We loved photographing this bride and her lovely veil. We didn't even realize how beautiful it was at first, but noticed it in the light. It was probably one of the most unique bridal veils we have ever photographed. We started our coverage of this San Francisco city hall wedding and really enjoyed taking the bride and groom around the building for some great photos. As the bride bent over to adjust her shoes, I noticed that her veil had a design in it and it was amazing. We asked her to open it up and saw the shape of it and realized that we had to try to highlight it in some way. We knew that the 3rd floor San Francisco city hall window was the perfect place because of the natural light coming in. We took a number of shots of the bride by herself like the one above and then we added the groom to some pictures too!
It is always important to seize great photo opportunities like this and it reminds us the the importance of showing the back of the wedding gown and not just the front. We photographed this bride for a good 45 minutes before we even noticed the unique and beautiful shape and design of her veil. When a bride selects her wedding dress she wants to look good coming and going! We would also suggest that you let your San Francisco city hall wedding photographer about some the veil's attributes. We might have missed this one if we had not seen her bent over that the perfect angle. This gorgeous dress certainly accomplished that.
Another option for showing off the veil - the bend back shot!
The bride in the above pictures booked their wedding on Valentine's Day. With the exception of the Pandemic closure of 2021, the San Francisco County Clerk's office has made Valentine's day into a fun marriage celebration. Rather than have Brides and Grooms check in at the County Clerks office they set up a booth in the North Gallery on the 1st floor so they can handle the larger volume of people expected. On Valentines day, City Hall gives engaged couples 2 options: 1. You can set an appointment to have your wedding at the time you want it and go through the normal process, but just in a different location or, 2. You can walk in with no appointment and still get married, you may just have to wait a bit.
The Valentine's Day celebration at City Hall has always attracted a large number of eloping couples. It is the perfect day for elopements because everything is set up for a fast ceremony with only one witness needed. We are happy to serve as your Witness and also be the wedding photographer for your elopement. In the past, they have offered this service for free. We do not know how it will handled going forward after the reopening of city hall following Covid-19 concerns. We will just have to wait and see. February 14th of 2024 may be our first time to experience this with the new potential changes.
On normal weekdays, the County Clerk's office supplies 1 officiant to do weddings throughout the day. They are able to perform 2 ceremonies in the Rotunda every 30 minutes or so. However, on Valentines Day, San Francisco City Hall brings in multiple marriage commissioners to handle the larger work load. It is not unusual to see 5 or 6 of them at any given time. They are all volunteers so it is very nice of them to do this for the public on this special occasion. I expect to be photographing at least one wedding on Valentines Day if not more. I still have not quite figured out how the general public finds out about this special service offered on the 14th. There is no mention of it on the San Francisco city hall website. In any case, it is certainly a fun event and maybe I will see you there! This bride took advantage of all of the fun stuff available and we all enjoyed the day.
This is another way to use the 3rd floor window at city hall to display the bride's veil beautifully
