Trolley Tour Wedding San Francisco: Alamo Square, Crissy Field, Palace of Fine Arts

Part 3 of 4 the Trolley Tour SF City Hall/2nd Line Parade/Trolley Tour/Big Daddy’s Antiques

To begin at the beginning click here.

Trolley Tour Wedding San Francisco: Alamo Square, Crissy Field, Palace of Fine Arts – Sasha & Andrew

With a smaller wedding, renting a pair of Hornblower trolley cars to tour San Francisco with your out-of-town guests is a fantastic way to elapse the time between a San Francisco City Hall Wedding and a nighttime reception at an Antiques store that needs to be flipped after business hours. Sasha and Andrew’s trolley cars had names. Clearly, “Nacho Cheese” trolley was equipped with only the classic, Nacho Cheese flavored Doritos. While, “Cool Ranch” Trolley stuck to its namesake as well. Both cars had coolers full of champagne and hard grape Faygo.

Our first stop was Alamo Square Park with its spectacular view of the painted ladies, and the San Francisco cityscape beyond. We greeted local puppies, gazed at Victorian architecture, sunned our faces. Portraits were made with San Francisco framed by bursts of cypress trees. Sasha’s gold sequined wedding gown threw reflections everywhere. Before we hopped back on the trolley, I grabbed Sasha for a portrait in front of this fantastic basketball mosaic.

Next we drove Westward through the Presidio towards the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge. Trolley stop number two was at Crissy Field where we made a few romantic portraits, and a few goofy ones all with the glory of the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

The final stop was at San Francisco’s iconic Palace of Fine Arts. Where we strolled the grounds and admired the flora and fauna… Stick around for the reception at an Antiques shop. You won’t be disappointed.

Ceremony Venue : San Francisco City Hall 4th Floor North Gallery
Reception Venue : Big Daddy’s Antiques
Photographer : Hazel Photo
Florist : Max Gill Design
Wedding planner : Jenni Grubba
Makeup : Kelly Jo Makeup & Hair
Makeup : Kelly Jo Makeup & Hair
Wedding attire : Grooms Suit: Custom, Bride’s gown: Sachin & Babi
Cake : Butter &
Catering : Fogcutter
2nd line Band : MJs Brass Boppers
DJ/Band : Golden Bells Music
Wedding Transport : Hornblower Cable Cars
Photobooth : Pika Pika

 

Part 3 of 4 the Trolley Tour SF City Hall/2nd Line Parade/Trolley Tour/Big Daddy’s Antiques

 


Big Daddy’s Antiques Wedding – Portrero Hill

Part 4 of 4 SF City Hall/2nd Line Parade/Trolley Tour/Big Daddy’s Antiques

To begin at the beginning click here

Big Daddy’s Antiques Wedding : Portrero Hill – Sasha & Andrew

Sasha & Andrew’s wedding, phew, this was one of those parties you really don’t want to miss, it just kept unfolding and unfolding. While we were galavanting through the city on a trolley tour, an incredible team of wedding vendors led by the inimitable wedding planner, Jenni Grubba, was hard at work turning Portero Hill’s Big Daddy’s Antiques into a wedding wonderworld. Look at those gorgeous climbing florals from Max Gill on the column, what is that, ionic? (It is. I looked it up.) Big Daddy’s Antiques is already a beautiful cavernous and fascinating space, but it was completely transformed with the king’s table for 80 oozing with Max Gill’s genius floral centerpieces.

As guests arrived, they were offered champagne garnished with edible flowers in vintage crystal coupes. Gardenias were placed in the entryway to give off their intoxicating scent. The menus were folded in the shape of fortunetellers, and unfolded to reveal all the goodness to come.

When we arrived, Sasha & Andrew’s dog was patiently awaiting them, and we took the chance to make a few family portraits of the three of them with the lovely late afternoon light. Fogcutter passed their always gorgeous hors d’oeuvres, I especially love those flower-petal-dusted deviled eggs, and they plied guests with course after course of family style platters from nasturtium-speckled salads to roasted wild mushrooms to duck confit. Pika Pika set up their quirky Japanese-style photobooth. Golden Bells Music kept everybody dancing through the night with a 5 piece band, heavy on the brass. You know it’s my kind of wedding when there are not one, but two brass bands! At some point after the first dance, and before the dance party got jumping, Sasha slipped away to change into a 2nd gold sequin number, but this one was sequins all the way from head to toe, and was built for dancing. As the night grew long, a garage door mysteriously opened out to the street. A taco truck was parked in front of the building ready to dole out midnight snacks of al pastor and barbacoa.

Ceremony Venue : San Francisco City Hall 4th Floor North Gallery
Reception Venue : Big Daddy’s Antiques
Photographer : Hazel Photo
Florist : Max Gill Design
Wedding planner : Jenni Grubba
Makeup : Kelly Jo Makeup & Hair
Makeup : Kelly Jo Makeup & Hair
Wedding attire : Grooms Suit: Custom, Bride’s gown: Sachin & Babi
Cake : Butter &
Catering : Fogcutter
2nd line Band : MJs Brass Boppers
DJ/Band : Golden Bells Music
Wedding Transport : Hornblower Cable Cars
Photobooth : Pika Pika

 


4th Floor North Gallery San Francisco City Hall Wedding

This is a first for me, but Sasha & Andrew’s wedding was so ridiculously epic that I am breaking it up into 4, yes 4, posts.

We begin at the 4th Floor North Gallery of San Francisco’s City Hall

We continue with a Mardi Gras style 2nd line parade from City Hall accompanied by San Francisco’s New Orleans style brass band MJ’s Brass-Boppers

We continue further with a Hornblower trolley tour of Alamo Square, Crissy Field, and The Palace of Fine Arts.

And we conclude with an incredible feast from Fog Cutter Catering and a raucous dance party with Golden Bell Music at Big Daddy’s Antiques.

Part 1 of 4

4th Floor North Gallery San Francisco City Hall Wedding – Sasha & Andrew

Sasha found me on the internet when she was looking for a wedding photographer. I remember our first conversation clearly. She was driving home from work, and for some reason we had a long exchange about her first week in San Francisco, the nadir/highlight of which was when another driver caught that road rage and threw a strawberry smoothie at her car. Don’t ask why she knew it was strawberry. I couldn’t keep from cackling and I knew instantly that I wanted to work with Sasha and her fiancé, Andrew. Sasha may be a biochemist working in drug development for the time-being, but there is definitely an alternate world where she is killing it on the standup scene. 

One thing that made the planning of this wedding a tiny bit different was that Sasha was hiding a major surprise from Andrew. Okay, jump ahead. It’s a sunny Friday in August, the day of Sasha and Andrew’s wedding. We meet at San Francisco City Hall. Andrew enters from Carlton B Goode Plaza, Sasha from Van Ness. I leave my 2nd photographer with Andrew up on the 4th flour waiting with his back against a column. I hop in the elevator to go meet Sasha to bring her up. The elevator opens, and there she is in this fabulous pink satin dress with a shock of gold sequins from the hip down. And, yes, the dress did have pockets. I had never seem anything like it, and it sparked immediate and lasting joy. Of course Andrew was delighted by Sasha’s dress as well. Just take a look at his face in the first look photos. But, that wasn’t the major surprise.

Skip ahead again. The wedding ceremony was held on the 4th floor of San Francisco City Hall in the North Gallery. An old friend officiated. Sasha and Andrew exchanged vows that made each of them in turn laugh uproariously. At one point Sasha said something along the lines of, “Andrew and I talked about having the wedding in New Orleans, a city we both adore, but here we are in San Francisco. Regardless, Andrew absolutely deserves the biggest brass band in the world” I don’t know what to say about the way the ceremony ended other than, “Some people just know how to smooch in a government building.”

Ceremony Venue : San Francisco City Hall 4th Floor North Gallery
Reception Venue : Big Daddy’s Antiques
Photographer : Hazel Photo
Florist : Max Gill Design
Wedding planner : Jenni Grubba
Makeup : Kelly Jo Makeup & Hair
Makeup : Kelly Jo Makeup & Hair
Wedding attire : Grooms Suit: Custom, Bride’s gown: Sachin & Babi
Cake : Butter &
Catering : Fogcutter
2nd line Band : MJs Brass Boppers
DJ/Band : Golden Bells Music
Wedding Transport : Hornblower Cable Cars
Photobooth : Pika Pika

Part 1 of 4 SF City Hall/2nd Line Parade/Trolley Tour/Big Daddy’s Antiques


Industrial Chic Wedding Bok Building

Industrial Chic Wedding Bok Building – Eliza & Dirk

Eliza & Dirk had the distinct pleasure of walking from their home in their South Philadelphia neighborhood to their wedding venue, The Bok Building. Part of the vision for the day, as far as photography, was a walk through the neighborhood with bridal portraits in front of Eliza & Dirk’s favorite murals. We got lucky, and happened upon an Italian street festival, replete with red white and green pendants strung across the street. Philadelphia is a city of hidden magic on tiny alleys, and we found that magic again and again as the day unfolded.

Eliza is an urban planner, Dirk a geographer, so it was apt that the backdrop for their wedding was a view of the city grid of Philadelphia from above. The florals were fantastic. I love the arrangement at the altar with the city peeking through beyond. Post-industrial splendour exploding with flowers!

Sometimes as I photograph a wedding I pick up on a subtle dynamic I didn’t see coming. On their wedding day, from getting ready, through the ceremony, into toasts, I was struck by what an exceptionally strong chosen family Eliza & Dirk have cultivated, and now cherish.

Let’s also not forget that there was an astronaut in attendance, and he made every photo he graced with his presence ten times better.

I could write volumes, but these photos!! I won’t keep them from you any longer.

Photography : Hazelphoto
Wedding attire : Sarah Seven, Taylor Stitch
Florist : Vault & Vine
Makeup : JKo Beauty
Rings : Bario Neal
Invitations : Egg Press

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