Prove your love at City Hall | By Mark Morford

[madokie]

All day long the couples come, one after another in endless procession, in turns nervous and delighted, terrified and numb, clumsy and ecstatic, most resplendent in rumpled tuxedoes and extravagant lace, entourages in tow and usually a photographer too, all anxiously bunching together in the small, dimly lit hallway in front of the SF county clerk’s office, waiting to be waived in so they can get their IDs checked, their paperwork stamped, their hearts authenticated.

Do you still want to go through with this? Yes. Yes, we most certainly do. Are you who you say you are? Yes, probably. Are you sure you’re ready for this? Oh my God, I hope so.

Very well then. Let’s do this thing.

They’re all getting married, of course, at SF’s magnificently, matrimonially perfect City Hall, an endless pageant lighting up the building from 9:30-3:30 every day of the week (reserve your slot right here), year in and year out. It’s a splendid and deeply gratifying sight, really, heartwarming in all sorts of unexpected ways, a kind of surreal gift to able to bear witness like this, to visit City Hall for whatever reason and be suddenly drenched in myriad shapes and enthusiasm levels of this surreal, mystifying, electric thing called love.

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/29/prove-your-love-at-city-hall/