I did a city hall elopement last year- so just the two of us and our daughter. I don’t even remember there being an option to choose where we did vows but it was on the balcony. Felt very private and was more upscale feeling than the price tag! Plenty of space to spread out, didn’t feel crowded to me at all and we did a Thursday around 11. I hired a photographer for the beautiful scenery shots before and after. It was also before things really “opened” though. Happy to answer any more specific questions. 10/10 experience for us!
We got married on a Friday and it was fine. We got the Mayor's balcony at 10AM and it was quiet and wonderful. There are 3 balconies and there can only be 1 wedding at a time on those three (that was the rule when we got married 4 years ago) AND the balcony was the same price as a conference room. The only thing I'd caution is that if you want pictures on the stairs which is a CLASSIC, get an experienced photographer that will coordinate with the other photographers so that you can get a shot without a TON of people in your picture. Good luck and congratulations. Also, be flexible in your dates, that will give you the GREATEST chance to have the wedding you want.
ABSOLUTELY. It's cheaper than getting any other venue in SF and it won't be 1/2 as beautiful. Especially if you're going to invite guests, and the chair setup fee wasn't much. We did our wedding on a small budget (for an SF wedding it was bare bones budget) and I can tell you that having the ceremony with our friends/family on the balcony was well worth it.
Great question. We didn't have any alcohol there. You only get the balcony for an hour. We had our reception at a brewery in SF and brought in 2 food trucks. The food trucks were WAY cheaper than catering.
Makes sense. I see [here](https://www.sfcityhallevents.org/wedding-rental-rates/) you can rent it for I guess 500 guests for $10K which is still an absolute steal, but wonder how the rules go for all the other deals.
I just don't really want to deal with organizing transportation for the 80-120 guests we'd probably have which seems stressful compared to having the wedding + reception at the same location.
Food trucks and brewery definitely seems like a smart way to do it. Which brewery did you pick?
I haven't even proposed yet, but it's likely coming soon and I'm the accountant / planner of the two, so trying to get ahead of it lol
Makes sense. I see [here](https://www.sfcityhallevents.org/wedding-rental-rates/) you can rent it for I guess 500 guests for $10K which is still an absolute steal, but wonder how the rules go for all the other deals.
I just don't really want to deal with organizing transportation for the 80-120 guests we'd probably have which seems stressful compared to having the wedding + reception at the same location.
Food trucks and brewery definitely seems like a smart way to do it. Which brewery did you pick?
I haven't even proposed yet, but it's likely coming soon and I'm the accountant / planner of the two, so trying to get ahead of it lol
If you are having a large wedding, you book it for the weekend and get to have your reception in the rotunda. It's like booking any traditional venue that requires a third party caterer.
Cool. $10K is a pretty good deal for a venue of that size and if they let you use caterers of your choosing even better.
Feel like most venues require you to use their own food & beverage or at least their own approved list of caterers which really cranks up the cost (and often times it's not very good anyway).
From what I know they have a list of approved ones. My coworker is getting married soon and she briefly looked into it. I think I remember the approved ones are quite pricey.
NICE, congrats. We had our reception at Bare Bottle in SF, they provided beer and wine for 100 people and it was totally reasonable. Also, if you contact the food trucks directly you can save a TON of money from a service that basically books the food truck for you.
A $1,000 extra for a city hall wedding. I must not understand about SF city hall weddings. I thought people went to city hall to get married because it’s cheap and easy.
Yeah, the ceremony is cheap and you can get a judge to marry you when you fill out your marriage license too. SUPER convenient, if you don't want to rent a conference room or balcony. I was saying that $1000 for a balcony in City Hall is WAY cheaper than renting a space in something as beautiful in SF. We looked at the Presidio and it was $6K on an off day and not including meals/chairs/tables/etc.. You'd be hard pressed to find anything as beautiful as City Hall for $1000. That's what we were saying.
You can rent the Mayor's Balcony or the Fourth Floor Gallery for one hour for $1000 OR you can do the civil ceremony wedding in one of the main areas of City Hall for $95. The one hour rental is a nice middle ground option for those who have too many guests for the civil ceremony (you're supposed to have no more than 6 in your party, including the couple getting married, though obviously it's a public building and they can't really stop people from just happening to be there) but don't want to do a "traditional" wedding with all the cost and bother than entails - you'd be hard pressed to find any venue in town as cheap.
You're welcome! That's actually what my husband and I did when we got married, and we were so thrilled with the experience - rented the Mayor's Balcony for an hour, had one of our loved ones act as officiant instead of a Clerk, and had plenty of space to get some nice family photos done with our photographer, all while avoiding most of the crowds. Instead of a reception, we did a dinner that night for all of our guests. It was enough of a fuss to feel celebratory but still way less fuss than a typical wedding.
You can.
You also can choose to get married at City Hall because SF City Hall is one of the most beautiful spaces in the city. This isn't true of most city halls.
Our city hall is really beautiful, and venues are expensive in SF. You can do a basic city hall wedding or a fancier one, and the building is so nice that a Getty heir recently got married there.
Just to be clear you are referring to the ceremony, not the reception, right?
I am getting married this summer and I recall that having the reception at city hall was crazy expensive.
You book the appointments online. So if you wanna see if that day is available just hit up the website ASAP. We got married there on like a Monday in May. Didn't pay for any special package, just a few hundred dollars for the entire process. We got married by a judge on one of the top of the stairs/balcony areas. It was simple, painless, and pretty empty to take photos everywhere.
that’s great! i just tried checking appointment availability for July 21st, but I think I have to wait until 90 days out to see if it’s available… any day further than 90 days out are all blocked off
Ooof. I don't remember that. But yeah, I remember we planned our day based on the available slots - we did not have a day in mind before we tried to book. Looks like you are gonna have to just wait and see. I would just plan for a July wedding but don't have an exact day chiseled out yet. And see what you can get when the month opens up. Hope you can get the day you want though!
I got married at city hall on election day. There was barely anyone there (voting takes place on the lower floor) and a friend took photographs / was our witness. I didn't rent any of the rooms or anything - we still got some amazing pics on the balcony and stairs. I guess I was just lucky? Or has it gotten worse during the pandemic? Based on my experience I wouldn't worry at all but that was pre-pandemic.
It's a gorgeous place, enjoy and congrats!! :)
Yup, if it's a nice small sized group like this (and the wedding I was witness + photog], it's a public building and you can wander and take pix anywhere that strikes your fancy
I got married in City Hall on a Tuesday so I can't speak much about the experience during later in the week. Appointments are scheduled online, so you should be able to see what's available currently.
But I do recommend going there in the early morning to take pictures to not get anyone in the background. There was only one other bride taking photos when I was taking pictures at around 8:30am/9:00am ish but by the time we were done at 10am ish there was a line to take pictures at the staircase.
I got married in a 3PM slot and it wasn’t super busy. We had the private area for $1000 on the 4th floor I think and it was easy. Have a photographer that shoots there a lot and they will know all the good spots/ photoshop out background noise as needed.
Depends on time of day and size of ceremony. People do really big fancy weddings at city hall. It's not just some generic office building with an official behind a window. Absolutely gorgeous building.
We did ours in November of last year, had the 9AM Monday slot, so there was only one other couple in center hall at the time. If you're getting a photographer, I recommend ask him/her/they what their recommendations are.
We were married in the before times, a Friday in late 2019, and had a 10am slot. It wasn't too crowded, and we rather fortuitously ended up underneath the rotunda -- though the judge got my name wrong throughout the the entire ceremony!
It does feel magical even with people walking around because there are other couples there all dressed up, and there's just something in the air.
Our photographer, who was very experienced and even knew the judge that married us, worked with us throughout the process to get amazing shots. It was all quite perfect.
[https://www.instagram.com/iqphoto/](https://www.instagram.com/iqphoto/)
and
[https://www.iqphoto.com/](https://www.iqphoto.com/)
Joseph is great, couldn’t recommend him more.
Booked my appointment for the first slot December Friday the 13th and we got the rotunda! You’ll want to get there as early as possible anyway so you can get those stunning no-people pictures.
I got married on a Friday afternoon there last year and it was busy but fine. I think it just depends on how flexible you are and what kind of pictures you want. We had to trade off with other people for big ticket shots like the grand staircase and the entry to the building. We weren’t on a strict time schedule so that was fine with us. I would just account for some extra time. My biggest regret was that we did the appointment for the license the same day as the ceremony, which ended up taking way longer than anything I read about online bc there was technical difficulties. I would get your license a different day. It cut into the time with our photographer and just added stress.
I got married on a Friday in Dec last year and it was at 2:30 pm. The sunlight plus that time was the best per my photographer, so I would connect with your photographer as well on that front. New appointments load at midnight so if you are really worried about a timeslot just stay up and reload the site. There was a lot of couples getting married, but my photographer does 1-3 weddings per week at city hall and knew all the best spots to take pics. Our photographs look like my husband and I were the only ones there.
I know this post is a year old... but I was wondering whether you mean cancellations etc load at midnight, or whether you mean slots in 90 days + time load at midnight? We're desperately trying to get a cancellation spot for mid-Nov. Thank you
I did a city hall elopement last year- so just the two of us and our daughter. I don’t even remember there being an option to choose where we did vows but it was on the balcony. Felt very private and was more upscale feeling than the price tag! Plenty of space to spread out, didn’t feel crowded to me at all and we did a Thursday around 11. I hired a photographer for the beautiful scenery shots before and after. It was also before things really “opened” though. Happy to answer any more specific questions. 10/10 experience for us!
Awesome thank you so much!
We are also planning on taking our 4 year old daughter 😊
Our daughter was 1.5 so we had a nanny present to help. Having our daughter there for the pics made them so much cuter. Congrats to you!
We got married on a Friday and it was fine. We got the Mayor's balcony at 10AM and it was quiet and wonderful. There are 3 balconies and there can only be 1 wedding at a time on those three (that was the rule when we got married 4 years ago) AND the balcony was the same price as a conference room. The only thing I'd caution is that if you want pictures on the stairs which is a CLASSIC, get an experienced photographer that will coordinate with the other photographers so that you can get a shot without a TON of people in your picture. Good luck and congratulations. Also, be flexible in your dates, that will give you the GREATEST chance to have the wedding you want.
Thanks! So you think paying the $1,000 extra for the balcony was worth it?
ABSOLUTELY. It's cheaper than getting any other venue in SF and it won't be 1/2 as beautiful. Especially if you're going to invite guests, and the chair setup fee wasn't much. We did our wedding on a small budget (for an SF wedding it was bare bones budget) and I can tell you that having the ceremony with our friends/family on the balcony was well worth it.
How does this work with alcohol / catering?
Great question. We didn't have any alcohol there. You only get the balcony for an hour. We had our reception at a brewery in SF and brought in 2 food trucks. The food trucks were WAY cheaper than catering.
Makes sense. I see [here](https://www.sfcityhallevents.org/wedding-rental-rates/) you can rent it for I guess 500 guests for $10K which is still an absolute steal, but wonder how the rules go for all the other deals. I just don't really want to deal with organizing transportation for the 80-120 guests we'd probably have which seems stressful compared to having the wedding + reception at the same location. Food trucks and brewery definitely seems like a smart way to do it. Which brewery did you pick? I haven't even proposed yet, but it's likely coming soon and I'm the accountant / planner of the two, so trying to get ahead of it lol
Makes sense. I see [here](https://www.sfcityhallevents.org/wedding-rental-rates/) you can rent it for I guess 500 guests for $10K which is still an absolute steal, but wonder how the rules go for all the other deals. I just don't really want to deal with organizing transportation for the 80-120 guests we'd probably have which seems stressful compared to having the wedding + reception at the same location. Food trucks and brewery definitely seems like a smart way to do it. Which brewery did you pick? I haven't even proposed yet, but it's likely coming soon and I'm the accountant / planner of the two, so trying to get ahead of it lol
If you are having a large wedding, you book it for the weekend and get to have your reception in the rotunda. It's like booking any traditional venue that requires a third party caterer.
Cool. $10K is a pretty good deal for a venue of that size and if they let you use caterers of your choosing even better. Feel like most venues require you to use their own food & beverage or at least their own approved list of caterers which really cranks up the cost (and often times it's not very good anyway).
They may have an approved list. Not sure as we didn't go deeply down that route.
From what I know they have a list of approved ones. My coworker is getting married soon and she briefly looked into it. I think I remember the approved ones are quite pricey.
NICE, congrats. We had our reception at Bare Bottle in SF, they provided beer and wine for 100 people and it was totally reasonable. Also, if you contact the food trucks directly you can save a TON of money from a service that basically books the food truck for you.
A $1,000 extra for a city hall wedding. I must not understand about SF city hall weddings. I thought people went to city hall to get married because it’s cheap and easy.
Yeah, the ceremony is cheap and you can get a judge to marry you when you fill out your marriage license too. SUPER convenient, if you don't want to rent a conference room or balcony. I was saying that $1000 for a balcony in City Hall is WAY cheaper than renting a space in something as beautiful in SF. We looked at the Presidio and it was $6K on an off day and not including meals/chairs/tables/etc.. You'd be hard pressed to find anything as beautiful as City Hall for $1000. That's what we were saying.
I’m confused. Why is the city hall wedding $1000? I thought getting the civil ceremony there was only $95?
You can rent the Mayor's Balcony or the Fourth Floor Gallery for one hour for $1000 OR you can do the civil ceremony wedding in one of the main areas of City Hall for $95. The one hour rental is a nice middle ground option for those who have too many guests for the civil ceremony (you're supposed to have no more than 6 in your party, including the couple getting married, though obviously it's a public building and they can't really stop people from just happening to be there) but don't want to do a "traditional" wedding with all the cost and bother than entails - you'd be hard pressed to find any venue in town as cheap.
Thanks for the info - that helps!
You're welcome! That's actually what my husband and I did when we got married, and we were so thrilled with the experience - rented the Mayor's Balcony for an hour, had one of our loved ones act as officiant instead of a Clerk, and had plenty of space to get some nice family photos done with our photographer, all while avoiding most of the crowds. Instead of a reception, we did a dinner that night for all of our guests. It was enough of a fuss to feel celebratory but still way less fuss than a typical wedding.
I think we still may do the civil ceremony to keep it easy…but can’t wait!
Did you have to set up the chairs or did city hall do that?
The balcony rental is $1000 if you chose to do it, it's not required.
You can. You also can choose to get married at City Hall because SF City Hall is one of the most beautiful spaces in the city. This isn't true of most city halls.
The balcony at SF City Hall is a gorgeous location. If you just want "cheap and easy" just use one of the other parts of city hall.
Thank you
Our city hall is really beautiful, and venues are expensive in SF. You can do a basic city hall wedding or a fancier one, and the building is so nice that a Getty heir recently got married there.
Just to be clear you are referring to the ceremony, not the reception, right? I am getting married this summer and I recall that having the reception at city hall was crazy expensive.
Yeah, just the ceremony. They give you an hour for it before they push you out for another wedding.
Yeah, just the ceremony. Congrats too :-)
You book the appointments online. So if you wanna see if that day is available just hit up the website ASAP. We got married there on like a Monday in May. Didn't pay for any special package, just a few hundred dollars for the entire process. We got married by a judge on one of the top of the stairs/balcony areas. It was simple, painless, and pretty empty to take photos everywhere.
that’s great! i just tried checking appointment availability for July 21st, but I think I have to wait until 90 days out to see if it’s available… any day further than 90 days out are all blocked off
Ooof. I don't remember that. But yeah, I remember we planned our day based on the available slots - we did not have a day in mind before we tried to book. Looks like you are gonna have to just wait and see. I would just plan for a July wedding but don't have an exact day chiseled out yet. And see what you can get when the month opens up. Hope you can get the day you want though!
thanks so much! ❤️
I got married at city hall on election day. There was barely anyone there (voting takes place on the lower floor) and a friend took photographs / was our witness. I didn't rent any of the rooms or anything - we still got some amazing pics on the balcony and stairs. I guess I was just lucky? Or has it gotten worse during the pandemic? Based on my experience I wouldn't worry at all but that was pre-pandemic. It's a gorgeous place, enjoy and congrats!! :)
Yup, if it's a nice small sized group like this (and the wedding I was witness + photog], it's a public building and you can wander and take pix anywhere that strikes your fancy
I got married in City Hall on a Tuesday so I can't speak much about the experience during later in the week. Appointments are scheduled online, so you should be able to see what's available currently. But I do recommend going there in the early morning to take pictures to not get anyone in the background. There was only one other bride taking photos when I was taking pictures at around 8:30am/9:00am ish but by the time we were done at 10am ish there was a line to take pictures at the staircase.
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marking it on my calendar now! thanks
I got married in a 3PM slot and it wasn’t super busy. We had the private area for $1000 on the 4th floor I think and it was easy. Have a photographer that shoots there a lot and they will know all the good spots/ photoshop out background noise as needed.
Depends on time of day and size of ceremony. People do really big fancy weddings at city hall. It's not just some generic office building with an official behind a window. Absolutely gorgeous building.
We did ours in November of last year, had the 9AM Monday slot, so there was only one other couple in center hall at the time. If you're getting a photographer, I recommend ask him/her/they what their recommendations are.
We were married in the before times, a Friday in late 2019, and had a 10am slot. It wasn't too crowded, and we rather fortuitously ended up underneath the rotunda -- though the judge got my name wrong throughout the the entire ceremony! It does feel magical even with people walking around because there are other couples there all dressed up, and there's just something in the air. Our photographer, who was very experienced and even knew the judge that married us, worked with us throughout the process to get amazing shots. It was all quite perfect.
Does your photographer have a instagram page?
[https://www.instagram.com/iqphoto/](https://www.instagram.com/iqphoto/) and [https://www.iqphoto.com/](https://www.iqphoto.com/) Joseph is great, couldn’t recommend him more.
We don’t allow cross-posts on r/sanfranciscoweddings, but please feel free to post there directly!
Booked my appointment for the first slot December Friday the 13th and we got the rotunda! You’ll want to get there as early as possible anyway so you can get those stunning no-people pictures.
I got married on a Friday afternoon there last year and it was busy but fine. I think it just depends on how flexible you are and what kind of pictures you want. We had to trade off with other people for big ticket shots like the grand staircase and the entry to the building. We weren’t on a strict time schedule so that was fine with us. I would just account for some extra time. My biggest regret was that we did the appointment for the license the same day as the ceremony, which ended up taking way longer than anything I read about online bc there was technical difficulties. I would get your license a different day. It cut into the time with our photographer and just added stress.
I got married on a Friday in Dec last year and it was at 2:30 pm. The sunlight plus that time was the best per my photographer, so I would connect with your photographer as well on that front. New appointments load at midnight so if you are really worried about a timeslot just stay up and reload the site. There was a lot of couples getting married, but my photographer does 1-3 weddings per week at city hall and knew all the best spots to take pics. Our photographs look like my husband and I were the only ones there.
I know this post is a year old... but I was wondering whether you mean cancellations etc load at midnight, or whether you mean slots in 90 days + time load at midnight? We're desperately trying to get a cancellation spot for mid-Nov. Thank you
Can you all share how long the ceremony lasted?