Norwalk witness: No time for a shower; 'just put product in my hair.'

Ciro Barbaro, 56, and Steven Van Zile, 44, had intended to get a license in Norwalk on Tuesday for a later ceremony. But when they arrived at 7:45 a.m., they changed their minds.

“We saw all the colored balloons in the parking lot, so well organized, and we thought we’d just get married,” Barbaro said.

So the pair picked up their cellphones, called their witnesses and summoned them to Norwalk.

Don Lucas said that he was watching "The Today Show" when he got a call from Barbaro and Van Zile.

“I grabbed a Red Bull and a nectarine and jumped in the car," Lucas said. "I didn’t even take a shower. Just put product in my hair.”

But as of 10:15, the second witness was still stuck in traffic, and so the three men were waiting in the tents outside.

Barbaro works in marketing research; Van Zile is the director of property management for the Skid Row housing trust. They live in Baldwin Hills, and have been together since late 1993.

All three men were wearing matching striped suits. They joked that they looked like the cast of "Guys and Dolls."

-- Jessica Garrison

Photo: Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times

Ciro Barbaro, right, gets a hug from friend Maura Smith, who rushed down to witness the wedding of Barbaro to his partner, Steven Van Zile.