Please check out one of more recent city hall wedding photography shoots. Krista wore a full gown with a beautiful veil and bouquet. More information is provided below, thanks for looking!
We love couples that go all out for their San Francisco city hall wedding. Over the years, we have experienced many different levels of weddings at city hall. They have ranged from almost ridiculously casual to incredible formal. We had one couple show up wearing Jeans and Tee shirts for their wedding and one guy wearing shorts. However, we have also had incredibly formal couples wearing a full tux and top hat together with a high class flowing wedding gown. This is one of the things that make San Francisco city hall wedding photography so interesting and fun. You truly never know what you are going to get each day, but it all works. We even had one LGBTQ couple wear Jeans and matching orange shirts because they were San Francisco Giant's fans. As you can see from these wedding pictures, this couple chose to go all out. The groom wore a very smart formal tux and the bride donned a beautiful flowing wedding dress complete with veil. The bouquet she brought was absolutely perfect for the gray and somewhat colorless backgrounds of San Francisco city hall.
To speak a little further about what people wear at city hall for wedding attired, I wanted to also mention the often unexpected formality seen at City Hall Weddings. It is not unusual to have our bride mention that they were surprised at how many couples they see wearing formal attire. They figured civil ceremony so more casual dress. Frequently they are correct, as we see many of our couples wearing nice, but not so fancy clothes for their wedding. However, some of these more casual brides will often mention that they wish they would have realized before and dressed a little more formally. This comes as no surprise to us because we experienced the same surprise in our early days of photographing SF City Hall weddings. This historic building is very elegant in itself and thus attracts this type for formal wear. Some of the most high end parties in the city are help at San Francisco city hall including the grand opening of the SF Symphony. Strictly a black tie affair!
So the question is, do we approach our city hall wedding photography any differently for a more formally dressed couple? In some ways yes, but it is not better coverage only different. The poses we do will more formal and elegant as we try to accentuate the beautiful lines of a long wedding dress with a train. All of these things need to be arranged carefully to make sure the gown looks it's best. Other important factors include making sure the back of the dress is displayed and photos are taken from different angles. With a more casually dressed couple, we will focus our time on more fun poses and interactive activities. We try to match the wedding photography to the couple's clothes and also their personality.