I am writing this blog post because we have had a number of recent brides at San Francisco city hall show up without flowers. City hall is an amazing place to have your wedding ceremony. The architecture alone is incredible but there is even more to this story. Because of the way the building is oriented, the natural light can be pretty amazing. As a San Francisco City Hall wedding photographer, you learn where to go at certain times of the day to capture this light. The windows are also incredible, not only because of the light they let in, but also the designs on the glass.
The only small problem with photographing weddings here is that the backgrounds are all very neutral in color. You have a mixture of white and gray and many shades in between. For this reason, flowers make an incredible difference. Just adding that little splash of color can really enhance a wedding photo in the building. We feel so strongly about this that we are now bringing silk flowers as an option for the bride if she wants them. Check out our home page for more examples of city hall brides with flowers. We also have wedding pictures of brides without flowers so you can compare for yourself.
As you can see from the above photo, the image is enhanced by the color added from the bride’s bouquet. Even the boutonniere worn by the groom makes a difference by adding some pizzaz in this wedding picture. We are able to produce wonderful images even without flowers, but we highly suggest you consider bringing even a small arrangement. I honestly think that some City Hall brides do not even think about the possibility of flowers because they think of their wedding as being just a simple civil ceremony. But San Francisco city hall is so different because of the elegance of the building! Here is a link to a city hall florist that we have liked in the past just in case you need ideas. This next wedding florist is very close to city hall and has some great reviews. We have had great experience with both of them, but there are many other great florists in San Francisco. Quite a few of them are very close to SF City Hall.
If you prefer not to spend the money for a professional florist, make your own simple arrangement. This link will provide you with some great ideas for putting together a bouquet that looks amazing and will definitely do the job for your San Francisco city hall wedding. If this is still too much work and expense for you, just grab a few flowers at the store and tie them together with some nice ribbon. You can even use thicker ribbon and make a handle, simply by wrapping it around the based of the flowers a number of times. We have had brides show up with 3 beautiful roses tied together and it was more than adequate.
So you can see, there really is no reason not to bring some sort of floral arrangement. It will enhance your wedding and gives the bride something to do with her hands. Remember, most wedding dresses do not have pockets! Either way, brides often are unsure of hand positioning for certain photos, flowers avoid this. Of course, it is our job to help with all the posing and we will always make it work whether you have flowers or not!
Another fun thing about bringing a bouquet to your city hall wedding is that you can throw it! Its kind of obvious who was going to catch it this time, but still a fun wedding photo. For more information about our SF City Hall Wedding Photography service check out our Yelp Reviews. We feel that it is more important to carefully read the reviews than to only look at the rating. We always try to help out our brides and grooms with the entire process of getting married at City Hall and this is reflected in our Reviews. Providing advice on flowers is just one aspect of how we try to assist our Newlyweds.
NOTE: We have discovered over time just how important it really is to add flowers at SF City Hall. as mentioned above, we have now started to bring a very nice silk bouquet to the wedding just in case our couple shows up without flowers. Of course it is optional, but many of our clients take us up on our offer! We will even let you keep it for a souvenir of your wedding experience at San Francisco city hall. Check out the photos below to see how the color of the flowers enhance the wedding pictures. Even the white bouquet directly below add some interest. I still prefer a little more color, but any type of bouquet is better than none! We offer reasonably priced city hall wedding photography packages for anyone who is interested in hiring us.
