SF City Hall Wedding Photography with Colette and Stephen
We really enjoyed our picture taking day with Colette and Stephen at San Francisco city hall. Colette wore a spectacular red wedding dress which had heads turning throughout city hall. The happy couple got married in front of family and friends in the beautiful Rotunda on a typically busy Thursday afternoon at San Francisco City Hall. Fortunately, they choose a very late 3:30 ceremony time and so by the time their wedding was over and the family pictures were complete, things were starting to slow down around the building. 3:30 is the last ceremony of the day so people tend to clear out slowly shortly after that. We highly recommend late ceremonies to take advantage of the fact that people start to vacate the building as it gets closer to 5:00 pm. This is especially important on busy days at city hall like Thursdays and Fridays. Just keep in mind the slight chance of events occurring late in the day. UPDATE: Events are back at San Francisco city hall, but there are much fewer than before. There is still that slight chance that your late afternoon ceremony could be disrupted by an event, which mostly occur on Fridays.
Easy City Hall Wedding Photography with Limited Crowds
With a fair amount of free rein as we completed our building tour, we were able to capture some amazing photos with not too many people around. The couple had opted for our very popular Golden Gate package which provided them with 2.5 hours of coverage and 1 San Francisco location after city hall. They chose one of our favorite spots for their location, Woodline in the Presidio. Woodline is a deep forest area in the Presidio that has a fairly wide cut-through opening where many trees were taken down. The name Woodline comes from the fact that many of these trees were lined up in a zigzag pattern all the way down the cut-through. It is basically a line of wood all through the area. It helps define this area and keep it clear. We thought that Colette’s dress would work perfectly with the background because of the beautiful red color and as you can see it did!
We provided the happy couple with convenient transportation to the Presidio location and then took them to their celebration dinner party, which was not too far away. We can often drop off couples to their party destination if it not too far out of the way. The rule is that there must be a safe place for drop off and not on a busy street. It should also be in the nearby area. To see more wedding pictures from Woodline check out this link on our main website.
NOTE: Since this post, we have been encountering more and more red wedding dresses at San Francisco city hall. Could this be a trend? The rich colors certainly work well in this mostly gray building so this might be why it has become more and more popular. We frequently discuss the use of flowers to add color to city hall, why not the whole dress? It seems that Red is the most popular color followed closely by floral prints. Of course no color will ever be more popular than the traditional white. The red color made for a nice contrast with the green colors at Woodline as well.
Woodline is also a Popular Tourist Destination
Woodline can also be a great place to have a picnic or do some sightseeing. It is located in the historical part of the Presidio, close to what is known as “Lovers Lane”. This Lane was named because it it became the path that Military personnel took their dates for a walk and still stay on the base. The Presidio is no longer an active Army base, but was for many years. The barracks mostly remain as do the officer’s quarters. Many of the nicer buildings have been converted to bars and event destinations. For more information about The Presidio and Lover’s lane, click the link. Lovers Lane is also a nice picture spot after a city hall wedding. So many great places in San Francisco to take our newlyweds.