We have been photographing weddings and events at San Francisco City Hall now for nearly 12 years and have learned some interesting ideas and helpful hints throughout this time. I thought it would be instructive to share some of these thoughts with our readers to help engaged couples planning on getting married at San Francisco City Hall. Our website is also a great resource if you are planning on having your wedding at SF City Hall. To research more information, please feel free to check out this article with more SF city hall planning ideas.
Plan Ahead and Stay Organized for your Wedding
It is very important to make sure you have all of your paperwork up to date and appointments booked well ahead of time. San Francisco city hall requires you to make 2 appointments to get married if you do not already have a marriage license from a different office. This is one of the biggest mistakes we see our brides and grooms make. They often think that all they need to do is book their ceremony time and the rest will take care of itself. The truth is, if you do not have a marriage license when you walk into City Hall, you probably will not be getting married that day. Yes, the County Clerk may try to fit you in for a quick marriage license appointment, but these meetings can take up to 40 minutes. When they are already running behind, you will not be able to obtain your license. Unfortunately, they are often running late, so make sure you bring all of the documentation needed. If you happened to have a civil ceremony at 3:00 or 3:30 there probably will not be time to take care of both of these items anyway. Another very important thing is to make sure that your identification is current. Expired passports and drivers licenses will not be accepted under any circumstances (many have tried). Also keep in mind that you do NOT have to obtain your marriage license at San Francisco city hall. Any California County Clerk’s office will do, as long as it is within 90 days of your ceremony date.
Hire a Professional Wedding Photographer
OK so it is probably no surprise that I mention this helpful hint since I am a San Francisco City Hall Wedding Photographer. However, this is not strictly self-serving. I would highly recommend that you hire ANY of the top wedding photographers that specialize in City Hall weddings. Why? Because the top 10 or so photographers will not only take wonderful photos of your ceremony and formal shots after, but they will also guide you through the Civil Ceremony process. This will help make your wedding day stress free, allowing you to focus on the important things.
Over these 12 years I have watched other photographers work with their clients and all of them are happy to help. Conversely, when I see couples without a professional wedding photographer, they can often appear confused and do the wrong thing with regard to activities such as the County Clerk ceremony check-in. Having a helpful professional there to guide you, takes one more stressful thing away to worry about on your wedding day. It is almost like hiring a free wedding planner for your city hall marriage. More importantly, you will be sure to have recorded memories of one of the most important days of your lives. By the way, I should mention that we actually do offer pre-wedding planning at no charge. There is no obligation to book with us if you want to take advantage of this free service.
Dress up and Bring Flowers to City Hall
We often find that brides and grooms are surprised when they see other couples wearing formal attire. Many couples are disappointed that they didn’t do the same after witnessing others. I think people that are unfamiliar with SF City Hall don’t realize that people actually have formal weddings there. The elegance and historic nature of the building creates a more formal feeling, which leads many others to dress up in fancy wedding attire. The most prevalent issue issue we see is brides not bringing a floral bouquet for photography.
The only negative thing I would ever say about San Francisco City Hall is that the colors are all very monotone. So even though our photos come out gorgeous with the amazing backgrounds and architecture, SO much is added simply by mixing in a splash of color. A beautiful floral bouquet does this for the happy couple. It also gives the bride something to do with her hands during the wedding pictures! We also love brides who choose white wedding dresses, but with a little trim of color somewhere in the design. This also adds so much! Recently we have had the privilege of photographing a bride with a Green Dress and then a Gold Dress. These colors work magic at City Hall and it was a lot of fun to photograph them. I would apply this same recommendation to Quinceanera photography sessions, a nice bouquet really rounds out the dress!
Avoid San Francisco City Hall Crowds
Yes, it really is possible to have your wedding at San Francisco City Hall and not have other weddings and tourists everywhere. How do we avoid this? You just need to pick your spots. This suggestion goes back to our first bullet point about preplanning. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are the best days to get married and by far the least crowded. Mondays are great also. Some clients tell me, “But we can’t get married in the middle of the week, it needs to be Friday to accommodate our friends and family”. Well if you have ever been in City Hall on “Crazy Friday”, you wont be using the word “accommodate” and “Friday” in the same sentence. Ask your friends and family, they might surprise you. Also, if you really want to have the place to yourself, schedule your marriage ceremony for early morning (9:30 am) or choose a later time (after 2:30pm). During both of these time periods there are usually smaller crowds and less tourists in San Francisco city hall. Just please remember that these suggestions are general in nature and there can be many exceptions. San Francisco city hall is a public building, so there are no guarantees. However, we CAN guarantee that we will capture amazing pictures no matter what the circumstances are.
Consider a Reserved SF City Hall Ceremony
Obviously one of the big draws to having your nuptials at San Francisco City Hall is the low cost. It costs under $100 to get married in this beautiful historic building (not including the marriage license). However, the rules state that you should only bring 6 guests. Yes, most people ignore these rules, but you are still limited and the more people you bring the more others are disrupted.
Reserving the Mayor’s Balcony or the 4th Floor North Gallery only costs $1,000 and pretty much guarantees you privacy and 1 hour of no crowds. With a reserved wedding you can get married on a Friday and it is perfectly fine. You have your own space, which is roped of from the public. The San Francisco city hall Events office will even set up chairs for your 40 +guests! In addition, your SF city hall wedding photographer now has at least one location to get great shots with no worries of tourists in the photos. It really is a great value for this and so many reasons. Please remember that if you decide to book a reserved wedding, it is up to you to hire an officiant. Prices for Officiants can range anywhere from $150 to $300.
Bring Props or other fun things to your SF Civil Ceremony
Brides and Grooms can personalize their City Hall marriage and the wedding pictures by bringing props. In recent months it has become a bit of a trend, but it is really fun. Couples have been bringing “Thank you” signs to use on their gift responses. The obvious sign saying: “Just Married” is another popular idea. But we have seen all kinds of different signs made from different materials. Some are homemade while others are obviously store bought. Just another very good and fun idea to enhance your city hall wedding! In addition to signs, couples can also bring baseball caps and sports jerseys for their favorite professional teams. This can make for some really fun wedding photos! One idea is to wear rival sports jerseys and then pretend like you are fighting each other. This can be a fun wedding image for your album!
