Planning A Simply Elegant City Hall Wedding!
Amy and Moritz were neighbors living in San Francisco. They saw each other in passing and became friends, until one day Amy told Moritz that she'd just gotten her motorcycle license and that was what changed everything! You see, Moritz also had a motorcycle and he asked Amy if she'd like to come on a ride over the Golden Gate Bridge with him. What better way to have a first date, than creating a situation where a beautiful girl has to put her arms around you?
When the time came to plan the wedding, they realized it could be a while before they were able to travel to the two other countries where their families lived. They'd driven by San Francisco City Hall many times and had heard that it was the most elegant and easy place to elope, and they decided that this was where their wedding journey would take them....for their first wedding!
So, what steps does it take to get married at San Francisco City Hall? First, you'll need to make two appointments to get married here.
1. Make an appointment for your marriage license. You can book this anytime in the 90-day window before your ceremony, and as close as one hour before your wedding at City Hall. Simply go online to make reservations to get your marriage license with the county clerk’s office.
2. After you've booked the marriage license, you'll make a separate appointment for your wedding ceremony at the same web address. The marriage license alone does not mean you are married, you have to have the ceremony and say your "I Do's!"
What happens if the date and time to want aren't available? Then you can let us know and we'll have our own wedding officiant come in and perform the ceremony for you and your guests. There are a few other benefits to having your own officiant as well, for example, you would be able to write and say your own personal vows, and if you'd like to have a blessing, or any mention of religion, just ask and our officiants are qualified to do that.
If you have a larger group and you'd like to rent a bigger space for an hour and have pretty chairs set up for you (for a rental fee) then you'd want to speak to the Events Department about a Mayor's Balcony or 4th Floor gallery rental. They are $1000 for the hour and an incredibly pretty and affordable way to get married with up to one hundred guests. You can reach out to them here on their website for more information.
3. Where do you park on the wedding day?
There's a big underground garage across the street from San Francisco City Hall. Just head to 355 McAllister st and take the ramp down!
4. What happens after the wedding? How do I change my name?
After your wedding ceremony, your officiant will turn in your signed marriage license to be filed. At the time that you got the marriage license, they will have given you an address online to visit about fourteen days after your wedding ceremony. This is where you order your original copies of your marriage license. If you are changing your name, buy three original copies for $15 each. You'll need that to change your name on your driver's license, passport, and social security card.
These were all of the steps that Amy and Moritz took. They chose to rent the Mayor's Balcony just for the two of them, and they hired Shelly as their wedding officiant. She performed a very spiritual wedding, working in the positive aspects of the numerology of the date that they had chosen to get married. A wedding ceremony should reflect who you are as a couple, and there are endless ways to personalize it to your taste. A professional wedding officiant will be able to offer suggestions and guide you during your planning process.
After the ceremony, we took the newlyweds on a photo tour of the whole building. They planned to arrive very early in the day, so they had the magical grand staircase all to themselves, and the results were stunningly beautiful. While it's not easy to get up early, we think the results were well worth it.
