I thought it would be a good idea to create this guide for San Francisco City Hall brides and grooms looking for engagement photo locations. San Francisco has many beautiful places to go for your engagement portrait session. I especially like the idea of photographing an engagement session in San Francisco prior to a city hall marriage ceremony. We offer packages that allow our city hall brides and grooms to do both with one package. Feel free to ask us about the details of this affordable combination photography package. Let’s discuss my five favorite places to take engaged couples for their portrait session in San Francisco.
The Palace of Fine Arts
The Palace of Fine Arts is always high on everyone’s list. Especially brides and grooms that are coming from other parts of the country to get married at San Francisco City Hall. International engaged couples seem to request the Palace of Fine Arts more than anybody else. We think this is partially due to the fact that there’s quite a bit of information provided in Europe regarding the Palace of Fine Arts as being one of San Francisco’s main attractions. We have been doing engagement sessions at the Palace for many years and absolutely love it.
One of the things that makes this such an incredible place is the variety of backgrounds and locations available for photography. You can start with the iconic photo in front of the Palace itself looking over the pond. it seems that everyone wants this shot and so we make sure to always capture it first. You can include the beautiful fountain in the photo or you can shoot directly at the building with the future bride and groom.
Tour Around the Palace of Fine Arts
Once this “mandatory” photo is complete, we then take the engaged couple a fantastic photo tour around the beautiful grounds of the San Francisco Palace of Fine Arts. The great thing is that even as we walk from location to location there are many opportunities to take candid shots of the couple walking hand in hand. There are many pathways and trails lined by flowers and trees that make this walk spectacular and a great place for capturing romantic photos. In my opinion, an engagement photo session should be different than a typical wedding type of shoot. We like our engagement photo sessions to be more Interactive and fun with the couple usually wearing casual clothes that allow them to walk in tighter areas and sit down without worrying about messing up fancy clothes. The Palace of Fine Arts has lots of these types of places so that works out great.
Fun Ideas for San Francisco Engagement Photos
Back by the Rotunda area of the Palace there are a few safe places that the couple can climb up on for fun photos. Casual clothes makes this easier and also creates a more appropriate look for this type of photo. There are vast expanses of grass and ponds to use for these photos. One great idea for engagement sessions at the Palace of Fine Arts is to create a little picnic for the couple in one of the grassy areas. We encourage the couple to bring props including wine and some blankets to sit on. There are enough areas at the Palace of Fine Arts in order to have some degree of privacy while doing this so this helps turn the photo session into something romantic for the couple to experience.
Sutro Baths of San Francisco
If you are looking for something unique for your engagement photography session, look no further than the Sutro baths of San Francisco. The original Sutro Baths are no longer there but their ruins remain. These baths once existed right down by the coast of the Pacific Ocean so there is some pretty incredible history involved dating way back in the early 20th century. It’s a bit of a hike to get down to the baths but well worth it for any couple looking for something different in their engagement photos. In fact, the path leading down to Sutro Baths offers quite a few nice photo opportunities as well. This allows us to stop and rest along the way and capture some fun moments including the couple walking down to the baths. Think of how beautiful these pictures will look with the Pacific Ocean in the background.
Once we arrive at the ruins you will see that it’s mostly just concrete and wood up against the backdrop of the ocean. For some reason, it really becomes an amazing background for any type of photography. On any given day you will see many other professional San Francisco photographers with couples taking pictures at Sutro. Also if you are the type of couple who loves the beach and the ocean, Sutro Baths would be a great option for you to consider. There are some narrow walkways across the ruins that require everyone to be careful. If you are afraid of heights this may not be the best photographic option for you. If you are up for it, the added bonus of taking engagement photos at Sutro Baths includes all the beautiful trees and natural backgrounds that can be found everywhere. As a result, this photo session becomes more than just a ocean shoot, you also have other types of great backgrounds that work well for photography. Here are some Great Ideas For Sutro Bath Pictures from Pinterest for Engagement Portraits.
Crissy Field in San Francisco
Crissy field in San Francisco is another favorite of ours. Much like the Palace of Fine Arts, it offers a huge variety of backgrounds to use behind our engaged couples for pictures. Depending upon which way we aim our cameras, we have the choice of at least four distinct backgrounds to use. I will summarize them below.
- The Golden Gate Bridge
- The Beach (San Francisco Bay)
- Downtown San Francisco
- Trees and flowers on the path nearby
- Lots of Green Grass
- Scenery with water
Each one of these backgrounds offers a unique setting that makes a Crissy field photo shoot almost seem like you are in four different places at once. I especially enjoy the view of the Golden Gate Bridge From here. You are close enough to see the detail of the bridge, but not so close that you can’t get the whole structure in behind the couple. Looking in the opposite direction, you can capture an amazing photo of the San Francisco downtown area. this is especially nice for those couples who are coming to San Francisco from out of town or overseas because it will help provide a memory of where they came to get married. Obviously, if they have their wedding at San Francisco Hall this will only add to it. if you are willing to do a short hike there’s also an amazing path that goes up the side of the Hill closer to Fort Point that also becomes a fantastic View of the Bay. This path also includes beautiful trees and flowers along the way. We have taken people on this hike and it’s pretty spectacular.
San Francisco City Hall for Engagement Portrait Sessions
If you are not planning on having your marriage at San Francisco Hall, this can also be an amazing place for engagement photos. I would not recommend it if you are already getting married there just because of the duplication, but if you’re not, it’s a fantastic place. Our extensive experience photographing weddings at City Hall gives us a great head start in making this an incredible engagement portrait session location for you to consider. The Grand Staircase, the Rotunda, and the Mayor’s Balcony are all beautiful places with Incredible architecture to choose for your photo tour of this historic building.
San Francisco City Hall also provides us with many great places to take you for candid photos whether you are walking hand in hand through one of the picturesque hallways or walking down the Grand Staircase. There are so many photographic choices here that we could spend 2 hours at a single engagement session and not run out of ideas and backgrounds. Rounding out this destination for your engagement session, is the fact that there is also a nice park out in front of the building. Civic Park has beautiful trees and lots of grass all in an urban setting. So having your engagement session at San Francisco City Hall can give you a nice mix of photos both indoors and outdoors. There are very few Photography locations in San Francisco that give you that nice mix of both. It is the perfect place to celebrate your engagement to each other.
