A City Hall Wedding in San Francisco (With Sneakers and Hikes!) | Cup of Jo (2024)

What a great story! Could anyone share the contact of the retired judge who performed the ceremony by chance? My fiance and I are currently looking to find a retired judge in SF
Thanks so much!

Every detail. Simply perfection. We are doing a SF City Hall wedding and I left with so much inspiration for our big day.

This is so beautiful. I love how personal and meaningful every aspect of the wedding was. And private vows on the hike! Just lovely.

I love that they had their cat included in their “getting ready” photos! Pets really are such a big part of the family and our daily lives! Congrats to the newlyweds!

I got married there in a lovely Rotunda, my brother got married there, two of my friends were married there, and I’ve seen and shot many weddings and met a lot of interesting individuals who came from all over the globe to tie the knot there.

Omg I am flooded with all the feels. My husband and I were married there in 2008 and it was stunning. We were so young and so nervous. We were surrounded by gay and lesbian couples who’d been together for ages and finally allowed to wed. Seeing their devotion and excitement was profound. So lovely to see another happy couple tie the knot in such a special place.

Everything about this is so sweet and perfect! Such beautiful details. Congrats you two! :-)

Congrats! In 2003, my husband and I were married at NYC city hall. I loved the simplicity and non-stress vibe that the “venue” afforded. I wore pants and clogs, he sunglasses and a Hawaiian button-down. Our wedding photo was taken across the street…the two of us standing atop an oversized picnic table, arm in arm, smiling ear to ear. Not only were we husband and wife, but in a few short months, we were to become…mom and dad!

My husband and I got married at SF City Hall in 2013, with only our parents, my grandmother (age 93 at the time), my stepson, and our siblings and their families. My brother and one of my husband’s sisters were our witnesses, and my best friend officiated. I hired an old friend, who is a wonderfully talented event photographer, to take our photos. We followed our late morning nuptials with a ferry to Tiburon for some photos, then back to the city for dinner with our guests in a private room at Spruce. Our special day was small, intimate, and perfect.

This is fabulous! So true to themselves and absolutely stunning. My husband and I recently got married in our local indie bookshop in Sydney in a similar elopement style ceremony then went to the pub where we first met. We streamed it to family and loved reading all the well wishes and chat comments the next day.

Lovely wedding! I love your look and the simplicity of the whole event. I dream of having a very tiny wedding one day so I love seeing how others achieve the same.

We also had a small wedding but we have friends who rented out SF city hall for their wedding and everything was perfect. Stunning venue.

What a stunning wedding! So incredibly special and meaningful! You made me cry (happy tears:)
Congratulations!!

As an SF native now living in So Cal, seeing all the comments about how gorgeous City Hall is makes me so homesick! While I didn’t get married at City Hall, my senior prom was held there :) Congrats to Angela and Ryan!

These photos bring back wonderful memories of my SF city hall wedding 12 years ago. My husband and I loved everything about getting married there. Our friends rode the MUNI bus over to be with us from the Noe Valley neighborhood where I grew up. Afterwards we all went out together to one of my favorite restaurants from childhood. We shared a wedding cake baked by one of our best friends. It was simple, beautiful, not expensive, and gave us yet another wonderful San Francisco memory.

This is truly everything that a wedding should be. Love the heartfelt and personal touches! Great job keeping it real with lots of quotes, Jannelle!

Such a beautiful location!

So beautifully intentional in every way. I love it!

SF City Hall weddings always look so magical! I have a soft spot for city hall weddings. My husband and I got married at Philadelphia City Hall in 2018. As I was planning all of the details I enjoyed seeing other city hall weddings for inspiration and for confirmation that small and intimate can also be beautiful.

My husband and I got married at SF City Hall 10 years ago. It was perfect, just like Angela and Ryan’s. For $84, my husband and I got married in one of the prettiest spots in the city. My Kate Spade off-the-rack dress and his J. Crew suit were the perfect attire for a couple of 25 year olds who were very recently out of the starving student stage. Every time we drive by City Hall with our kids, they shout “That’s where mom and dad got married!”

What a wonderful, loving wedding!

i love this so much! what a beautiful day and i love the intentional choices in supporting asian businesses and the intimacy of it all. gorgeous photos and the hike sounds so romantic! congrats angela and ryan!!!

I got married at SF City Hall too, in 2006! Before the judge started the ceremony he said to my husband, “You like to keep things simple, don’t you?” We do, and I’ve never regretted not having a bigger wedding. Our photographer was our witness, and when we got back home to Minnesota we had a party in the backyard of our duplex which we bought snacks from Trader Joe’s for.

I love the inclusion of Clancy the cat.

So lovely – congratulations!

What a lovely wedding! Gorgeous photos!

Beautiful! Perfect! Just the way I would get married, if I ever decide to take the plunge. Congratulations to the 2 of you!

This is truly beautiful. Congratulations on your wedding! And that City Hall is so gorgeous, I would have married in that setting in a heartbeat :)

Did anyone else hate their own wedding and now wish so badly you could have a do-over? Angela and Ryan’s wedding is exactly the kind of vibe I’d love to have whenever I get around to having some kind of vow renewal to reclaim my wedding day.

So so sweet. Thank you for sharing. Many blessings to you both for a long and happy marriage!

I loved reading about your wedding. It looked like you all had a great time.

I too got married at SF City Hall, and the majestic venue made me feel like a millionaire despite our tiny budget. I can’t imagine a classier place to get married for basically free! After the ceremony––we also were the last ones for the day, and my cousin is conveniently a photographer––we had lunch at a French brasserie nearby with our closest family, attending from thousands of miles away. After exploring SF together for a couple of days, we rented a cabin with both of our families in rainy Yosemite for a weekend. It was perfect.

How wonderful to have a wedding which is exactly what you want and makes you completely happy, instead of being steamrolled into doing certain things to keep family members happy. Their day was truly their day. Sending love 💕.

Also a fellow Taiwanese American with roots in the Bay! So so happy to see this piece, and huge congrats to Angela and Ryan!! San Francisco City Hall is so perfect for weddings <3

Congratulations!!!!!

As former Bay Area gal whose extended family is also from Taiwan, I loved the intentional nods to supporting small businesses and also local vendors!! Congratulations, Angela!

Such a gorgeous wedding, simple yet so elegant and filled with love. I love everything about this wedding from the dress, sneakers to the cake and those beautiful flowers. A very beautiful bride and her handsome groom.

*so* perfect.

I cried throughout this whole post. So beautiful. So intentional! And to put so much thought into how your special day can boost the Asian community in these fraught times? Chef’s kiss all the way. Wow wow wow. Sending love your way, you happy couple you!

Nice piece, Jannelle! I remember when I was new to a job, how nervous I was. Whether or not that’s true for you, just wanted to say I’m enjoying your contributions here.

Simple. Beautiful. Authentic. Thank you for sharing your special day through these lovely pictures.

Thank you for sharing your beautiful low key wedding. I especially loved the first paragraph when you described the morning before the wedding; it sounds like you got exactly the wedding that you envisioned, and you did not let the “wedding industry” tell you what to do. Wishing you a wonderful and happy life! (Just adding that this is a wedding after my own heart – we also got married at City Hall over 20 years ago, and it was beautiful and low key. We had lunch at Absinthe afterwards and a party in our home following that (not a “reception”, but a party!))

Best wedding post EVER!!!

What a couple! What a celebration! I loved reading about this. Thanks for sharing

A few years ago I went to SF city hall with my three year old to pick up some random documents. We walked in and saw a beautiful couple who was just married and my daughter screams as loud as she can, “A PRINCESS! Mama, a real princess!” It was hilarious.

Love the simplicity of this! Sometimes it seems like every wedding now must be a 3-day destination event. Serving cupcakes to 20 people is what my folks did in the 50s…old-school! Everything about this is beautiful.

Aw! This post brightened my day! The photos are gorgeous and Angela seems like such a thoughtful and joyful human. Thank you for sharing your day with us.

San Francisco native and an event planner based here! While we have so many Northern California gems in our portfolio, City Hall is easily one of our favorites. Rich in history and quietly ornate while being understated, we love it also for its affordability. I’ll still remember the day we did a wedding there and both the focaccia from North Beach *and* the wedding cake needed to go through the security conveyor belt! Congratulations Angela + Ryan!

Oh my gosh so many of these commenters got married at SF City Hall. So did we! I remember being in that wing off the main area waiting to submit our paperwork to the clerk before the ceremony and there were all these clusters of families around these happy beautifully dressed couples and I said to my husband, “What a fun little hall!” and we say it all the time now. Our witness was a friend who popped over from downtown during her lunch hour and we got hot dogs from the cart outside after. Such a sweet memory. We had another ceremony with family in Big Sur a few days later but there was something so perfect about that day. Now anytime we pass a building with a dome one of our kids will say, “Mommy and Daddy got married there!”

Yassssss. I love every part of this. <3

Aw! I love seeing all the wedding parties at SF City Hall when I’m over there on work or Notary biz.
Congrats!

I don’t know what that cake topper is but it’s just magical and I LOVE it. The bouquet is one of the prettiest I’ve ever seen…….love the pastels. All of the vendors she chose were so unique…….she has exquisite taste. The intimacy of the whole event was so much more appealing than a big, noisy affair.

So lovely! Thank you for sharing.

Aw, my husband and I got married at SF city hall too! One of my favorite memories is walking from our car to a bar for a pre-wedding moment just the two of us and getting so many shout-outs and kind comments.

beautiful!

Welp this made me cry. Thanks for sharing your beautiful love-filled wedding day with us! Especially needed this today. I hope you all have a long, incredible marriage £? (that’s supposed to be a heart ;)

Aw, we got married at San Francisco City Hall too! That morning we arrived to City Hall after our family and friends (we were a small group of 11) and when we walked in we could see everyone smiling and cheering for us as we worked our way through the metal detectors- it was so oddly sweet and romantic! I was so upset to learn that the 49ers were having their Super Bowl reception there that day so the entire main floor was carpeted and off limits. But it meant that we were married in one of the beautiful alcoves upstairs. It was perfect, quieter and more private. Our justice of the peace was named Norbert and he was the sweetest man, very serious but also tender with just enough humor. It was an incredible day, thanks for bringing me back there!!

Gah – my heart just exploded for these beautiful people. Also, the cake topper stopped me in my tracks. Congrats to the happy couple!

Oh my goodness – this is gorgeous! Every detail is lovely. The photos of the parents on either side and then with the whole group of friends made me tear up. Beautiful!

i. love. this story. 🤍🤍

This brings back so many found memories of my own marriage at San Francisco City Hall, about two weeks after the 1989 earthquake. We were married amongst the scaffolding, as there was some damage inside the building. I was 26 at the time and a graduate student at San Francisco State University. My bother and my cousin were our witnesses and we had lunch at our beloved “no name” sushi restaurant on Church St. The next day, I was back in class, taking a 3 hour midterm. My professor whispered to me, “I heard you got married yesterday, congratulations”.

I love this so, so much! San Francisco City Hall is fairy-tale beautiful and such a special place to get married and celebrate the Bay Area’s unique magic. Big time congratulations to Angela and Ryan!! This was a most welcome happy story to share in today.