anyone get married at SF city hall?

[spike13]

The current plan is to get married at the san francisco city hall. Has anyone here done that?

What was your experience like? Are you waiting in line on benches before hand? How does it begin and end? For example do you just walk up and hand them your vows? is there any ceremony aspect at all? Are they really strict about the 6 guests max? (We have 7-8 family members.)

thanks in advance,
spike

 

[neatfreak]

Hi Spike,

We didn't get married there but we did watch a number of weddings while we were there waiting to pick up our license (we were there on a late week afternoon which is the busiest time for ceremonies). It is a beautiful place. But they do churn them out quickly AND they do appear to be pretty strict on the guest numbers (at least the day we were there). But you are free to take pictures in other areas of CH afterwards, which is nice.

They seemed to be churning them out very quickly, and there wasn't a real ceremony aspect of it, that isn't what they are there for ya know? But the person performing them seemed happy to be doing so and seemed to be making the experience as pleasant for everyone as possible.

Everyone just appeared to be waiting around beforehand. Nothing fancy.

Wish I had more information for you, this was just my observation while we were waiting for our license.

ETA: If I remember correctly everyone uses the same non-denominational vows? But I could be wrong on that.

 

[mia1181]

I''m getting married there in September!

Have you seen "eloping" section at Indiebride? A few people there have gotten married there from that site and they all seemed to have good experiences. Here''s the link if your interested:

http://kvetch.indiebride.com/index.php?t=thread&frm_id=29&rid=0&S=9fb5608cacd7ff6fa8ca17efaa346a46

 

[OuiCestLavie1]

Hi I am planning to get married there too! I think the city hall is beautiful, however it is a bit noisy and lacks privacy. I am living in south bay, but still choose SF city hall over our own county clerk.

I collected a few videos on youtube, including SF city hall and Santa Clara county clerk. For SF city hall, every time slot there will be three ceremonies, maybe one couple on the rotunda, one couple on somekind of aisle, and the other couple in the private room (they do have a private room).

Hope you can get some idea from the videos, if the link does not work, just try to search "SF city hall wedding" on youtube.com.
http://youtube.com/user/OuiCestLaVie1

My question, anybody knows the parking situation at the city hall area? is it easy to find parking space (looks like there is an underground parking garage). I''ve never been there yet...

 

[spike13]

Wow thanks! I will check out those links!

I do know there is an underground parking lot across the street under the park. Also street/metered parking is usually doable.

 

[ringster]

i don''t have any advice as i haven''t gone that route but whomever suggested indiebride -- i second that as i know many have went to SF city hall.

just wanted to say -- not sure when you are planning to wed at SF city hall but just a warning to try and schedule it as soon as you can. i think with the new ruling about gay marriages there will be a rush at city halls in CA.

 

[OuiCestLavie1]

ringster is right, the available slots go very fast. They have this online reservation system showing available date/time w/ 90 days. https://services.sfgov.org/ceremony/intro.asp
It seems that July is really hot!

 

[jdinsf]

I would be certain to make reservations well ahead of time. We are simply getting our marriage license at SF City Hall, and they told me that as of June 17- when same-sex marriages go into effect (YAY!)- they''re booked, booked, booked.

On another note, a co-worker was married there and the pictures are stunning. The rotunda can''t be beat. Congratulations on your up-coming marriage!!!!!!!!!

 

[spike13]

Thank you! You guys are so wonderful. I don''t have any family here so I''m planning on my own. Even something small is a bit to figure out.

we''re not getting married until next year, so I''m hoping the same-sex marriage rush will be over.

 

[shigidigi]

I got married there in Nov and I honestly thought it was much more special than I was anticipating! The city hall here is GORGEOUS inside and although you recite some generic-like vows they make sure that you have whichever area you choose to have the ceremony (we did ours at the top of the stairs overlooking everything), and keep people out of the way so you have the space entirely to yourself. I bet if you wrote some short personal vows you could easily say them during the ceremony. Our officiant was a very sweet woman and I am sure she would not have had an issue.

They even let us have some time by ourselves afterwards to take some photos before the area had people walking in it again. I think what I liked best about doing it in city hall is that every other couple that was there that day getting married were dressed up in full wedding attire (myself included!)- they all treated it as if it were no different then getting married in a church or having a big ceremony and I think that made it really special. Plus everyone congratulates each other since they are there for the same reason- it''s like you have a cheering section for you before/after getting married- too cute!!

I hope this helps!