Welcome to our Same-Sex LGBTQ+ City Hall wedding photography web page. We were one of the first City Hall wedding photography teams to start shooting gay weddings once same-sex LGBTQ marriages became legal in California in 2013 and we were proud to do so. We will make your day as special and as fun as possible. Our service goes well beyond just simply giving you great photographs. We understand that this is a major event in your lives and so we do everything we can to make your day memorable and easy. We have been serving the LGBTQ+ community for years and have enjoyed every minute of it.
Our upbeat and creative approach to wedding photography will keep you and your partner relaxed while having your photos taken at San Francisco city hall. We never over-pose you and really try to keep things simple and fun. We know you will love working with us and will enjoy your final product... The wedding pictures!
Once your civil ceremony is complete, we will take the two of you on an amazing photographic journey of this beautiful and historic building. However, first we like to capture all of your family/friend pictures to allow us to take the happy couple around the building for pictures on their own. This works well because we have all of your guests right by us, so it is a good time to get this out of the way and do it quickly.
Our City Hall photo tour will normally cover all 4 floors of the building and we will help pose you at each location. You are also welcome to help create your own poses if you prefer. Most of our clients want us to control the posing, but provide us some input along the way. This balanced approach works quite well and has resulted in the pictures you see on this page. We make it our priority to make sure our Same-sex couples are happy with how we are posing them and to make sure they are comfortable. We always ask our couples if they have a certain style of wedding pictures they prefer and we receive all different types of answers.
We are ready to answer any questions you might have regarding San Francisco City Hall. We will assist with any planning issues you may be having with your marriage ceremony. We have photographed over 800 weddings at this iconic landmark and have treasured the many wonderful moments we have witnessed. If you are eloping and need a witness for the Marriage License signing, we are proud to serve in this capacity for you at no extra charge. We absolutely will adjust our style to fit your needs and desires. We understand that some couples want complex posing and more romantic shots. Other couples want to keep it simple. We will discuss your photographic needs prior to the wedding and adjust accordingly. We had one gay couple tell us that they wanted the exact same pose in front of every background at SF City Hall. So whatever you want, we are happy to oblige. We pride ourselves on making your photography experience not only comfortable, but fun! This is true for our Same-Sex / Queer couples and all others we photograph at city hall.
We are fortunate to have been chosen to photograph well over 150 Same-Sex/Gender city hall weddings over the past 12 years. One of the things we especially appreciate is the love and happiness of many of our couples who are finally getting married after being together for so many years. A few years back we photographed a wedding of a Gay couple who had been together for 46 years! It's truly an honor to be a part of so many of these momentous occasions!
Shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in California, there was a huge backlog of couples who had been together for years and they were eager to tie the knot. We have featured many of these couples as can be seen in the video above. In addition to the 46 year couple, we also photographed weddings of couple who had been together for 22, 34, 41 and 42 years! These LGBTQ newlyweds can now enjoy the benefits of a legal marriage in California after waiting so many years. For many, however, the legal issue is not really the point. It is more about knowing that you are finally truly married in the eyes of the state and all others. Fortunately, there are also some financial tax benefits as well. Just recently (October, 2023), we photographed another long term LGBTQ couple with a relationship that has lasted for 38 years.
We offer San Francisco city hall wedding photography packages to fit any celebration, including those ranging from 1 to 4 hours of coverage and optional reception coverage. Choose the San Francisco Venue of your choice and we will be there to cover it from start to finish! Please ask us about our SF City Tour package where we will take the 2 of you to any of your favorite iconic locations in the city of San Francisco. Choose from 1, 2 or 3 additional locations after we finish up our wedding photography at San Francisco city hall. Some of our favorite locations include, The Palace of Fine Arts, Baker Beach, The Legion of Honor, and of course the Golden Gate Bridge.
We have discovered some unique angles and locations to obtain photos of the bridge and we can't wait to show you! Above all, we try to keep the San Francisco tour upbeat and memorable. We always provide our Same-Sex newlyweds with sufficient time to enjoy whatever destination they choose. It's not all about San Francisco city hall wedding photography, we want you to enjoy the experience. To see a detailed listing of our most popular San Francisco photo tour destinations please click the link. Don't forget to take a Cable Car ride, this always makes for a fantastic image to add to our wedding album. We have a great place to board San Francisco's most famous symbol and then you get to pretend to ride while we take amazing pics. You can even hang off the Cable Car if you are brave enough! We specialize in LGBTQ+ weddings and have been doing it for 12 years!
Of course you expect great images when you hire a professional San Francisco city hall wedding photographer and we do everything we can to make sure that happens. We also feel that the process of getting your wedding pictures taken is important too. We want it to be a positive experience from start to finish. Our upbeat and positive approach helps make that happen. Many of our clients tell us that they had so much fun during the photography process that the photo shoot was a great part of their wedding day. Many of our Yelp reviews talk as much about the wedding photography experience as they do about the quality of the photographs. That's fine with us! We are in this business to enjoy what we do while delivering the best wedding photos possible. We also know that if our newlyweds enjoy the photo shoot, they will have more natural smiles and better memories.
We would be honored if you chose us to photograph your same-gender marriage celebration. The wedding images above highlight some of our recent LGBTQ marriages, but there are so much more throughout the site. Below are some links to other Same-Sex wedding pictures. If you would prefer to see one complete City Hall Same-Sex Marriage, click the link. Sometimes and it is more helpful to see one complete wedding portfolio rather than a compilation of the best shots. Listed below are a few more portfolio sample weddings:
Our full compliment of SF City Hall Wedding Photography packages can be found HERE , but we are more than happy to create a custom package to fit the needs of of your LGBTQ wedding celebration. If one of our listed collections don't fit your needs, please email us at mike@cityhallphotos.com or call and we will build a package around your budget and preferences. Many of our clients do this because they want something specific in terms of location or timing. We will do whatever is possible to make your marriage day perfect for you both. A large percentage of our Gay/Lesbian couples ask for a custom package. Be as creative as you want, we are happy to accommodate you.
We recently worked with a Same-Sex couple that included the ceremony at city hall, a one location shoot at The Palace of Fine Arts and then a 3 hour break before we covered their North Beach wedding reception. Yes, we do charge a little bit of a split fee in some cases, but for this package we didn't due to the large financial commitment the couple made to us. They even included one of our beautiful 8X11 wedding albums in their package. Just let us know details about the timing of your event and where you want to go. We will do the rest!
One of the things we have noticed with Same-Sex weddings at city hall is that the couples seldom have bouquets or boutonnieres. This is especially true of the men. Flowers are the perfect accent to the largely colorless walls and floors of the San Francisco Courthouse. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love everything about photographing weddings here, but a splash of color really helps. Brides often ask me what color flowers work well at SF City Hall and my answer is always the same.... Anything but white! The goal here is to add color.
The same with the men, boutonnieres can really set off the suit they might be wearing and make a huge difference. Other fun things for the guys to do is to wear colorful socks. Rainbow socks are very popular with our gay grooms and it makes for wonderful and fun wedding pictures. For our brides colorful shoes are also recommended and work perfectly here. At one recent wedding, the father of one of the brides wore Rainbow socks to honor the couple. There are many other accessories you may want to consider to enhance your LGBTQ wedding. Feel free to look through our Gay/Lesbian wedding photography pages for examples.
If you are having an after wedding party or reception in San Francisco be sure to allow enough lead time to arrive at your location after your city hall nuptials. We frequently end up rushing at the end of our photography shoots because the couple misjudged the amount of time it would take to complete their Courthouse ceremony and Photo tour. Remember that when you receive your ceremony time from the County Clerk, this isn't really when you are getting married. After your check-in at the Clerk's office you will first meet with your officiant. This meeting usually occurs close to your ceremony time and involves some instructions to the couple by the Deputy Marriage Commissioner and also the license signing takes place at this time. Your actual ceremony most likely will occur about 15 minutes after.
So please allow plenty of cushion for your wedding activities and the fact that it takes a while to get around in San Francisco. We also think that the photo shoot will go a lot smoother if the newlyweds are not thinking about the potential of being late for their own wedding reception. In general, detailed planning of the full wedding day really helps the enjoyment of the entire day by all of the participants. Once you do the work ahead of time, you can then really enjoy your day and not have to worry anymore about the fine details.
Yes, this is a San Francisco city hall wedding photography website, but I wanted to explore some other options that are available to same-sex couples looking to get married in San Francisco. There are many great places to get married in addition to city hall. We can take you to many other fantastic SF Landmarks if you would like to consider other alternative ceremony locations for your Same-Sex wedding. Lands End, Golden Gate Park, Sutro Baths, or one of many picturesque overlooks can be chosen.
Another option is to hire your own officiant for a city hall wedding ceremony. We can even arrange for a private officiant for you if given enough notice. Civil ceremony reservations can book up fast, but you can still get married in this beautiful building by bringing in your own officiant. We will be happy to help you find a LGBTQ-Friendly officiant (most, if not all of them are!) as we have worked with many of them. Return to our home page for other information about San Francisco city hall wedding photography.