If San Francisco City Hall has made your shortlist of wedding venues but you’re still unsure if it’s the place for you, look no further! In this article and accompanying video, I’ll discuss the pros and cons of getting married in this iconic building.
While I make my living shooting weddings primarily in this iconic public building, I’d prefer to present a balanced, impartial, and informed perspective. The last thing I’d want is for you to plan a wedding here, and then realize that it actually isn’t the wedding experience you want.
Prefer to watch the video version of this blog post, rather than read? No problem! I made a video where I share all of the same info in a super approachable format with even more examples.
So let me tell you everything you need to know so you can decide whether a San Francisco City Hall ceremony is right for you. I’m not here to sugar-coat it. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. City Hall weddings aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. Everyone finds joy and beauty in different places.
First, I’ll discuss some of the advantages, many of which will be obvious but some you may not have considered before. I also encourage you to stick around for the downsides, which I’ll cover as well—these will really help you decide. The challenges I’ll share aren’t deal-breakers per se for most couples, but it’s important to go in with your eyes open, especially if you are in the early stages of deciding on a wedding venue.
Table of Contents
Pros
Affordability
Let’s start with the most obvious one first, shall we? There’s no denying that a City Hall wedding is usually much cheaper than alternatives that involve booking an entire venue all to yourselves. A civil ceremony is currently just over $100 excluding the marriage license (which is also required but can be picked up from any county in California, most of which offer them at a lower price). Remember that a civil ceremony appointment and a marriage license in hand are the only two things you need to get married in this building. The rest is up to you. It’s completely free to step inside San Francisco City Hall, and remains extremely affordable to have the most basic kind of ceremony,
The cost sure mounts if you want to add on extras. Be it a photographer, fancy wedding attire, rings, professional hair & makeup, a reception event etc, but these are all optional extras.
Simplicity
Time and time again, I hear from couples ‘The idea of a big, elaborate wedding didn’t appeal to us, so we really want to keep things simple’. This is arguably one of the biggest reasons why folks get married at San Francisco City Hall.
Getting married at City Hall is largely done for you, meaning you simply turn up after having made your appointment within 90 days, go check in, and you’ll be married within 20 minutes or so. There’s not a lot you have to plan or think about, except if the ceremony is just one small part of a more traditional wedding day.
For most couples, a ceremony followed by a meal at a nearby restaurant with family and maybe a few friends is all they’re really looking for. If you opt for a private ceremony, there’s undoubtedly more to plan out, though it remains a simple option. Check out my guide linked below to the best restaurants for your post-City Hall brunch, lunch or dinner!
Convenience
San Francisco City Hall is easily accessible by public transportation and freeways. There are many amenities nearby from hotels to restaurants. It’s next to a huge parking garage – the Civic Center Garage – with plenty of inexpensive parking spaces for all your guests.
It’s in the middle of a good-sized city and is close to pretty much everything you need. It has transport connections with all neighboring cities and a major international airport a few miles away. It’s easy to reach for most people, however you’re getting from A to B.
Grand architecture
San Francisco City Hall is hands-down one of the most impressive and beautiful buildings in the United States. Its stunning 307-foot dome makes it even taller than the U.S. Capitol building. The Beaux Arts-style building’s interior and exterior are incredibly ornate, with marble corridors, sweeping granite staircases, and gilded details modeled after French classical architecture.
The beautiful backdrop for photos is one of the major reasons it remains such a popular and enduring choice for couples seeking an effortlessly wedding. It’s 4 floors of utter majesty!
Flexibility
City Hall works well during any season, not only in summertime, like so many outdoor venues. If you’re OK with a weekday wedding, this place hosts weddings around the clock from 9am through 3.30 pm, Monday to Friday, excluding holidays.
If you don’t like the idea of a wedding during working hours, there’s also the much costlier weekend buyout (2 hours on a Saturday morning) or weekday evening buyouts that include a reception too! You can pick what works best for your schedule and budget.
More about the Saturday morning City Hall buyout option is linked below:
Works well for intimate weddings
If you only want to invite a handful of people or elope, it isn’t awkward to get married and have ‘the wedding experience’ with a tiny group.
For traditional wedding venues, it often isn’t practical or worth it to book an event space with only around 5 guests, say. That isn’t weird at all at City Hall – in fact, that’s the norm! 5 is the perfect number for a civil ceremony (where the guest limit is 6 and includes your photographer).
Many private ceremonies too only invite a handful of guests and it’s perfect. Though you can technically host up to 100 guests for the one-hour private area rentals, it quickly gets chaotic and noisy. This is especially the case when we have to get through large lists of formal groupings in just 25 minutes after the ceremony has concluded. Smaller groups are definitely the way to go in my opinion!
Check out my complete guide to getting married at SF City Hall, linked below!
Romantic
Call me weird, but I still think it’s incredibly romantic to elope at City Hall, just the two of you. Just like Carrie and Big ended up marrying at City Hall in NYC after the big wedding turned into a circus, there is something powerful about stripping a wedding down to its bare essence.
You avoid getting caught up in all the mindless trimmings and trappings that big weddings can easily spiral into. Plus, with San Francisco on your doorstep, it can be a romantic experience to step into a cool nighttime soiree at an elegant cocktail bar or have timeless photos taken under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Works well in any weather
It’s an indoor venue which has pluses and minuses – here’s the plus side. No matter what the weather, you will be comfortable inside the temperature-controlled building.
If you’re worried about rain ruining your ceremony, that’s not really a concern here. Sure, it’s significantly darker inside the building on overcast, rainy days but that’s your photographer’s issue, not yours! At least you won’t get rained on or need to have much of a rain plan if your wedding only consists of indoor photos.
However, if you do get caught in a downpour, my guide to what to do if it rains on your SF City Hall wedding day will be invaluable!:
Cons
Impersonal
While there are several things to personalize your experience of getting married at City Hall, it remains a largely practical yet impersonal option. Check out my guide to personalizing your experience at City Hall, to see if you can add touches that make it feel worthwhile to you!:
It admittedly does have a conveyor belt feel. You wait in a hallway for other couples who are also about to have their ceremony. The feeling of waiting in the corridor after you’ve checked in is not dissimilar to waiting at the DMV. It may not fit with your wedding dreams of being The Bride, because you’ll certainly see dozens of brides here on your wedding day!
The vows you’ll recite will be standard courthouse vows (if opting for a civil ceremony), which you can find in full below:
Very quick
The civil ceremonies only last for around 3 – 4 minutes, even quicker if you choose not to exchange rings.
There is a set script for the Deputy Marriage Commissioners (aka officiants) to follow. Some embellish it with some wise words around marriage and include a welcome to the guests. Others stick to the script. There is no way of knowing in advance how your officiant will run proceedings.
If you wanted a more thoughtful ceremony, a private ceremony (a one-hour rental of either the 4th Floor North Gallery or the Mayor’s Balcony) would likely be a better fit.
Lack of control
You have little control over the ceremony space or the overall experience. There is a lot more control with a private ceremony option. However, even this can feel rather rushed as the rental is only for 1 hour. That’s barely enough time for the ceremony followed by congratulatory candid moments, then formal groupings, before the staff come by to inform you your time is up and we all must vacate!
If you envisage decorating the space and organizing the time and ceremony moments in a unique and personal way, you may have to let go of those dreams or consider a more custom option.
Crowded
There’s no doubt that San Francisco City Hall has become very busy in recent years. Just in the few years since I started specializing in photographing ceremonies here in 2017, I’ve noticed a sharp uptick the number of people you can expect here at any one time.
Though the photos tell a different story, the reality is that we’re hardly ever alone. My couple and I usually share the space with other couples. There have been times when my team has noticed no less than 6 quinceaneras being photographed on the staircase at the same time.
Oftentimes, when I’m shooting on the 4th Floor, there’s another photographer right behind me, and we’re back-to-back shooting our respective couples.
That can come as a surprise to some couples who imagine City Hall looking as empty as it seems in the Photoshopped final photos. Some couples no doubt find it uncomfortable being in such close quarters with others, especially when being asked to express intimacy.
Lack of privacy
With crowding also comes a specific challenge – a lack of privacy. Even the ‘private spaces’ are not completely private at all. Bystanders can still be seen in other areas of the building. While these are digitally removed from your final photos, you may be surrounded by random strangers, albeit at a distance.
I’ve photographed many civil ceremonies in which strangers unknown to the couple have stood and spectated right alongside the couple’s guests. There’s nothing stopping them doing so as it’s a public building. Sometimes the officiant will ask them to move, but they’re usually oblivious. Guests also are usually too polite to ask randoms to give them some space.
While most people, however, are respectful and will keep a distance, I’ve seen many random tourists persistently asking my clients for a picture. Several have followed us around, photographing them without permission. Quite a few times, a tourist’s child has run up to and hugged the bride in the seconds after she got married. They stood shoulder to shoulder right next to the invited guests, practically crashing the wedding. As the building is full of international tourists with different ideas of boundaries and privacy, this can happen.
Loud
With all this hustle and bustle, it gets loud. I’ve had more than one client who became overstimulated in such an environment. One bride felt very faint during her time in the building and had to take a breather in the restroom to regain her composure. We almost had to cut the session short as she felt completely overwhelmed.
While this isn’t common, it comes down to knowing yourself. If you get easily overwhelmed, experience anxiety around crowds of people or when hearing sudden eruptions of cheering and noise, this environment may feel quite uncomfortable.
Random events
With this being a busy public building, you have to be prepared that the day you choose may randomly have any number of things taking place that there is no way of knowing about in advance. Below are some things I’ve seen while shooting weddings at San Francisco City Hall:
- Gala event set up (chairs and tables set up on the ground floor at the bottom of the staircase)
- Protests (inside and outside the building)
- Staircase being closed due to event setup or filming
- Lighting rigs and/or filming and projection equipment on every floor
- Press conference on the Mayor’s Balcony, Grand Staircase or front steps
- Large groups of tourists being dropped off
- Busloads of school children on field trips
- Tour groups (there are twice-daily free tours run by the City)
- City staff events
- Random flash mobs like the Indiana Jones one in 2023
Suffice it to say, any expectations of ‘must-get photos’ have to be held lightly. There are an almost infinite number of things that can happen, which affect what areas can and can’t be used for photos at the exact moment we’re there taking them.
Limited guest count & availability
Civil ceremonies have a limit of only 6 guests, including any photographer, videographer and children within your party. Sometimes, the rules may be bent a little, but it is solely at the officiant’s discretion. To avoid disappointment, it’s best to stay within the rules.
With private ceremonies, you have up to 100 guests technically, but due to the relatively small size of the space, up to 60 tends to work best before it starts feeling crowded and some guests have to stand.
However, you could always invite more guests to the reception after the ceremony, letting them know there was only capacity for a certain number of guests but they can still be part of the celebration.
One other note about the availability of civil ceremonies. With growing popularity comes an increasing scarcity of ceremony dates. They book out much faster than they used to! Though you can technically book a civil ceremony 90 days out, be aware that sometimes only the tail end of that (toward the 90 days) has availability. For those that want to be married quickly, this can be frustrating.
There is another option though – getting married without an official civil ceremony booking. This bypasses the official process and just makes City Hall the venue without having a ceremony booked with them. Simply walk in with your own ordained officiant, pick a spot that doesn’t disturb anyone, and away you go! More details linked below:
No option for a reception
Many people want an all-in-one solution for their wedding with minimal fuss and transit time. Figuring out how to get everyone from the ceremony to the reception is a logistical challenge, especially if you have dozens of guests.
With a City Hall ceremony, there is little choice but to book a separate reception space – either a nearby restaurant or a full-blown reception. There are some rental options at San Francisco City Hall that include a reception there such as the evening wedding package, but I can’t speak to that personally as I’ve never been hired for that. It’s likely to involve a lot of red tape and extra charges for everything from security to insurance.
As the reception is likely to be where the vast majority of the budget goes, you have to wonder if it isn’t more economical and practical to do the ceremony there as well. Especially when you consider there are so many gorgeous, fashionable restaurants in the Bay Area that are well worthy of being all-in-one venues. Or if you want more control, consider a regular wedding venue.
Check out my guide to the best San Francisco wedding venues, if you want to see what else is out there!
It’s weekdays only
I’ve talked about the weekday options as that’s almost all of what I photograph. There are weekend buyouts possible, with the simplest being the 2-hour Saturday morning full-buyout which starts at $5,000 and has several extra fees on top.
This offers way more privacy as you’ll be the only ones in the building, but the two-hour window can be a little tight too, strangely enough! This is because we have to accommodate the romantics, sequestering before the guests see you, the ceremony, maybe a big group photo, then formal groupings (unless doing them at the reception) and there’s also the option for a champagne reception.
For the vast majority of couples, a Monday-to-Friday ceremony is what makes sense budget-wise, and it’s almost all of what we shoot, 500 weddings in.
The caveat is that it may not be convenient for you or your guests due to having to take several days off work. For many couples, a weekend wedding is simply more convenient. It’s traditional for a reason!
Photos will be artificially lit
The plus side of an indoor venue we’ve talked about – it works in any weather. But the downside is that your wedding photos won’t be taken in outdoor, natural light (if you opt for the base package only).
Indoor light actually creates a color cast on our skin, so you’ll be bathed in a yellowish glow. Natural, outdoor light, in contrast, is neutral-colored, meaning no color cast and the truest-to-life colors.
For more flattering photos without the grain and noise that you get indoors, consider adding time for some outdoor photos. And definitely hit the 4th Floor, the only space of the building in which natural light prevails.
Located in a chaotic area
While being in the middle of a busy area has its benefits like easy transport connections, the downside is that it can be a rather chaotic area for those who are nervous about crime.
City Hall and the general Civic Center area are located right on the border of the Tenderloin, an area of San Francisco known for its large unhoused population. The area, along with the SoMa area, is the center of the ongoing San Francisco fentanyl crisis.
The area surrounding San Francisco City Hall has more than its fair share of crime. I’ve been hassled a few times, including twice when I was out shooting with LGBTQ+ couples which is honestly infuriating and embarrassing. Suffice it to say, there are people suffering from mental illness challenges in the vicinity. Usually this is not at all a problem that affects City Hall weddings per se, but it’s just something to be aware of.
There’s little in the way of nature, which many people who are attracted to living in the Bay Area enjoy. Urban settings aren’t comfortable for everyone, so consider if forests, beaches, parks or wineries aren’t more your jam!
In conclusion
A San Francisco City Hall wedding isn’t just a choice between a fancy building and a traditional venue — it’s about what feels right for your story. Maybe you’re drawn to the idea of getting married somewhere that’s been a symbol of love and commitment for over a century, you can handle a few bureaucratic curveballs, and want your wedding photos to look like they belong in a magazine (without the magazine budget), City Hall might be your perfect fit.
But if you’re dreaming of controlling every detail, having a completely private ceremony, need space for more than 100 guests, want an all-in-one venue, or prefer to be immersed in nature, you might want to explore other options.
Still on the fence? I’d recommend spending an afternoon here watching other couples get married. There’s something special about seeing it in person that no video or article can capture. You might just fall in love with the place like so many couples before you have. Or you might know for sure that nope! That beach or forest wedding you always wanted is calling your name.
If you’re still interested in learning more about my services photographing weddings in City Hall and all over the Bay Area, check out the link below to begin our journey!
If you decide on a non-City Hall wedding, you can find out more about how we work with all couples all over the Bay Area and Northern California – no matter the kind of wedding you’re having. Wishing you happy planning for now!
Zoe Larkin
I’m Zoe, a wedding photographer based in San Francisco! My style is candid, capturing authentic moments for my couples all over the Bay Area and Northern California. Creating content is my passion! Follow along the blog and Insta!
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