The city hall website specifically states that the maximum number of guests allowed at standard civil ceremonies is 6. The rules go on to explain that if you DO bring more than 6, city hall reserves the right to have the guests removed from the building. The rules also talk about your guests being a nuisance and disrupting city hall business. The Rotunda is restricted now to 6 guests due to past disruptions by large groups making loud noise. They are being super cautious and trying to keep crowds to a minimum. The truth is, that everyone talks about this, but nobody is enforcing it. We would be happy to discuss these issues with you if you have further questions, so please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you are still on the fence about making the decision to have a civil ceremony or a larger wedding here is another article with more information on the subject. Click the link for more information.
So the question is, should you as a SF City Hall couple violate the rules and still try to invite as many people as you want? My opinion is that couples getting married at San Francisco city hall should, at the very least, respect the spirit behind the rule. So if you are going to go over the 6 guests maximum, don’t go way over. Realize that your extra guests may not be allowed to witness the ceremony close by. In general, The Country Clerk’s office finds it difficult to restrict the number of guests that come in to the building to watch your wedding, but they ARE able to prevent the large group from being present at the actual ceremony. Please keep in mind that if every couple brought 25 guests, the place would be a mad house. This is because there are 24 plus weddings per day.
The rules are there for a reason, to try to keep the environment safe and quiet. But it certainly is not our job as your San Francisco city hall wedding photographer to enforce the rules or even advise you. It really is up to you to determine how many people to invite. From month to month it seems like we are hearing different things from the County Clerk in terms of enforcement. For this reason, it makes it very difficult for us to properly advise you on how to handle this. We would, however, like to discuss some alternative ideas that might help you deal with this issue.
Reserved City Hall Ceremony Option
So what do you do if you have a large guest account, but still want to get married at SF City Hall? Believe it or not, you do have options that you may not be aware of. If you are willing to pay a little extra you can contact the Events Department and talk to them about reserving a space to have your city hall ceremony. It only costs around $1,000 and you are able to have a nice section of San Francisco city hall all to yourself for one hour. They even give you 2 choices for this reserved ceremony. You can have your nuptials on the Mayor’s Balcony or The 4th Floor North Gallery. Both locations are exceptionally beautiful and provide plenty of room for the couple and their guests. You can seat up to 60 people on the 4th floor and up to 40 at the Mayor’s Balcony. If you bring more guests than those numbers, the remaining guests can stand and there is plenty of room.
The Events Department also ropes off the area to keep others out which provides your wedding a certain amount of privacy. Please keep in mind that despite the privacy afforded by booking a reserved wedding, there is still going to be plenty of people around and they may be making noise. However, they will definitely NOT be invading your space during your wedding celebration. Occasionally the noise can be an issue and if your officiant is not experienced with handling San Francisco city hall weddings, you may want to warn them about the background sounds. Of course, it is up to you to hire your own officiant, so this is something to keep in mind. They will really need to speak up to be heard over the ambient sound in the building. San Francisco City Hall wedding officiants generally cost anywhere between $200 and $350. So keep this in mind when you are budgeting for your reserved wedding. We can recommend some great officiants with lots of experience doing reserved weddings at SF City Hall.
Music is Allowed for Reserved City Hall Weddings
Another very nice feature of reserved weddings is that SF city hall allows you to bring in music to be played at your ceremony. You’re able to book a harpist, string quartet, or guitar player. It is your choice so long as you choose one of the SF Event Departments approved music vendors. You can use the music to announce the bride coming in during the processional or when the happy couple leaves the ceremony. Many couples also just want to have background music for the time leading up to the actual ceremony. Even after the ceremony, you can book the musicians to stay and keep playing for a predetermined amount of time. As mentioned above, you have one hour in the space.
Keep in mind all of these many options before you decide to bring your whole family and friends to a small civil ceremony. It will make your special day more enjoyable for you and your guests! They can even listen to music! Just like hiring a wedding officiant, bringing in music will cost you some extra dollars. City Hall music costs will obviously vary depending upon the size of the group you book. So it is difficult to estimate this expense, but we see brides and grooms paying anywhere from $300 up to $750.
Have your Own Private Civil Ceremony at SF City Hall
Another alternative for a wedding at San Francisco City Hall is to hire an officiant and have your own private ceremony. City Hall is a public building and so they allow private ceremonies to occur as long as they’re not too disruptive. This provides you with an alternative to the six guests limit. As mentioned above, I would still not go to crazy with the number of people you invite. The great thing is you don’t have to worry about someone at the County Clerk’s office telling you that your guests can’t watch your wedding. We, as your San Francisco City Hall wedding photographers have been involved in many private ceremonies. This experience has helped up to discover some great locations for the ceremony with some amount of privacy.
We also can provide you with a list of experienced City Hall officiants that you can use for your private ceremony. I usually recommend experienced SF City Hall Marriage Commissioners because they will wear the robes and look very official. We are happy to work with you closely to help you plan your private ceremony at San Francisco City Hall. One thing to keep in mind, is that you will not be able to bring in music for a private ceremony. This restriction also includes members from your own wedding party performing. City Hall has a strict rule that prevents anybody from bringing in unapproved music to the venue.
Request a Commissioner for a Wedding Outside of City Hall
This is a not very well known option that can be found on the SF city hall website. The county clerk will supply the marriage commissioner to perform your marriage anywhere in San Francisco. It’s your responsibility to choose the site and obtain permits if necessary. For more details regarding how this works I’ve provided you a link to the City Hall website where they offer this unique alternative. The great thing about this option is that you can invite as many people as you wish as long as your San Francisco location can handle it. We are also be happy to work with you to find some tried and true San Francisco Ceremony locations that we have worked at before. The beauty of this alternative is that once you complete your ceremony we can still take you to San Francisco City Hall and capture pictures around the building. Imagine having your wedding ceremony and some beautiful Scenic spot in San Francisco and then topping it off with a great photo shoot at City Hall. It’s really, quite honestly, a tremendous combination and our clients tend to love it.
Summary
Will San Francisco City Hall enforce the Six Guest rule? Are you willing to pay the extra money for a Reserved ceremony? Would you rather just take a chance and bring some extra people and hope for the best? These are all valid questions and hopefully I have answered them in this article. The good news is there are lots of different ways to approach your San Francisco City Hall wedding. Most of the options presented here will work great for you.