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Zoe Larkin Photography blog

Helping Bay Area marriers navigate the new world of wedding photography and & planning 

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As a City Hall wedding photographer, I am sometimes asked about the official marriage vows that couples will be taking on their wedding day at San Francisco City Hall. When you get married at a courthouse or city hall, there isn’t an opportunity for personalized vows like at a regular wedding ceremony. At least for […]

Official San Francisco City Hall Civil Ceremony Wedding Vows

San-Francisco-City-hall-marriage-vows

February 3, 2020

36 questions to ask your wedding photographer | By Zoe Larkin Photography, San Francisco wedding photographer

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I’ve created this list of 36 questions to ask your wedding photographer. Hopefully, this will help wedding couples to figure out some ideas as to what they might want to know more about. (You won’t be able to ask them all!) Whether it’s about style, presence on the day, deliverables or pricing, wedding photographers are used […]

Questions you REALLY need to ask your wedding photographer

January 31, 2020

Thank you for checking out these wedding photos from Monte Verde Inn wedding in Foresthill, CA! Located about 12 miles northeast of Auburn, CA in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains is the quaint private estate, Monte Verde Inn. As outdoor wedding locations in Northern California go, it’s pretty special. The property is a […]

Monte Verde Inn wedding photos

Monte-Verde-Inn-wedding-Zoe-Larkin-Photography

January 27, 2020

how to save money on your wedding - creative wedding budget hacks

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If you want to learn about saving money on your wedding you’re in the right place. But also, I want to be very real with you in this article. It may be an unpopular opinion but I honestly think that the wedding industry has peddled a lot of garbage about what they really ‘need’ for […]

40 creative ways to save money on your wedding

January 22, 2020

Note: the Quadrus Conference Center has now closed down permanently.  For other wedding venue ideas, please check out my guide to the best San Francisco wedding venues linked below: Sharing J & B’s Quadrus Conference Center wedding in Menlo Park. This was my first time shooting at the venue. At first you may be wondering […]

Quadrus Conference Center wedding Menlo Park

Quadrus-Conference-Center-wedding-photos-Zoe-Larkin-Photography

January 18, 2020

how should wedding vendors share wedding photos

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Hey there, fellow wedding vendor! You’re receiving this blog post because I’ve just sent you a gallery of wedding photos from a wedding that YOU worked on and provided awesome work. I am so stoked to be working with you! I want to see you and your biz grow and thrive, that’s why I’m sending […]

Wedding vendors: best practices for photo sharing

January 14, 2020

Delighted to share today this beautiful Stern Grove wedding! Stern Grove is a pretty iconic San Francisco location, but in case you aren’t familiar – here’s the backstory! According to Wikipedia, it’s been the setting of the famous Stern Grove festival for over 80 years! The 33-acre recreational site is administered by SF Recreation and […]

Stern Grove wedding photos, San Francisco

stern grove wedding photos

January 13, 2020

wedding photos from Chateau Carmel in Carmel Valley California

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Wow for this beautiful Chateau Carmel Wedding! I love the amazing places that my couples find. When they told me about Chateau Carmel I was above all, intrigued. This unique, elegant European-Style villa is available on Airbnb and VRBO. I know, right, it seems so crazy to think you can find an incredible wedding venue […]

Chateau Carmel Wedding | Carmel Valley photographer

January 8, 2020

What’s the best way of getting around on your San Francisco City Hall wedding day? Whatever you have planned on your big day at City Hall, you’ll undoubtedly need some form of transportation! In this article, I outline the 10 best transportation ideas to & from San Francisco City Hall. I also include some pros […]

10 transportation ideas for San Francisco City Hall weddings

10 ideas for san francisco city hall wedding day transportation!

January 4, 2020

General’s Residence at Fort Mason wedding photo - Zoe Larkin Photography

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Yay for this wonderful wedding venue, The General’s Residence! It was a pleasure photographing the wedding of Dieter and Eduardo at this favorite San Francisco wedding spot. You may know of the General’s Residence being located in Fort Mason. But did you know that the whole Fort Mason complex is located within a National Park?! […]

General’s Residence at Fort Mason Wedding

December 31, 2019

Planning a Brazilian Room wedding? You’re in good company! The Brazilian Room located in Tilden Park, Berkeley is one of the most popular wedding venues in the Bay Area. The main draw of this cozy and versatile East Bay event space is its proximity to nature. Tilden Park, with its pine, oak and eucalyptus trees, […]

How to plan a Brazilian Room Tilden Park wedding – 2024 guide

Brazil Room Wedding photos

December 28, 2019

wedding couple sharing a joke against Inner Richmond District mural behind them

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Are you wondering what actual steps you can take to look GOOD in your wedding photos? I mean natural, looking like you really feel – happy and in love and enjoying the best day of your life. Good as in not cheesy, not awkward, just totally happy, relaxed and IN LOVE. Well, friends, there is a […]

How to look good in your wedding photos

December 23, 2019

In this post I’m sharing the 36 best engagement photography locations in San Francisco. The places on this list are San Francisco spots that are amazing for wedding or engagement photos. What makes spots for couples photos any different from general cool photo spots? Well, for one thing, they each have a wide variety of […]

36 best engagement photography locations in San Francisco

9 best San Francisco location ideas for engagement photos - The complete guide to San Francisco engagement locations by Zoe Larkin Photography

December 19, 2019

wedding ceremony picture at Sequoyah Country Clubwedding with bride laughing | How to choose the wedding photographer that's right for you

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We know how hard it is when it comes to choosing your wedding photographer! Where do you even begin? There are so many out there, and it’s difficult to figure out what really differentiates them. It can be a tough decision, especially when you consider the role the wedding photographer will take on your day. […]

10 tips for choosing your wedding photographer

December 13, 2019

For couples getting married in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of the biggest-ticket items of their wedding celebration is their wedding photographer. After the venue and catering costs, the cost of wedding photography is often the next biggest item in most couple’s budgets.  As with most HCOL areas, the Bay Area average price of […]

How much does wedding photography cost in the San Francisco Bay Area?

how-much-does-a-wedding-photography-cost-in-sf-bay-area

December 10, 2019

🏳️‍🌈 Totally rad engagement shoot in downtown oakland with this queer-forward Oakland couple. 🌈 Renee, Jack and I frolicked in their home while they spun some records with their large cats, then around their neighborhood. 🦄 After crossing rainbow crosswalks we finished up at the Fox Theater's iconic Oakland sign - a must-take for your Oakland engagement shoot! | #queerforward #oakland #engagementphotos #lgbtq | Zoe Larkin Photography

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Downtown Oakland was the scene for this RAD LGBTQ+ engagement. Renee [she/her] and Jack [they/them] describe themselves as a queer-forward couple hailing from Oakland. These folx manage to combine absolute hipness with total goofiness in such a cute way. If ever two people were meant to be, it’s these two. The couple They both arrived […]

Queer-forward downtown Oakland engagement photos

December 7, 2019

A private city hall ceremony is always a wonderful idea, but the price tag can make it unfeasible for some. Is there a middle ground between the private rental of an area and the typical 5-minute rotunda civil ceremony? A recent couple made me aware of an option to get married privately at San Francisco […]

How to have a private ceremony at SF City Hall without renting a space

close up of marriage license being signed on windowsills of 3rd floor of sf city hall

December 2, 2019

minimum number of hours for wedding photography

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Now and then in my wedding photography business, I’ll get questions about minimum coverage hours for wedding photography. It’s usually people looking for short wedding coverage below our minimum number of hours. During the popular wedding season months many established wedding photographers are sadly only able to entertain inquiries that are looking to book us […]

Why are there minimum photography hours for weddings?

November 29, 2019

I love bringing to light the stories of underrepresented types of couples and people. The world is changing, and there is more scope now than ever to shine a light on what has previously been kept closeted, things like open marriage and gender transition. Love is complex. Marriage means different things to everyone. To some, […]

Modern love stories: Open marriage, transition & play parties

LGBTQ couple at san francisco's corona heights one kissing the other's head

November 24, 2019

Bride and groom posing with san francisco skyline at Potrero Hill Wisconsin & 20th Streets after city hall wedding

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Outdoor photo locations NEAR San Francisco City Hall for wedding photos! 10 great location ideas, all less than 3 miles from San Francisco City Hall

10 San Francisco portrait locations close to City Hall

November 21, 2019

I lead a team of Bay Area wedding photographers 👋🏾 I personally help you plan your wedding timeline so you can relax and savor your wedding day.

We blend an unobtrusive approach to capturing images with a directive way of capturing the posed shots of you and your guests.

With over 400 weddings personally photographed by Zoe, hundreds of reviews on Yelp and Google, and over

San Francisco wedding photographers

MOMENT CATCHERS, LIGHT CHASERS, photojournalists

As a seasoned professional and true artist, I transform wedding moments into timeless memories, captured photojournalistically. 

In short, our images make memories last forever.

Looking for a wedding photographer that will honor your unique, beautiful story?

350,000 words of inspiration and and advice on the blog, we're the leading wedding photographers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Since 2017, I've poured my heart into Bay Area weddings, specializing in San Francisco City Hall ceremonies and shooting all love. Our goal is to create personal images with an intimate feel - images that evoke emotion and transport you back to the moment. 

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