You can always expect the unexpected at San Francisco city hall. We are never surprised at what we face doing weddings in this great building. Every day it’s a new adventure. As we approach the building for a scheduled wedding, we truly do not know what our future holds until we get inside. Special events or other disruptions are all part of the norm at San Francisco city hall. Thankfully, these types of things are rare, but you have to be ready. A couple of years ago we thought it was going to be a typical San Francisco city hall wedding until we found out that the water main had broken that feeds the building. This meant that none of the bathrooms were functioning nor were the water fountains. Right away I am thinking that they can’t have weddings today if there are no bathrooms and yet city hall was still letting people in the building including brides and grooms.
Closing San Francisco City Hall
I walked out to the front entrance to see if I could figure out what to tell my bride and groom who had not yet arrived and found that things had quickly changed. Now they weren’t letting people in the building. But what about me? I was still here. Not for long it turned out. Eventually, We were both kicked out with no real understanding of what was to become of our scheduled wedding coming up in about 1 hour.
We took our couple along with their family away from the crowds and did their family photos. The idea being to head to another location to at least get some bride and groom pictures since it appeared that the wedding was not going to occur that day. Just as we were beginning to leave one of the County Clerks came out and found us and said they would let just the couple in with 2 guests for a ceremony only. No pictures after, but at least they would be married that day. This was fine except that city hall also decided to restrict the couple to only have 1 set of parents with them to watch their ceremony. This was not going to work! With a little bit of time and some convincing, Toni talked the security guard into letting both parents it to watch the wedding. Still not sure how she did it, but we all got in! I think it may have helped that she knew one of the guards pretty well. Perhaps he likes her a bit!
San Francisco City Hall Wedding Pictures
The ceremony went off without a hitch and we were able to take pictures of the proceedings. We did manage to take the couple to get a few nice wedding pictures, but certainly not our usual repertoire. Eventually, we were strongly encouraged to leave the building since it was still technically closed off to the public. Our bride and groom were relieved, however, to at least have a wedding that day! We offered to come back another day to photograph the couple around San Francisco city hall in our normal way. They agreed, but were not sure if they wanted to dress up again.
About 2 weeks later, we returned to SF City Hall and actually finished what we started! The couple dressed back up and we did our full building shoot. It was a happy ending to a difficult wedding day! This picture below was the couple making the best out of a hard situation as they waited for the ceremony. We didn’t have to come back and reshoot their wedding, but we gladly did it. We did not charge them any extra money. It was our treat!
A Recent Disruption at San Francisco City Hall
Just a week ago, we were faced with another major disruption of our scheduled San Francisco city hall wedding. Senator Diane Feinstein’s passing ended up closing down the building for any type of wedding photography. Obviously, this important event definitely trumps San Francisco city hall wedding photographers, but it does show you what can happen on your wedding day. In this particular case, we advised the couple to still get married on their scheduled day, but then come back 2 days later for a photography session. This worked out great for all and our flexibility saved the day. We do the best we can to always work closely with our couples to help them in every way possible. It is not just about wedding photography!
