The Palace of Fine Arts & Hotel Majestic Wedding

Originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific exhibition, the Palace of Fine Arts is now available for corporate & private events, conferences and galas. The Hotel Majestic

is San Francisco’s longest operating hotel, but it was originally built in 1902 as a private residence by the Schmitt Family. It was only the family’s home for two years, however, before Milton Schmitt, a California government representative, decided it was time to move on, at which point it was transformed into a hotel. The only problem is that Milton’s daughter, Lisa, wasn’t so keen to move and, in fact, refused to do so even after the building was sold. Perhaps that is why she returned to her bedroom, room 407, after her death.

If you stay on the fourth floor, at night you’ll likely hear the sounds of people walking up and down the hallways while jangling keys. And beware of the bathtub in Lisa’s room, which is known to fill up with water even when no one is around to turn it on. Other guests have said they have vivid nightmares when they stay at the hotel, and one was awakened from what she thought was an earthquake. However, she was the only one who felt it. Today, there is a portrait of Lisa hanging on the walls in the lobby as a gesture of good will that she is welcome to stay, as long as she keeps her antics to a minimum.

Lets just say I was very excited and I was already familiar with both places. Living in North Beach I planned not to use my car but take a Lyft to the Hotel majestic to meet the Bride and Groom. The bride had hired me through a company named Eivans

She did not have any bridesmaids, so that left me a little time to pig out ( getting

creative) with my detail shots, especially the rings.

The bride was beautiful and had a cute little son. They both did not live in San Francisco, but had obviously done their research with their locations. we were lucky because the days before had been rainy and it was a beautiful warm day. Knowing the ceremony would be around 5pm, I knew better and brought a warm jacket.

I went back and forward between both rooms and photographed their transformation into prince and princess.

They had planned to do a first look at a little park near Lyon st. , so I brought the blindfolded groom into the towns-car and the bride came down after and sat next to him.

I thought that was pretty cool and they were holding hands smiling all the way to the park.

After the first look we went straight to the ceremony cite. The wind had picked up and somebody had to stay by the table that held the sand for the sand pouring, so it would not got blown off.

Last pinning on of the boutonnière and off we go. I had packed light, as you can not let any gear laying around and as always set up the 70-200mm and my 24-70mm.

The light and wind comes from the wet most of the time in spring and made the hair of the bride glow and blow. I thought it actually looked quit cool.

After we found a spot where the wind was not hauling, we finished the family portraits and thanks to Michelle, who had prepared a list with all the names, we finally got to another favorite part of weddings: The wedding portraits of the married couple. Michelle had given me a couple of spots she wanted done, like the green door and the building, but there was also a great opportunity when I actually saw the hall of where they hold the concerts, behind the green door. it was open and I had never seen it pen. the hall was almost empty of people and had a great skylight where the descending sun was coming through. A almost black room, I was so excited and I urged them to go in. They were great sports and had faith in me and followed.

Michelle and Russell had not hire an band, but a Karaoke machine and as the night went on there was some wild singing.