This is an interesting question and there is no simple answer. At San Francisco City Hall Wedding Photography by Michael, we frequently receive requests from our brides to capture pictures in the morning prior to their Civil Ceremony. San Francisco weddings in general can make bridal prep photography a little tricky because of potential parking issues at hotels and other places where brides usually get ready. One other potential challenge is allowing enough time to get back to San Francisco city hall for the scheduled wedding ceremony time. There is very little leeway for these ceremony times, so you need to be there when it is scheduled. This requires allowing more cushion between the bridal prep session and the actual ceremony. Some brides would prefer not to do this so we have some alternative ideas to discuss.
Like any requested service, we take our bride’s preferences seriously and always want to offer what we can. We have successfully completed a large number of Bridal Prep sessions prior to city hall wedding and in most cases it works great. Let’s discuss some more details about Bridal Prep pictures and the Pros and Cons of having the wedding photographer take pictures while the bride gets ready in her hotel room or family home. We will also offer some clever alternatives.
What is Bridal Prep Wedding Photography?
First let’s start with the basics. What exactly is meant when we say bridal prep? It may seem obvious to the average person, but there are a number of answers and many variations. I have listed below the most frequent photography services provided at a typical San Francisco city hall wedding bridal prep session. Certainly when we capture a bridal prep session, Most of these items are included.
- Candid Photos of the Bride having her make-up applied
- Candid Photos of the Bride having her hair styled
- The bride putting on the wedding dress for the first time
- Pictures of the fully dressed bride with her Attendants
- Bride picture with each Bridesmaid / Attendant
- Bride with Parents and Grandparents
- Some more formal formal bridal portrait photography
- Bride leaving the Hotel / Apartment or wherever she got ready
- Bride arriving at San Francisco city hall in a limo or car
Pros and Cons of Bridal Prep photography for City Hall Weddings
Let’s discuss the details of some of the above activities and we can decide how useful they will be for a bride to add to her wedding photos. The first 2 items can sometimes be overdone. I have had brides asking me to arrive 3 hours before the wedding to make sure that we capture lots of candid pictures of the bride getting her hair and Make-up done. There is one problem with this that many brides don’t consider… At the beginning of these activities, the bride may have messed up hair from her shower and have no make-up on at all. Consequently, many of the earlier photos captured for this part are not all that useful to the bride. How do I know this? Well, after photographing close to 1,900 weddings in a 20 year period, I have photographed a very large number of bridal prep sessions. In all those years, I can barely remember even one of those early photos being chosen by the bride for her album or social media sharing. In fact, if brides want these photos at all, they only want to display the shots that were taken when both of these activities were nearing completion.
Paying the SF City Hall wedding photographer to come 2 hours early to capture these candid shots was an unnecessary expense for many of these brides. We could have just come when these preparation activities were complete and took some pictures of the last touch-ups being applied to both hair and make-up. I understand that there are some opportunities to capture some fun candid shots during this time, but I would suggest that Smart Phone cameras could also be used. Again, the main idea here is to save the couple money, not to save us time. We are happy to do all of this if you prefer.
A Better Solution for Bridal Prep Photography – Make-up and Hair
As mentioned above, the photos taken before the preparation is complete are rarely used. A better idea would be to have your San Francisco city hall wedding photographer come towards the end of those activities. Once both the Make-up and Hair is complete, your wedding photographer can request that Artists do some final touch ups. This makes for a great Bridal portrait just before the wedding and displays the end of the process. Even better, the bride can have either her mom or one of the attendants help with final touches on the hair and make-up and this makes for an even more compelling photo.
After all, the artists you paid to work on these items are most likely people you will never see again. Why not have people you know in your wedding memories? Contrary to those early bridal prep photos that nobody seems to want, these shots are always loved! I have even have brides explain to me that they didn’t much like their make-up artist, so why should she be in the wedding pictures. This same reasoning could also be applied to the Hair person as well! One last option for doing viral prep is to stage it at San Francisco City Hall. This often becomes the best solution for City Hall wedding photography and bridal prep together.
Logistical Problems with Bridal Prep Photography
One of the things that sets San Francisco city hall weddings apart from a more typical wedding is that they are performed on a pretty strict schedule. The County Clerk has many weddings to process each day and so things have to move along fairly swiftly. Trying to plan when to start and finish Bridal Prep photography can be challenging for those reasons. San Francisco traffic, parking, and getting through City Hall security all have to be factored into these estimates. I usually recommend to my brides to allow 1 additional hour of cushion time to make sure everyone is ready when the ceremony is scheduled to commence. This means that if you have 2:00 pm city hall ceremony, it would be smart to be all finished with bridal prep and the photography of same by 1:00 pm. This also gives you some cushion in case things go wrong. Another major factor I always point out is that having this extra time will reduce the stress on all wedding party participants, but most importantly the bride and the groom.
Making it Work for the San Francisco City Hall Bride
Brides deserve to have all of the photos they want at their SF City Hall wedding and even beforehand. If an engaged couple ask us to do extensive Bride Prep, the first thing we do is go over the issues discussed in this article and then figure out ways to make it work. I do not talk about the above issues to discourage brides from requesting bridal prep. Instead, I use these issues to create confidence that we have taken everything into consideration. If we can use the ideas listed on this post and actually shorten the bridal prep coverage needed, everything else will more easily fall into place. Mainly, I think this information can serve as a helpful guide to help the bride plan her wedding morning realistically.
