How to Get Married at SF City Hall in 2025

Getting Married at San Francisco City Hall?

It’s 2025 and you’re planning to get married at the iconic San Francisco city hall. Great! and CONGRATS!

You’ve come to the right place..
I’m glad you’re here.

Have a look around.

Surprisingly, with just a year difference with last year’s guide - there has been some updates made on getting married at the iconic San Francisco city hall in 2025.

I’m happy to share my decade plus of photographing weddings at SF city hall with you and congratulations to you and your love!

Ok, let’s get to it.

What has not changed are the different types of wedding ceremonies and bookings for the different types of ceremonies you can reserve.

The most common one is the civil ceremony and takes place (usually) at the rotunda, which is at the top of the grand staircase. At the time of this post, the current cost is at $108, you can see more about pricing here.

These civil ceremonies only happen on weekdays from 9 am - 3:30 pm with about 3 couples every half hour.

PRO TIP: The building actually opens at 8 am - and I have found that it is less busy right at this time, right before the appointments begin, so if you have a morning appointment - I’d suggest starting some photos at 8 am to maximize the use of the grand staircase as that photo location gets crowded with couples and quinceanera photos during busier times.

One thing to remember - you’ll need to book TWO appointments - one for your marriage license and one for your civil ceremony. If you are getting married elsewhere (FYI, I also do photograph wedding other than city hall ones!) then you’ll only need to book one for your marriage license. Just remember to book your appointments within 90 days of your ceremony.

What does it all look like on the day of? What time should you arrive? What should you bring?

Ok, assuming you’ve already made your license appointment - don’t forget to bring this paperwork on you ceremony appointment date! You’ll need at least ONE witness (and I’m happy to be one if you need, always an honor to!).

Ceremony Appointment date - Check in!

About 10 minutes before your ceremony appointment time, you’ll need to check in at Room 160. Have your IDs and paperwork ready. Your guests don’t need to be with you for this part, but they can choose to sit and wait in the hall - which is the waiting room area. Once checked in, they’ll give you your paperwork back and you’ll wait for your NAME to be called. In previous years, this was the portion that I would often compare to being at the DMV - they used to give you a ticket number and you’d wait for that number to be read in that DMV automated voice. But no more! Yay, it’s more personalized and you’ll be able to see the names up on the screen to keep track on who is next.

Once they call you - you’ll enter RM 165, with your witness (one is required, although the paperwork allows for TWO, but they will most likely push for just one. If you want two - you can request it and let the judge know.. this could be so that you can have one parent from each or a sibling from each, or just your two best supporters, etc.)

The judge will ask you your names and pronunciations and if you’ll be exchanging rings. They will then let you know to meet up at the rotunda and if you are the first, second or last couple in their round.

How many guests can I have?

While there are a few ceremony locations, mostly for those who have made 1 or 2 hour reservations. The typical ceremony area is at the rotunda, only allow for 6 guests within the roped in area. So if you have more than this, while SF city hall is a public space - it is dependent on the judge how lenient they are to allow your guests within the same area or on the steps -or up in the second floor overlooking the ceremony site - if you have more than 6 that is. For this, I usually let clients and their families know to just hang back and be polite, most of the time - you’ll be ok. Again, it is up to the judge. (It also doesn’t hurt to ask and just be kind! I’ve had couple’s be able to even hold their ceremony up at the 4th floor balcony)

After the ceremony, you’ll have time to take photos at the rotunda and after that, you’ll make your way around the building to take more photos. Your photographer will have all the best spots to check out - so trust them, and if I’m your photographer - YAY! We’re going to have so much fun wandering around San Francisco city hall.

I know this info isn’t super detailed (maybe I’ll create a more comprehensive list of how to get married at SF city hall, but for now, this will have to do 🙃) but you can check out San Francisco’s main site for info here and here - for your marriage license information, and of course if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

Above is a recent SF city hall wedding taken on Super 8 film