In this photo, the bride is opening the wedding ring box during a San Francisco city hall wedding ceremony. As you can see from the background, it also happens to be Christmas time. City Hall is unique in that during the holiday season they allow brides and groom to get married right in front of a Christmas Tree. What better place to be married if you love Christmas. For those of you who have cultural or religious issues, the County Clerk will allow you to choose an alternative location for your nuptials. Christmas is coming again to city hall and we are all waiting to see if they will do the tree this year. Covid-19 has prevented a lot of traditional things from occurring in San Francisco, but we wedding photographers are all hoping that the tree will finally return this year. Stay tuned, we will know soon!
There are many different places for a couple to have their ceremony at San Francisco city hall and all of them photograph quite well. As your city hall wedding photographer, we can help you choose the alternative locations in various places in the building if you are not interested in the Christmas tree as a background. If you are looking for privacy, we like the 4th Floor North Gallery. A lot of tourists are not even aware of it's presence so this reduces the chance of people wandering around and right through your ceremony. For sheer beauty, it is hard to beat the Mayor's Balcony. It is a centrally located area and allows people to see just about everything going on at city hall. From a wedding photographer's standpoint, it can be a bit challenging, but we always make it work. This is because of the low lighting on the Balcony and frequent bright lights in the background. Getting back to this photo, the bride is captured here just as she opens the wedding ring box and will soon be sealing her vows with her future husband. We love capturing moments like this to enhance the overall feel and look of every SF City Hall wedding. The Origami ornaments in the background make a nice focal point as well. We should also point out that certain people have religious beliefs that do not coincide with the Christmas tree. This is no problem, as the Marriage Commissioner will allow you to choose a different ceremony location.
