We love San Francisco City Hall weddings. The architecture and natural light provides an elegant backdrop for public ceremonies and elopements atop the grand staircase. Thousands of couples get married at SF City Hall every year, and we are honored to provide them with gorgeous photography on their wedding day.

You've already made one of the best decisions about your wedding - to get married at the most iconic and beautiful venues. Undeniably, City Hall is an architectural piece of art and it's one of the most gorgeous wedding venues in California, if not the US. So congratulations! But your journey is only beginning and we're here to offer you a few tips to make the process of planning your wedding easier. 

1 - Reserve your date.

This one is obvious since you can't get married without a reservation
But keep in mind that City Hall has become so popular for weddings and elopements, that often times you may not be able to get your preferred date or time slot. You can make a reservation up to 90 days in advance, and we suggest you reserve your spot exactly 90 days in advance. 
Now, you have a few options for your ceremony location. You can choose between the Rotunda, 4th floor galleries or the Mayor's Balcony. Our favorite is the 4th floor. It's spacious, it offers the most light and it has the best backdrop. But just like the Mayor's Balcony, it's $1000 to reserve. It doesn't make sense to rent the 4th floor or Mayor's Balcony if you're bringing 3-4 guests, but if you have a large number of guests, you might want to consider it. You can actually invite up to 100 guests and have them seated (chairs are extra. 60 chairs max for 4th floor. 40 chairs max for Mayor's Balcony), the remaining guests will be standing. Also, the space will be yours for one hour. This is great since after the ceremony you can use the space for your family photos while the rest of your guests can mingle and sip some champagne (assuming you bring some). 

2 - Hire a professional photographer and cinematographer 

This might sound a little biased given that we offer both services, but hear us out. Photos and videos are going to be the ONLY two things that you can look back to and reflect on the memories of the wedding. Sure, you might snap a few selfies or ask one of the guests to take a few pictures, but let’s face it, they won't look nearly as good as a professional artistic photo. And speaking of video, we've seen folks recording the ceremony on a mobile phone. Well, we have a few things to say about that.
First, do you want your guests to enjoy the wedding or to film it? Second, assuming you're okay with the image quality of your friend’s phone, how well do you think the audio will be? The acoustics might be pretty good (or bad?), which makes it nearly impossible to capture good audio without good microphones. Not only that,  it's a public building and it hosts public events quite often. That means you will often hear people working, setting up lights and equipment for upcoming events. You will also hear people clapping and shouting since there are multiple weddings happening at the same time on multiple levels of the building. So good audio is important!

3 - Make some plans for after the ceremony

Many of your guests will be coming from out of town or perhaps even from out of the country. This would be a great opportunity to show them around and take them to a nice dinner. San Francisco offers a huge variety of reception places and ways to get there. The most popular is the trolley bus tour, which will drive you and your guests around the city, before bringing you to the final destination of your choice. Some of the most popular reception venues: Epic Steak House, Argonaut Hotel, Wayfare Tavern, and many more.

4 - Choose your transportation

Getting to City Hall is pretty easy, but it becomes a little bit complicated when you have a lot of guests. Let's break it down:
If it's just the two of you and perhaps one or two guests, don't overthink it. Get an Uber and don't worry about parking. Alternatively, get an old-school Rolls Royce to arrive at City Hall in style. If you already have a car, you can park it in the Civic Center Garage.
Finally, if you have a large group of guests, staying in the same hotel, we recommend getting a shuttle. Logistically it's the easiest solution and you'll have peace of mind knowing all of your guests will be on time. 

5 - Pick a nice hotel or Airbnb

What is a good place to stay in SF is one of the most common questions we get asked. And for several reasons. For once, couples want a great view of San Francisco and they want to be within 10 minutes of City Hall. Luckily, there are plenty of options in the city. But what we found over the years, that's probably even more important, is the actual space. Granted, the views are important, but what if your room is tiny? And what if you have 5 bridesmaids and they all need makeup and hair done? And what if you wanted to do a first look at the hotel? Is the lobby a nice enough backdrop? What if you wanted to write your vows or exchange gifts? The list goes on... 
As photographers and cinematographers, we realized that having a large room or a suite can have a positive effect on your photos and film and can also reduce your stress levels significantly. 

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5 TIPS TO HELP PLAN YOUR CITY HALL WEDDING IN SAN FRANCISCO

featured films

*10 guestS maximum

we also offer enhanced services such as aerial shots, highlights film upgrade and more.
please contact us for more information.

2 hours of Continuous Coverage
1 Cinematographer 
3-4 min Wedding Highlight Film
Online Gallery Hosting

city hall wedding film
$1200

city hall wedding photo & film
$2300

2 hours of Continuous Coverage
1 Cinematographer 
1 Photographer
3-4 min Wedding Highlight Film
150 Edited Images in High Resolution
Copy of all Images in Cloud Storage
Private Online Gallery Hosting