Often times there is more to photographing a San Francisco city hall wedding then just making nice pictures. The day of the wedding can be stressful and it is no different at city hall. Though truthfully, there is less to go wrong because with a civil ceremony you avoid problems with setting up the reception, food issues and choosing the perfect wedding favors. We recently photographed a wedding at city hall where we are able to help both the bride and groom prepare for the ceremony. There were a few minor complications and we were there to help! We feel that it is our job to make the day is easy as possible for our couples and we always do what we can to help. Even if the issues have nothing to do with city hall wedding photography. Sometimes our job requires us to go beyond wedding photography. As long as we always remember that our primary job is to capture great wedding pictures. It would also be a mistake to spend too much time helping the couple at the expense of providing quality wedding photography.
SF City Hall Groom’s Pants Too Long
While we were waiting for our ceremony check-in at the County Clerk’s office the groom asked me if I thought his pants were too long. They did seem to be a bit long, but what could be done this close to their civil ceremony? I remembered back to how I used to “hem” my own pants temporarily with tape and suggested that to the groom. After some discussion, I went into the Clerk’s office and asked one of my friends who works the front desk if we could borrow some tape. After some visual measurements and approval by the bride we managed to put a nice temporary hem on the pants and they looked great! Perhaps I should go into a new business, doing last minute alterations at San Francisco city hall! I was quite happy that this makeshift hem made it through their entire wedding day. Hopefully they pulled the tape off before they cleaned the pants. I forgot to do that once! I know it wasn’t that big of a deal, but it made the newlyweds happy, so that is the most important thing of all.
Bride’s Eyelash Problems Before SF City Hall Ceremony
As this was going on, I noticed the bride struggling with getting her eyelashes looking the way she wanted them, but there was nobody to hold the mirror for her because the Groom was busy “hemming” his pants. So without the bride asking me, I grabbed the mirror for her and held it while she did the finishing touches on her eyes. Just a simple gesture really and in no way heroic, but it was much appreciated by both of our clients. Many of the things we do to help couples prepare are not difficult or even inconvenient for us. But the fact is, we are here to help and why not? So many of our couples are eloping to city hall for their wedding, so they have no other friends or relatives there to help them. We were happy to be available to help our San Francisco city hall clients. We even signed and witnessed their Marriage License! I have included this post which provides advice on creating a wedding emergency kit to bring to your marriage.
Happy Ending for SF City Hall Wedding Photographers
After this wedding was in the books, I never really thought that much about the help we provided until a few weeks later I received a 5 star review from these newlyweds about their SF city hall wedding. One of the highlights of this Yelp review was the bride mentioning both of the problems above and how we helped. Again, these were relatively easy tasks, but it reminded me how important it is to be there for your San Francisco city hall wedding photography client in all ways possible. Of course, we still needed to deliver great photos of their wedding, but sometimes the little things get noticed and appreciated the most! Over the years we have continued to help our couples when they have issues before and after their San Francisco city hall wedding. It definitely helps keep things interesting!