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In this post, I will talk about how booking a SF City Hall wedding photographer can actually save you money. I will also discuss how you get so much more for your hard earned dollars when working with Town Hall photographers. This article may sound self serving, but it really applies to any of the top SF City Hall photographers currently shooting weddings at this iconic San Francisco landmark.
Stating the Obvious – Shorter Wedding Coverage Equals Lower Photography Prices
It’s pretty obvious that if you need coverage for a short civil ceremony your overall price for wedding photography is going to be less expensive. Typical costs for some of the best City Hall wedding photographers range from $600 up to about $1,200. You can find cheaper studios and you can find more expensive, but the vast majority fall into this range. This includes our own studio. To book a San Francisco wedding photographer for a typical weekend large wedding in the city can range anywhere from $2,000 to $6,000. This is because most City Hall weddings mostly involve about two hours of time in the building. A large formal wedding usually takes about 6 to 8 hours, including the reception. So it’s obvious that you’re going to have to pay a lot more when you need a photographer for the full day. Add this to other wedding expenses and you are looking at a large sum of money to get married in San Francisco or anywhere in the Bay Area.
The Best SF Bay Area Wedding Photographers Also Do City Hall Marriages
This is where the magic begins and how you save an incredible amount of money on some of the best photographers in Northern California. I know most of leading SF City Hall wedding photographers and virtually all of them offer large wedding coverage in addition to their City Hall service. Many of these exceptional wedding photographers charge somewhere between $4000 and $6000 dollars to cover a large formal Marriage. You can often book these same photographers for a City Hall wedding for under $1000. This allows you to have an amazing wedding photographer for your marriage at less than one fourth the price. The quality of their work will be just the same but you pay so much less!
Much More Actual Photography Time at a SF City Hall Wedding
This is the best part… when you hire a wedding photographer to cover your large weekend wedding, You have to somehow fit in formal wedding photography time along with all the many events that occur at a big wedding. This includes the ceremony, toasts, the meal, cake cutting, bouquet toss, First dance, father daughter dance, and in some cases the final dance. All of these events in a typical wedding take hours to complete. I can tell you from personal experience that the wedding photography part of the day can often be shortened to make room for all these very important events at a large wedding. Thus we sometimes find ourselves with less than 20 minutes to capture all the formal wedding photography with the bride and groom. When photographing large weddings, I frequently remember the caterer coming up to me at the very beginning of our formal shoot to ask me when I’m going to be done. Of course my answer is: “Well I just started!” So immediately in this situation, everyone’s feeling rushed. This includes the photographer and of course the couple who want to get to their reception.
This is never the case with a San Francisco City Hall wedding. We have all the time we want to capture amazing photos of the newlyweds throughout this historic building. Not only do you save money, but you also receive more actual photography time. My shortest package still provides my couples with a good 40 minutes of wedding photography coverage. This package only costs my client $695. What would you rather pay, $695 for 40 minutes of coverage at City Hall or $5000 for 20 minutes of coverage at a large wedding? The answer is pretty obvious
Summary
Of course I realize that not everyone can have their wedding at San Francisco City Hall. Many families have large guest counts and want a big formal wedding with a fancy reception. I understand that the City Hall wedding option is not available for every couple. Although there is the “Reserved Wedding” option which only costs $1,200. This could a medium sized wedding option for engaged couples on the fence. I will just summarize by saying this… If wedding photography is really important to you and you want to save money, think about booking a wedding at San Francisco City Hall. Then choose from a list of some of the best wedding photographers in the Bay Area!