Anyone been married at City Hall SF
 

hi again (last post i promise - i've so appreciated all the help so far). has anyone here gotten married at city hall in San Francisco? what did you think? i;ve gotten all the info i need re licences etc but cant seem to find any personal accounts and cant seem to find a run down of how the ceremony would go. (it would be an elopement - no guests). many thanks in advance

Hello NZSophie, I am not sure what you want to know. A Civil Marriage is rather short and sweet so to speak. You can go to Google and see lots of websites including photos of weddings at City Hall but they all seem to be with guest etc., that you say you won't have. I don't know if this is any help but here is the official website

and here is the website I hope..
http://www.sfgov.org/site/countyclerk_index.asp?id=4472

Best wishes to the two of you Sophie, may you have a long and joyful life together.

Gee, we got married without any guests, on a weekday, and at a town hall, and we didn't consider it an elopement!

We did have a great dinner at a place beyond our means in a romantic location after the ceremony. The ceremony was five minutes at lunch time, two days after we got the license per state law.

Still married after 16 years and 3 kids :)

I have been the witness at two City Hall weddings in San Francisco. Both times they asked whether the couple would like to be wed up top under the dome. Very pretty. Short and sweet ceremonies. One time we all went to Yank sing for dim sum afterwards. Fun!

thanks for your answers so far. one more question - do you have a say in what is said or is it just a 'follow the script, repeat after me' kind of process. cheers

Can't help with any of the answers really, but just to say we were there a couple of weeks ago on holidays from Oz and we were really taken with the City Hall. There was a couple who had recently been married who were having photos taken on the steps (inside). The whole place just had a really good feel about it. Good luck with your ceremony. Schnauzer

I believe they let you say your own vows in addition to the "standard" ones. That is, when we got married, we looked at the city clerk kind of funny when she asked if we would like to read our own vows - we hadn't thought of that detail (heck, we only looked at rings the day before, and didn't get them for a week).

Worth a call, but I'm pretty sure they would allow people to read their own vows. (we did both laugh when they had both people say "obey" LOL).

Both times I was the witness (one time with my sis, her boyfriend and their baby--now that was special!), the couples just went with the standard.

A friend at work who did this recently said that they took up several couples at once and then married them one at a time. This was on a Friday. The other time I've been there for marriages, mid-week, the judge told our party to go up and she met us there and it felt very private. So if you call, also ask about this if it matters to you. Or try to go on a less-busy day.

I really enjoyed these ceremonies; they felt very intimate with little emphasis on spectacle.