New Year’s Eve With a Ring to It

Steve Hall has always been a spontaneous guy. He joined the Navy on the spur of the moment when he was 18. On Monday, 20 years later, he got married.

His bride learned of the plan three days ago.

“I thought it was great, really romantic,” said Andrea Trujillo, who became Andrea Trujillo-Hall after a ceremony at the Old Orange County Courthouse. “And I thought because it’s New Year’s Eve, he would never have an excuse to forget his anniversary.”

Some people get married for love. People who get married on New Year’s Eve have additional reasons: to make a last-minute change in tax status, perhaps, or to ring in the new year in a special way.

Indeed, New Year’s Eve is the second-busiest day for marriages at the Orange County courthouse--after Valentine’s Day. Seven couples were waiting in line when the doors opened at 8 a.m. Monday. By 4:30 p.m., when the doors closed, about 150 were expected to have tied the knot, more than twice the number for an average winter day.

“It’s a popular date,” said Angie Ozuna, supervisor of the county’s marriage license department. “We try to make it as special as possible.”

A courthouse wedding is a straightforward deal. You fill out some forms and take a number. You wait. When your number is called, you sit before one of nine deputy commissioners of marriage, who processes the paperwork.

“Do I have to stand?” asked No. 68, Cliff Vonting, when asked to verify that his form was filled out accurately.

A sign on the desk in front of him read: “Congratulations. Capture This Special Moment.” It’s $6 for one Polaroid instant picture, $10 for two.

Vonting, 41, and his bride, 25-year-old Danielle Islas, brought a camera. But for $28, the Garden Grove couple opted for a ceremony with their mothers and young son in a room the size of a large walk-in closet.

“We wanted to start the new year right and have that celebration of life,” Vonting said. “The 31st . . . I just like the idea of this being the 31st.”

“We are going to have a more formal wedding,” Islas added. “I want to have a big wedding. Something more traditional. Something you dream of.”

Planning the dream wedding takes time and money. The courthouse wedding, which ends with the couple being handed a gift packet containing coupons, a bag of coffee and some napkins, requires neither.

Maria Russo and David Monroe of Huntington Beach already have that stuff. The 35-year-olds have been together for nine years and have a son, born in February.

“Let’s just say we’re procrastinators,” Monroe said of his courthouse marriage. “It’s kind of cheesy; I’d be the first one to admit that.”

For Christmas, Monroe surprised Russo with a ring. On Monday, the bride wore a flower-print skirt and lavender velour jacket. The groom wore jeans.

“It’s the season; love is in the air,” Russo said. “Everybody’s happy. And in January, we do our taxes.”

The couple’s large, extended family is spread out across the nation. There will be a big, traditional wedding sometime in 2002. Monroe will dress up. Their parents will never know about the small wedding in 2001.

Hall and Trujillo decided on doing both at once: the quickie courthouse marriage that over the course of a weekend also became a family affair.

For an extra $100, they reserved the historic second-floor courtroom in the old stone building. On Saturday, Hall bought the rings. On Sunday, he was fitted for a suit. The couple were still calling some of their two dozen guests Monday morning.

Said Hall’s sister, Margaret Dowling: “When he told me last week that he was planning this, I asked him, ‘Are you sure she’s going to show up?’ ”

She did. And after a ceremony they did not write themselves--”I didn’t have time; I figured I’d let them take care of that,” Hall said--they became man and wife.

It took all of five minutes. Joining the Navy probably took longer.