Just 30 minutes from San Francisco, Muir Beach Overlook offers stunning ocean views, dramatic cliffs, and a hidden wooded area for a private, intimate elopement.
Many couples dream of a lush garden wedding but aren't sure where to find the perfect venue. Or, if they're having a smaller wedding, golf course or country club fees don't fit their more petite events budget. This is where public parks come in. San Francisco has over 220 parks, playgrounds, and open spaces, and many are wedding-friendly. Permit fees begin at $350 per hour for a two-hour rental and go up to $643 per hour, depending on which venue in the park system you choose.
I was very excited when Nathan and Popsi called me to say that they'd gotten a permit for the early morning wedding ceremony slot at Muir Woods National Monument. I was intrigued by their willingness to bring Nathan's family and Popsi's good friend out to the early morning forest. Because her family lives in Asia, they'll be having a destination wedding there, so her side of the family can join in the celebration. If you plan to have a wedding overseas, you'll want to get legally married in the United States first, and a Muir Woods elopement wedding is a very nice way to do that.
When John and Richard met twenty years ago at Pride weekend in London, they knew right away that they had something special. After a year of long-distance dating, they decided to live together and twenty years flew by in the blink of an eye. When they reached out to me from England to plan their destination elopement for their twentieth anniversary (plus one long-time friend as their witness!), I was so excited to show them the best of everything that San Francisco and the Bay Area had to offer for their wedding. They knew they wanted a San Francisco elopement planning company that really knew SF City Hall inside and out, and we did all of the wedding planning for the two of them.
Forget the stress of creating a traditional wedding, and head outside for your pop-up wedding with a customized luxury picnic! Everyone knows that it's healthy to be surrounded by nature, and nothing feels better than getting married with a gentle breeze and birds singing while you look into your finance's eyes and say your wedding vows to each other. Where's the best place to have a pop-up wedding picnic? Anywhere that feels good to you, is the perfect spot!
These days there's a whole new class of love stories, and they'll go down in history and be told to children and grandchildren for many years to come. Courtney and Benjamin are one of these couples and you might have guessed by now, that they met online during Covid! They live in Toronto Canada and were looking for an all-inclusive destination elopement package someplace that was as fun and quirky as the two of them. Naturally, San Francisco fit like a glove.
Would you LOVE to know the most amazing and versatile location for your surprise proposal or engagement session? We're super excited to share this couple's journey with you, and their location is hiding in plain sight.
Now that we're moving forward, there are a lot of couples that got married in the last few years but didn't get to take the wedding pictures that they'd really wanted, while other couples might want to do a vow renewal for a milestone year, or schedule an anniversary session. These are all services that we love to offer our couples.
Muir Woods Wedding Hack!
No permits, No problem!
If there's one thing in my mind that stands out as the most significant wedding trend to come out of the last few years (silver lining!!) it's the elopement trend. Not only is it a more intimate way to incubate your newborn marital status in a way that a three hundred person event could never hope to do, but by now, your friends and family have probably known countless other couples that have done the same thing and the shame and taboo of the word "elopement" have all but floated away in the San Francisco fog.
Nora and Cameron recently took part in the woodland wedding trend, and they had the most magical day, as you can see from their photos!
Nothing is more romantic for an elopement than the Palace of Fine Arts. The Grecian architecture, surrounded by the most enchanting gardens San Francisco has to offer, makes you feel like you could find Aphrodite hiding beneath the columns. The Bohemian arch centered this gorgeous elopement ceremony while swans dipped in the pond behind.