with criminal cases, Dean said. And it gives county residents a different impression of what is behind the bureaucratic walls.

“We’d always be there to pay tickets and now we’re there to do that,” Oxnard resident George Monterrosas said after his marriage. “It was kind of unique.”