How to Plan Your SF City Hall Wedding

This blog was created to assist engaged couples who want to get married in San Francisco or more specifically SF City Hall.  SF City Hall Wedding Photography By Michael is happy to provide you with free planning of your wedding with no obligation to utilize our service. For more information about our service, please click the link above.

This is a quick  and easy step-by-step planning guide for your upcoming San Francisco City Hall Wedding.  We receive many questions about what to do and how to prepare for a civil ceremony in this historic building.    The obvious first thing to do is choose a wedding date and we would suggest avoiding Fridays if possible because there are so many tourists and other  weddings going on that day.  Also, the wedding photography portion of your day will be much more challenging on Fridays with so many people everywhere.  We certainly understand why Fridays are such a convenient day for a wedding, but City Hall can be pretty crazy, so just be ready. Once you have your date booked you can:

1. Decide whether you want a reserved space at city hall or just a simple Civil Ceremony through the County Clerk’s Office. Lets discuss Reserved weddings first, because they require the most notice. By paying $1,000 and putting a deposit down on either the Mayors Balcony or 4th Floor North Gallery you can reserve a space for your wedding.  You can do this by contacting the Events department at city hall by clicking the link.  The advantage of doing this is that you will be able to reserve a 1 hour roped off section of city hall all to yourself, complete with chairs for your guests.  Most people only do this if they are planning on many guests.  San Francisco city hall limits it’s standard Civil Ceremony weddings to 6 guests.  This limit is enforced  unevenly, but you just never know how strict they are going to be about it. The decision lies with Marriage Commissioner regarding how strictly to enforce the rules.
   
   
2. Book your marriage license appointment by clicking this link.  This appointment should be made at least 1 hour before your ceremony.  The County Clerk says you can just book it 30 minutes ahead, but my experience is that this is rushing it a bit.   Be prepared to bring your current Identification and any other legal forms you might want to present.  If you have a pending divorce, be sure to bring those documents just in case.  You can use a Passport or Driver’s license for identification, just be sure that they are unexpired.  City Hall will not accept out of date ID’s and there are no exceptions to this rule. Update:  Another good reason to allow more than 30 minutes between the license and ceremony is that there are times when the Marriage license worked in the County Clerk’s office can be running so far behind, that they actually run past your ceremony.   We have seen this happen twice in the past month.  Again, we recommend at least 60 minutes between!
   
   
3. If you decided against paying for the reserved space but still want your wedding here, its now time to book your civil ceremony at City Hall.   If possible, try to choose a Tuesday or a Wednesday for less crowds.  We understand that many people do not have this option, but if you can, it’s well worth the smaller crowds.  The time of your ceremony matters also, we suggest early morning or late afternoon for best access to all of the building without tourists everywhere around you. Keep in mind that late afternoon weddings occasionally will coincide with certain scheduled city hall events.  However, most of the time we can work around it.  NOTE: Since the reopening of City Hall after Covid-19 and until further notice, there are much less special events being held. We have not seen this change even 1.5 years later!
   
   
4. Hire a professional wedding photographer!  This is not just a pitch to have you book us, we are very passionate about the importance of recording this all important life milestone.  Why rely on your friend’s iPhone camera?  There are many great city hall wedding photographers available and some have excellent pricing.  Just look around or talk to us!  We are happy to refer you to others as well.  We have lots of friends who are city hall wedding photographers and some (including us) offer their services for low prices.  This website article talks more about discount city hall wedding photography and how civil ceremonies save you money!
   
   
5. On the day of your wedding, be sure to bring your ID and license (if already obtained).  We have had some couples forget to bring their Identification or assume that they don’t need to again.  But you do!  We also encourage the bride to bring walking shoes, the floors are marble and will take their toll after strolling through the building for a while.  We will provide you plenty of time during the photo shoot to take them off and put them back on again.  No rushing you!  We also highly recommend bring a nice colorful bouquet of flowers for the bride and a Boutonniere for the groom. Colors were very well at San Francisco city hall.

Update:  We are now providing our clients with free wedding planning services.  You do not need to book with us to be eligible.  Just email us with your questions and we are happy to help.  Hopefully the above guide will give you a good start. You can check out our San Francisco city hall planning page for more information about planning your wedding at city hall.

Enjoy your wedding day in this historical wedding venue!