When Nerida first emailed me about potentially photographing their elopement, she mentioned that they were actually planning to fly all the way from Australia to wed in the gorgeous beaux-arts style San Francisco City Hall. She had seen photos of a wedding there while surfing the web one day and knew at once that it was the place she and ryan were meant to be married!
After emailing back and forth for a couple of weeks, it was clear that Nerida was a kindred spirit and I could not have been more excited for their wedding day in early March. Both her and Ryan were so kind and sweet, and so excited for their trip to California and their secret elopement!
No one knew except for the two of them, Nerida's mom, and me. As I followed along on with all of their California adventures on their instagram stories for the week leading up to their elopement I was so excited I could barely wait!
The day of the wedding as I was walking through City Hall on my way to find them, lucky for me I heard a deep voice with an unmistakeable Australian accent call out from behind me, "Abby? Is that you?" to which I turned around and saw Ryan in his full wedding day attire– beard, bun, suit, and all! He led me straight to the beautiful bride and after waiting to sign some paperwork as their witness, the wedding day began.
Nerida had found her dress years before (far before she knew she would be getting married one day!) and loved it so much that she bought it right on the spot. It featured gorgeous, intricately sewn geometric bead work that looked as if it had been made just for the beautiful windows and architecture all around city hall. But truly, the cherry on top of her whole wedding day look was a big faux fur coat she had thrifted near Haight-Ashbury just the day before the wedding. It was absolutely fabulous. And it was the perfect finishing touch to her wedding day dreams.
After the ceremony and portraits at City Hall, I offered to go take a few more portraits at the Golden Gate bridge with them as my little wedding gift to truly and fully encapsulate their San Francisco elopement. They were thrilled at the idea, and so we all headed over to the bridge. It was just about noon when we arrived without a cloud in the sky... something I was a bit nervous about since those are never ideal lighting conditions from a photography perspective, but with the help of my diffuser and reflector we were able to get several gorgeous shots of them both close up, and even some farther away where I simply embraced the sun and just went for it! All in all it was one of the most fun, relaxed, and beautiful weddings I have had to honor to shoot yet– it's hard to beat City Hall when it comes to pure architectural gorgeousness, and the lighting in there is incredible at almost any time of day. The intimacy of such a small elopement was so stress free, and Nerida and Ryan were both so funny and down to earth– my kind of people. I have to say, San Francisco City Hall definitely has my heart when it comes to wedding photography. I can't wait to go back someday for another elopement!
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