The inspiration for Meg and Chad’s San Francisco elopement is unlucky for some – the number 13! “It’s both our favourite numbers,” said Meg, “and we originally had a wedding planned for January 13th, 2019 and were going to San Francisco for the holidays. We were planning our trip out for sight-seeing and things to do, and we look at each other and half joked about how cool it would be to get married in San Francisco! We had said though that we would only do it if we could still have 13 in our anniversary. I logged into the City Hall website, and the only date available for when we were in San Fran was October 30th – 10/30 = 13!”
And so their spontaneous San Francisco elopement was booked! “It’s lucky I had to look up the available dates,” said Meg, “as I had no idea you had to book a City Hall appointment to register separately from the wedding nor that you had to do so far in advance – we’d originally just planned to rock up!”
The logistics out of the way, the couple set about making the day solely about them. They planned no pomp or ceremony; instead both wearing outfits they felt most comfortable in from Nordstrom and both donning Converse to run around the city in. They did focus a lot of their budget on some baller custom rings; Megs, from Troy Shoppe Jewellers in Calgary and Chad’s from NightRider Jewellery in Arizona.
Their ceremony, inside City Hall, was just them, their officiant and their photographer, Zoe. It was held in the Rotunda and they were amazed that there was hardly any people in City Hall that day – it’s normally packed! “The best part was when the officiant asked me to give my husband his ring, which is a giant skull ring, and she exclaimed “WHOA!” and stopped the ceremony to look at it as she’d never seen such a neat ring!” They then toured round San Francisco with their photographer getting photos at all their favourite locations.
Their biggest expense was their hotel; they splurged and spent a week in the Hotel Omni, and which floor did they end up placed on? Floor 13, of course! “You couldn’t make it up,” said Meg, “I didn’t even know they had 13th floors in hotels these days!”
“It was amazing that we had all the stars align for all things 13 without forcing it for our wedding day,” said Meg. “It was a dream to plan our elopement. We’d highly recommend eloping in San Francisco; if you do, be sure to contact Zoe as her local knowledge made it so much easier for us international folks – she found us all the best photo ops!”
