Editing Weddings At San Francisco City Hall (section)

== Timing ==

You've got to show up a little early for both of these because there's a bit of a line to get into the room where the licenses are made; and because there's a short bit of ceremony for the witness just before the ceremony where they sign something. Parking is quite straightforward at the Union Square parking garage, but actually getting there is hard because you have to run the gauntlet of crossing Market St. and then making it through the streets people are taking to get to Van Ness Ave. which means you've got quite a bit of traffic. Two of our friends actually got stuck in traffic and almost didn't make it!
[[File:Roshan and Julie on the way to City Hall to get married.webp|thumb|left|On our way there]]

On the plus side, if you are the first couple of the day, and you've showed up early enough then if you get done with your stuff they'll let you go right up and you have the main area available for longer than most people will. The first 9 AM slot that people dropped should actually be quite coveted! There are quite a few weddings and they're pretty packed together so I assume missing your slot can be bad.

Getting the license to marry is a bit lower stress. In our case, getting the license involved going through a side door to enter, though that was because they had some sort of event that day. But most days, it's just another room where you go through with your stuff, hand over the forms, read over everything carefully and make sure your name isn't misspelled and then you get a license. It's pretty straightforward to do. I thought you had to be absolutely perfectly on time so we rushed but then ended up sitting there, because of the line.

In the end, the marriage certificate has my mum's name spelled with an extra character. Such is life, I suppose. After all [[Getting a Social Security Card|my daughter's SSN was mailed to a Mr. "Geroge"]].