Many of our San Francisco City Hall wedding couples like us to photograph a formal engagement portrait session prior to their marriage. We can create a photography package for any couple that includes a San Francisco engagement session at any of the popular city destinations. Our most popular location continues to be The Palace of Fine Arts, but there are many others that are fantastic. We take our couples to Russian Hill, North Beach, The Presidio, Golden Gate Park, and the Legion of Honor to name just few. Believe it or not, we even sometimes do our engagement sessions at San Francisco City Hall! We actually now offer a specific package for city hall weddings that includes a 2 hour engagement session on a separate day before the your wedding date. For details on this combination package, click this Engagement Package link. This package provides you with a substantial discount since it combines 2 separate photography sessions into one complete and affordable package.
Engagement Portrait Session in Marin County
One of our more recent engagement shoots occurred in Marin County at Cavallo Point close to Sausalito, California. This was a fantastic location for the session especially with it’s unique angles to the Golden Gate bridge and an amazing view of San Francisco. In the image below, we placed our future City Hall bride and groom on the Break Water with the bridge in the background. It was about 1 hour before sunset when we set this up. The Golden Gate Bridge takes on a completely different look from the Marin side of the Bay. You just cant get this type of view of the bridge from the San Francisco side.
What I particularly like about this angle is the fact that it looks almost like you are to the side of the bridge as opposed to looking down the bridge. It is probably one of the most side views of the Golden Gate, without being on a boat out on the water. I also like that there is such an expanse of water between the couple and the bridge. Again, this type of look is not available from San Francisco due the different angles available. In most cases in San Francisco, you are looking down the bridge at an angle. This side view is great for photos and really shows off the size of the bridge. I also think it shows the golden colors better. Here are some other thoughts and opinions regarding Golden Gate Bridge photography.
Golden Gate Bridge from Cavallo Point
From this angle we found a great looking cliff that was right up against the San Francisco Bay. We placed our couple up on the cliff and took a series of images of them with a few different suggested poses. Then we just let them do whatever they wanted to. Of course, those were the best captures. Natural and doing as they pleased while enjoying the beautiful Bay scenery. Check out this amazing location in the photo below. You can even faintly see the San Francisco Bay Bridge in the background. Photos like these are only possible if you have an adventurous couple who are not afraid of heights! This couple was up for the challenge and it made for a memorable photo that they will always treasure.
We finished up our shoot in the bar at the Cavallo Point Lodge. A very cute bar and one of our couple’s favorites. It turned out that this bar was one of their favorite stopping points over the past few years. So it was the perfect place to finish up their Engagement Portrait session. We also found the time to have a drink with them, which is a nice way to get to know a couple before shooting there wedding. By the time we got around to their scheduled Civil Ceremony, we were quite comfortable with them. We enjoyed photographing their San Francisco City Hall wedding in May of 2018. UPDATE: We photographed their wedding in May as mentioned and it was an amazing marriage with the bride wearing an incredible dress. To see more images of city hall weddings and engagement sessions click on our City Hall Gallery Link
