Linda and Terry Eason were married nearly 25 years ago at 423 E. First St. in the East Village Arts District–but there they were again Tuesday morning in matching Hawaiian shirts, as wedding officiant Alan Katz blew the conch shell to cleanse the room and call their Hawaiian-style renewal of vows to order. Does it need to be said that he was wearing a lei?

The venue was the former Adrian’s Wedding Chapel–also variously a former feed/luggage/radio store/beauty parlor–which is now House of Hayden. A bar. A rockabilly bar, judging by the press release.

“It’s a little weird,” said House co-owner Dave Hayden, admiring the new, somewhat ornately upholstered wedding stage that occupies the eastern front corner of his bar–where happy couples may once again be married Oct. 5, for one day only as part of this year’s University by the Sea festival.

“You can see it at night, with all the lights on it. It’ll be here all week.”

Oh, but enough about him. How did the bride-to-be-again feel about being preceded down the aisle by bridesmaid Estro Jen of the Angel City Derby Girls–on skates?

“I just found out it was going to be televised,” said an otherwise serene Eason (a Friend of Dave), of news that her nuptials might be incorporated into a network TV package on U-Sea. “They told me that just so I could be nervous for all of us.”

The Easons had exchanged vows here, they said, in January 1984, back when East Village was a gleam in no one’s eye, and the hottest thing around was probably Fender’s Ballroom. (Literally–it burned, at least once.)

Today, of course, the street houses a well-regarded, urbanely renewed array of boutiques, restaurants–and bar–none of which seem to need the publicity of a day of weddings (or a media day, with one wedding). Or do they?

“I think it’s important,” said Linda Eason, who graduated Class of 1963–when nice girls thought twice about walking some of these streets. “I think there were things that happened along the way that gave downtown not such a good reputation.”

Events like University by the Sea aim to change that–without, perhaps, the crowds, noise and lack of parking seen during the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

“We created this as the antithesis of the Grand Prix,” said University by the Sea impresario Ryan Smolar, in the final minutes before the Eason vows. (“Don’t worry,” Smolar said. “They can’t start it without me.”)

“This is about connecting downtown and helping downtown, and not sacrificing downtown one weekend a year,” he continued.

It’s also about organic foods, drought-resistant gardening and vermiposting (“That means putting worms in your trash to help break it down,” said Smolar); and wine tastings and oyster samplings and a day’s worth of bands (including Long Beach’s own Dengue Fever).

And, of course, it will be also about weddings–performed Elvis-style, Borat-style, or with two toots on a conch, and a rather tuneful rendition of the “Hawaiian Wedding Song” a la The King.

(Sample lyric: “Now that we are one, clouds won’t hide the sun.”)

“I’ve married people everywhere,” said Katz. “Strangest was a lunch counter at Target. It was the closest place to meet.”

Part longshoreman’s watering hole, part wedding chapel, House of Hayden felt a little disconnected as guests arrived–at least until after the “I do’s.”

“I’m a bridesmaid, but I don’t know these people at all,” said Estro Jen, AKA Michelle Steilen, who really didn’t know the Easons until U-Sea folks made the introductions.

But by the time services were over, the remaining bar stools quickly filled–and there she was, chatting with Hayden regular George Copeland, a bartender and a 1950s roller derby champion himself.

Tags: "Hawaiian Wedding Song", Adrian's Wedding Chapel, Alan Katz, Angel City Derby Girls, borat, California, Dave Hayden, dengue fever, East Village Arts District, Elvis, Estro Jen, Fender's Ballroom, George Copeland, house of hayden, Long Beach, Michelle Steilen, roller derby, Southern California, Target, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas, Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, university by the sea