Marina & Stefanos' Wedding (San Francisco City Hall)

I first met Marina and Stefanos the way I frequently meet my City Hall clients--over email, with no context and no initial consultation. I asked them to send me a picture so that at the very least I would know who I was looking for at City Hall on the day of their wedding. In short, I did not have the opportunity to get to know and bond with Marina and Stefanos before the wedding. On my way to their wedding, I was trying to imagine what they might be like in person.

I was in for such a treat! Marina and Stefanos are an amazing couple. They exude such peacefulness, calmness and warmth. When I first start a session, whether it's for a wedding, an engagement, or a family, it usually takes the couple a little bit of time to get warmed up, to start to feel comfortable in front of the camera and to lose their inhibitions. They inevitably do all of the above, just not in the first fifteen minutes of the session. Usually. Marina and Stefanos, from the first photo, were impeccable. They were relaxed and natural! Such a pleasure to photograph!

As you may have guessed by their names, Marina and Stefanos are Greek. City Hall weddings by definition tend to be impersonal and do not integrate the cultural traditions that may be near and dear to the couple's heart. So I thought it was especially great that Marina & Stefanos' friends found a way to include a few Greek traditions in their wedding, by bringing candy-coated almonds as favors and by showering them with rice outside City Hall.

As usual, a few of my favorites:

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And here are those candy-coated almonds. They're yummy, by the way. I got some, too. Sweet (almost no pun intended)!

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I swear there is rice in the air in the photos below. But you can only see it on 100% zoom, not on these little web versions. :)

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Congratulations, Marina & Stefanos!

Until next time!
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Kumiko & Bradley's Wedding (San Francisco City Hall)

There is nothing quite like shooting an intimate San Francisco City Hall wedding ceremony on a sunny spring Tuesday afternoon!



The vast space inside City Hall was largely empty, so we could take photos at our leisure without tourists and other bridal parties getting in our way (for the most part at least). We were also able to choose where inside City Hall we wanted the ceremony to take place--we chose the Mayor's Balcony because of the gorgeous view! We were offered the opportunity to move up the ceremony time to immediately after Kumiko and Bradley received their marriage license, which worked out extremely well, allowing us to have a more continuous and stress-free bridal session following the ceremony.

We did have one amusing mishap--it is amusing to us now, though it wasn't quite so amusing then--when Kumiko and Bradley's duffle bag with a change of clothes, jewelry and a few other valuable items mysteriously disappeared in the middle of our bridal session. The newlyweds had several sweat-breaking stressful minutes trying to locate the bag, which they were starting to think had been stolen, when it came out that City Hall security picked it up. It turns out, they remove any "suspicious-looking" bags, for security purposes. Good to know.

And now, on to the photos:

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Not to waste any time, we took a few photos by the Office of the County Clerk, while we were waiting for our marriage license appointment.

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And here they are at the appointment.

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I really like this detail shot of Kumiko's earring through the veil and with her bouquet visible in the background.

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Congratulations, Kumiko and Bradley!

Until next time!
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