SF City Hall Wedding - Ft. Point and Russian Hill

The groom (Luca) for this wedding was Italian and even spoke some of the language. Luca and I connected right away through our shared heritage. We are both Italian and have a strong connection to our family roots. Leading up to the wedding, we shared stories and other information regarding Italy and our family situations and locations. Luca even promised to help me brush up on my Italian leading up to a visit I will making soon to see my relatives in Italy. More importantly, we discussed some of his preferences regarding the photography style he was looking for. Through this discussion, decisions were made about what San Francisco locations we were going to visit on our Photo Tour of the city. After some friendly debate, we settled on visiting 3 locations in San Francisco, immediately following their City Hall wedding. Here are the locations we chose together:

• The Golden Gate Bridge (Fort Point)
• The Palace of Fine Arts
• The top of Russian Hill

Russian Hill Wedding Photography

The Russian Hill location is one of our favorites because it pretty much has an unrestricted view of the downtown skyline. It is not a view you see that often because the access is challenging and there is no parking. If you are at the correct angle, you can also see North Beach and Washington Square. North Beach is notable as being San Francisco's version of "Little Italy" with lots of Italian cafes and restaurants. As mentioned, the only issue on top of Russian Hill is lack of parking. This is purely a residential area and there is no public parking except for the spaces used by residents. We often have to park down the hill a bit and then walk up. Another option is to have an Uber driver take us there and just drop us off. This is how we have been doing this particular shoot recently and it has worked quite well. In the past, I have also had my assistant drive and just drop us off and wait. With Uber now an option, it has made this location much more accessible.

Fort Point is a Great Option for Wedding Photography

The Golden Gate Bridge is always a great place to take our San Francisco city hall wedding couples. We especially enjoy the very close angle that Fort Point provides. This can be especially important on foggy days. It works out great to be closer to bridge if San Francisco's famous fog is rolling in. We avoided the fog on this particular day and obtained some memorable images of the newlyweds. As I have pointed out in other places on this website, a little fog is actually a nice touch because it is so typically San Franciscan. As a professional wedding photographer, I am always just happy if most of the Bridge is visible in the picture. However, if there is any threat of fog, this is the place to go because it is on the Bay side of the bridge.

The Palace Of Fine Arts After City Hall

The Palace of Fine Arts tend to be everyone's favorite place for San Francisco wedding photography. There is so much there and quite a bit of variety. This is probably the most popular place we take our couples after their San Francisco city hall nuptials. We can get far away angles or move behind the Rotunda area and photograph our bride and groom next to the large columns and other architecture. There is also some nice trees and bushes in the area. Occasionally other tourists get in the way, but for the more part it is avoidable. Patience is key, much the same as photographing newlyweds at San Francisco city hall. We often just need to wait our turn to capture amazing wedding photos.

Best Wedding Photography Locations - Seasonal Issues

We are always happy to help our couples choose their San Francisco locations for our City Tour package. Some of our clients know exactly where they want to go and others leave it mostly up to us. We know what areas are more accessible at various times of the day as well as how they might be affected by Summer fog patterns. Traffic, weather, and parking availability. These things can all be part of the equation sometimes and need to be considered when choosing the best places. A cold winter day might steer us in the direction of The Legion of Honor because it provides some shelter. A hot late summer wedding often sends us to the Beach.

To summarize, we do everything we can to try to give our Town Hall wedding couples the best possible wedding experience. As we have mentioned in other places on this web page, we want our couples to not only enjoy the final wedding photos, but remember their photography experience fondly. We know they will enjoy their actual wedding, because that is what the day is about. If we can add to that with some fun photography, all the better. Our best reward after a long shoot with a San Francisco Tour couple (or ANY couple) is when the bride or groom say: "That was fun!" It seems to happen often to us.

Affordable City Hall Wedding Photography

If you are looking for an affordable San Francisco City Hall wedding photographer, you might want to consider this same type of package. It goes well beyond our normal coverage of the interior of the building and a few shots outside. Consequently, you receive a significant amount photography time for your money. We try very hard to make it into a "San Francisco Experience" using our knowledge of the city as a guide. Our brides and grooms always love it and we often have time to explore around and maybe even get a drink at a local bar if they would like. The idea behind this experience goes beyond wedding photography, we hope to make it a fun afternoon of touring this beautiful City By the Bay. We are happy to share our knowledge and love of San Francisco just as a tour guide might do. For more information on this package, check out the video below and please contact us if you want more information.

Below is a very short music video of their San Francisco Photo Tour - Enjoy!

Sometimes the best photos are not posed and just happen!

The Last Wedding Photo of the Day! Woo Hoo!!

The Photo above represents a cross section of how our San Francisco tours usually go. We enjoy getting to know our couples more extensively and that is what always occurs. Top notch wedding photography is still our number 1 goal and we will not hesitate to do what we can to make your wedding pictures perfect. At times, we take for granted just how many beautiful spots there are in the city. The area pictured above sits atop Russian Hill and as you can see affords great views of so much of San Francisco. The Transamerica building was, at this time the tallest building in view. Now we have the Sales Force Tower that dominates because it so much taller than any of the skyscrapers in downtown. If you look carefully, you can see the construction of that building on the right side of the picture.

A Unique View of the Grand Staircase at City Hall

The image below is one of our favorite angles of the Grand Staircase. So many city hall wedding photographers (ourselves included) focus on shooting UP the staircase. This is the obvious view since it shows the Rotunda and the stairs themselves along with the railing. What it doesn't show, is this amazing patterned floor which is like no other. This particular angle displays enough of the Staircase so you know that it is there, but then really depicts the patterned floor in spectacular fashion. One interesting San Francisco City Hall fact to note, the patterned floor was meant to mirror the dome directly above. A truly amazing aspect of the architecture surprises that you will find all over SF city hall. I am pretty sure that we were one of the first city hall wedding photographers to capture this particular angle. It is now requested by many of our couples. Recently, the best man at one of our weddings showed me this picture and basically asked me why I wasn't doing a photo like this one. Much to his surprise, I politely pointed out that this was actually my photo and yes, of course I was going to try to capture it!