High School Sweethearts Wed at Marin County Civic Center
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE a grand, epic wedding, with hundreds of guests, and loads of energy and personality. But I also love the quieter, simpler weddings that centers on the couple. Where the focus is solely on their love and the new commitment they are making. Expressions of pure joy centered on each other, and not one thought given to the color of the linens, a flattened boutonniere, or the threat of a cloudy sky.
For Angel and Mike’s wedding, the Marin County Civic Center was the perfect venue: it’s quiet, carries history, and sits in their hometown of San Rafael.
The bride and groom walk the reflecting pool, being enjoyed by a couple of mallard ducks!
They had chosen their ceremony spot in the garden, set deeper on the lawn, under the gold spire. It gave Angel a longer walk to Mike, a true processional across the grass with their families watching every step. The spire rose behind them. Beyond the garden, the hills of the San Pedro Mountain Preserve rolled towards the sky, a view they both love. Around them, Frank Lloyd Wright’s arches and soft pink walls curved toward the aquamarine reflecting pool.
Angel and Mike met in high school in San Rafael and started dating soon after. On a friday in May, they gathered in Marin to marry each other in front of their families. The guest list was a small and close, exactly what they wanted. The morning was unhurried and entirely theirs.
The simple ceremony, officiated by the bride’s uncle.
Getting Married on a Friday
A Marin County Civic Center wedding led by a county commissioner happens Tuesday through Thursday. Since the couple wanted to wed on a Friday, they brought their own officiant. Angel’s uncle was legally deputized so he could marry them.
That one choice made all the difference. A family officiant kept the ceremony personal and gave them the freedom to marry on the day they wanted. If you would like a Friday or a Monday, this is how it works: bring your own ordained officiant, and you can then choose any time within the building’s open hours to wed, and in any of the public spaces at Marin County. My complete guide to getting married at Marin County Civic Center gathers everything I have learned here.
Filing the marriage license to the Recorder’s Office.
A Calmer Alternative to San Francisco City Hall
Couples often ask how the Marin County Civic Center compares to a San Francisco City Hall wedding. City Hall is stunning, and I love photographing there! However, the Civic Center gives you something different: space, calm, and room to breathe. On a weekday you often have the garden nearly to yourselves. For a couple who wants an intimate civil wedding with the feeling of a private morning, it is one of the finest choices in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The foot traffic at Marin County Civic Center is so much lighter than at SF City Hall!
No Wedding Day Nerves
I meet most of my couples over Zoom or with a chat on the phone before their wedding. Everyone is warm and easy on our call. Then the wedding morning comes, and a little nervousness naturally tends to arrive with it. Angel and Mike were an exception. They were as relaxed on their wedding day as they had been on our first call, which was lovely to experience and document.
A Second Stop at the Bride’s Family Home
Often my couples like to go to a second location like a viewpoint of the Golden Gate Bridge, or the redwoods. But Angel and Mike opted for a more personal location; the bride’s mom’s home. Her mom keeps a garden I could photograph all day. It grows wild in the best ways, without looking overly tended. It’s full of pathways that ask you to wander, and we followed them slowly while the family cat stretched out nearby and watched us work, entirely unbothered by the whole affair. Some of my favorites frames came from that garden, the two of them blissfully relaxed and surrounded by the place the bride grew up.
Planning your Marin County Civic Center Wedding
Weddings like Angel and Mike’s are the reason I love photographing at the Civic Center on a weekday. The day stays simple and personal, with all the attention on the couple and the people who love them most. And we can head to a second location that is meaningful or special to you.
As a San Francisco Bay Area wedding photographer and Northern California elopement photographer, I photograph civil weddings and elopements throughout the area, and I can offer guidance through each step of your day: the paperwork, the timeline, the light, and a second location if you want one. If you are planning a wedding at the Marin County Civic, I would love to hear from you! You can see more weekday wedding couples here, and then reach out here to start planning your day.
In collaboration with The Lifestyle Historian.