Wedding Blog
The idea behind a civil ceremony is that it’s personal, bare-bones, and intimate. To me, there’s something so romantic about “just doing it”. It’s like saying, “we wanted to get married, so we did.” I find it amazing how something with such traditional roots has now become unusual, but I’m not complaining! I don’t need to go with the flow.
A city hall ceremony doesn’t exactly require a multi-tabbed binder and a hired coordinator to plan. All we need is about $70 for the license, and all we want beyond that is our parents, a nice dress and handsome suit, our wedding rings, some (any) flowers, and a piece of cake afterward. But I’m still allowed to have some inspiration, right? It’s actually rather difficult to find photos of stylish civil ceremonies. Due to the roots that inspire them, I suppose they’re just not heavily photographed. It’s a court procedure, rather than a super-glamorous party. It’s still meaningful though, and the photos that I have found really reflect the happiness and personalities of the couples.
Look at these simple, happy affairs.
[Sources: top (both), bottom: left, center, right]
I can’t stop drooling over this one. Her hair, her dress, her lips, his color-coordinated tie… gah!
[Source, found via this site.]
And oh! Look at these two. Love it. So vintage, with an extremely modern edge.
[source]
I’m sure you’ll recognize one of these…
[sources: left, right- the story surrounding this one is quite interesting.]
I’ve saved my personal favorites for last. Look at the bride on the left’s coat and shoes! The simplistic style of the couple on the right! I’m so full of love for these weddings.
Are you starting to see how I was hooked by city hall? Would you consider a civil ceremony for your own wedding?
*Note: I had to crop some of the above photos to make them fit in my collage. Visit each source page to see their original as well as other awesome shots from each event.
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Share this post: Civil Inspirations
Oooo, I love the flowers in the first inspiration photos — these are all so different and obviously special in their own way!
Oh wow, just read up on the interesting photo story above — love the angle the photographer captured!
@Miss Rye Bread - yeah me too! A commenter on another post told me that it’s a $6000 Christian Dior. Doh!
but… it was vintage $6,000 Dior? 
you’re absolutely right about the romance of a “let’s do this” attitude. it’s probably also loads easier to truly make it your own when you don’t have the entire female portion of your family breathing down your neck about every decision!
Have you seen this City Hall marriage? It is gorgeous and the bride is so pretty.
http://www.annhamiltonblog.com/index.cfm?q=Anna+%2B+Seth+%28part+I%29+&x=8&y=15
I totally would! I actually suggested it once, Mr. Gloss shot me down - but I didn’t put up too much of a fight 
Wha’?! What happened to Carrie’s outfit being a simple ‘no label’ dress?
Love the simplicity and independence of City Hall weddings. And they do seem vintage to me as well - I just think of Paul/Linda McCartney’s and Mick/Biance Jagger’s weddings .
@lou - I dunno; not a huge SATC buff - it’s just what someone said in a comment: that carrie’s “no label” dress was actually a $6k Dior. Maybe Google holds the truth?
@Cacey - OMG, I had not seen that one. Beautiful! Thanks.
I love that yellow dress! I love the simplicity of a city hall wedding… if I wasn’t half way through planning ours, I would definately consider it!
I agree…I think civil unions are a little romantic…it’s all about the couple
I am in love with the yellow dress wedding. They both look so happy, plus the groom is adorable. If I were going to do a city hall wedding that’s the way I’d do it.
That bottom right photo of the unsmiling couple has such excellent, amazing composition. That is a beautiful picture. Look at the way it says “to an exit” next to her head…is it an exit to the wedding?
I love these pictures you included!
I have a question about your statement at the beginning though. How does a civil ceremony have traditional roots? I was pretty sure that religious ceremonies are the most traditional ways to go about getting married.
I often find myself wondering why we didn’t just do City Hall. If only I could call rewind. Can’t wait to see your pics!!
I considered doing City Hall. My city has a beautiful city hall! Alas, they perform marriages in the courthouse. Big, foreboding, industrial looking, and with the tone of people making judgments and waiting for freedom or sentences. Not a place for my wedding! Love your inspiration, although that last couple doesn’t look too happy.
I too love the vintage romantic feel of city hall weddings. Especially when you’re lucky enough to have the beautiful historic city hall buildings, there’s so much charm and history there already!
Ever since your post on the brown suit (which is a great idea) I couldn’t help looking for something vintage and sassy for you to wear. While I agree the traditional wedding dress wouldn’t fit in your “vision”, (pardon me for saying this) I think your suit is also a little too blah and makes you look older than you are. While you dont want a wedding dress, you still want to look and feel good on one of the most important days of your life, yes?
I did a little searching and wanted to share some of the options I found:
http://www.unique-vintage.com/queen-heartz-style-seafoam-green-dress-xs3x-p-1880.html
http://www.unique-vintage.com/ivory-embroidered-short-antique-style-wedding-dress-p-2723.html
yellow dress is adorable!! you are making me think twice about the “production” of a wedding..!!!
The whole look and feel of a city hall wedding can be so incredibly stylish! I’m really excited to see yours!!!
@Cara - you’re right, a religious ceremony is traditional also - I definitely agree I didn’t do any research on this post, but in my head I always think about how so many people’s grandparents and great grandparents did the city-hall thing, and to me, that says “traditional”.
@mary-alice-me - the groom in the last picture assured the readers of his blog that the photog did take photos of them smiling, too! I think they were going for an artsy/serious tone with the photo I posted here.
I really appreciate hearing from someone who just go down to brass tax and is getting hitched. I loved Mrs. Pineapple’s wedding-in-a-week for the same reason. It’s so adult, so romantic and with your family’s tradition– beautifully sentimental.
There was a San Francisco City Hall wedding on IndieBride a couple of years ago that I fell in love with - the couple only invited the professional photographer and the pictures were so beautiful. Mostly black and white, if I remember correctly - retro short wedding dress, birdcage veil. Sadly the links aren’t working on IndieBride anymore 
it is really inspiring when you put all the nicely executed city hall ceremonies together love it!
Wow. Wow.
I have been thinking for the longest time on how to do the ceremony without having to do a big production of things. The cheapest easiest solution I found was to get married on the beach through this place that I found and it was going to run us $1k which I thought was fairly decent but still just not thrilled about the idea. Then I saw this post and I had never ever even though of going down to the court house. I honestly think this is just great and I’m totally inspired. Thank you so much for making this post.
These weddings seem so chic. I just love this collection of pictures.
I get to do both! We’re having a City Hall wedding in a month, and then a Catholic wedding in Italy in December. This is one of the perks of marrying internationally! (The bad side? All of the green card paperwork to do between the two ceremonies. Also, referring to one wedding as the “fake” wedding and the other as the “real” one.)
I definitely see your point - love the photos of the couple with the bride in yellow!
I actually have no choice in the matter - in France you cannot be legally wed in a church. Everyone has to go to city hall first. So we’ll do that part on Friday since the church ceremony is pretty important to me and I want to wear my dress for the first time there. Maybe I’ll take a cue from your inspiration board and find a pretty yellow dress for city hall!
Totally loving the inspirations! They are all sooo romantic. I am sooo glad we finally have a civil ceremony bride on the bee. I totally love your ideas already!
I could never do the civil ceremony because my dream was always of a church wedding, but how special for you! All the best! <3
this is also a couple that got married in a nyc courthouse. i love the simplicity of it. i think they had an intimate lunch afterwards to celebrate…imo it’s short & sweet and you still get to share the day with your loved ones
http://wedding.knsaber.com/gallery?view=wedding&album=10569#0
I love the pics you included in this post. It shows that City Hall weddings can be just as fabulous, chic, and classy as their larger counterparts.
I only just read the first two lines of your post and had to comment. That is exactly what my husband and I did. We just went to the courthouse and got married. No fuss, no build-up, no stress, no change. One hour we were not married, the next hour we were. End of story. It was fabulous. Honestly, its even more special because there were no distractions, no worries. Just us. We could focus on every word, look each other in the eye and afford to buy a house the same year!
My husband and I almost got married legally before our December church wedding because of military issues. If we had done the legal ceremony, I wanted to hire a photographer and wear a white/cream suit, making it a little bit special. I just think there is something so romantic and nostalgic about civil ceremonies. However we ended up not needing to do that, but I still dream of how that day might have ended up! I can’t wait to see more of your wedding!
There was a really beautiful City Hall wedding from a user at Pricescope - http://tinyurl.com/cityhallwedding - their pro-pictures (to me) make it worthwhile spending some money that you could definitely otherwise use on concrete items - to create a concrete memorial of your day. I’m sure other readers have commented teh same, but I think that money you spend to record your wedding day, or an engagement photo shoot, will be worth the money despite that money being useful in other areas of your life because this time passes quickly. Memories fade, and your recollection of this time and that day will fade over time too. Photos will keep that moment in time and allow you to return there anytime you want. You can buy a dining room set anytime but you only have one chance to get professional photos of your wedding day. Good Luck and I love having a bee with such a unique perspective!
@Miss Bruschetta: I read the story too, interesting
I LOVE the flowers the Bride in the first pictures is holding.
And that yellow dress is gorgeous!
@everyone who sent more links - COOL, I had not seen those weddings and I’m totally even more inspired now.
@Jeffreysgirl4ever: you said it pretty much PERFECT. That’s exactly what we want.
@missrachelk - You and others who have commented about the photography have excellent points and I hope I can address them for you guys soon!
Awh, how lovely. I subscribe to this blog on google reader and there are only a few entries that I bother to open in a new window and comment on. And about half of the time they turn out to be our entries!
I love these pictures, and I’m so excited to follow your story! Have you deicded which city you’ll be marrying in yet? Will you post some pics of the building?
@Cara: @Miss Mary Jane: I think this varies a lot by culture…..no one in my family(or anyone that I know for that matter) has ever had a courthouse wedding, so for me it seems very untraditional.
@thebackyardbride: Haven’t entirely decided yet, but I hope we will soon and when we do, I’ll let y’all know!
@neko: Good point! I bet there are dozens of types of weddings that could be considered “traditional” or “non traditional” in one way or another. Everyone’s definition is going to be different based on their background and their culture.
I’m so glad you posted this! My fiance and I are planning on a civil court ceremony and I wasn’t sure how to dress for it. I’m still undecided, but now I’m sure that I can get all dolled up!
@Ana - you bet you can! Where whatever you want, woman!! Did you check out the links some of the commenters posted above? They have even more great inspirations.
haha yes Ms Mary Jane and other commenters, i was on an entertainment site and read that Carrie Bradshaw’s “no brand” dress was a Christian Dior suit ($6,000) and that Vivienne Westwood dress was $24,000. gaaack.
oh that is so my type of wedding….simple and elegant but i loved my huge wedding of 300 guests also, they were all the Mr.’s friend and family, it was like their family reunion also. My wedding day was one of the happiest days of my life.
I didn’t need any convincing on why you’re getting into the courthouse wedding! You better stop blogging before you convince everyone to do the city hall thing! Who knew they could be so chic, romantic, and just plain charming?!
These are so chic!
By the way, I notice you wrote “simplistic,” which is often conflated with “simple.” “Simplistic” means “overly simple,” which to my mind has negative connotations. Just sayin’.
fantastic. I like the simplicity and sterile environment of city hall with the contrast of splashes of color.
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Mrs. Mary Jane, Grand Forks, ND
Age and Occupation: 26, Instructional Designer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 26, Lead Programmer
Engagement Date: February 28, 2009
Wedding Date: September 2009
Venue: City Hall
About Me: I'm a career woman on the surface and a homemaker at heart. I love fast cars and high heels, and my favorite food is cake. Mr. Mary Jane and I are both full-time employees and students, and we just bought our first house. We love to curl up on the couch with buttery popcorn, Sour Patch Kids, and the latest Netflix arrival -- whenever we can get a break from everyday life.
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