5 Essential Tips for Eloping at the Santa Barbara Courthouse (1-Hour Appointment)
Sometimes it can be difficult to understand how eloping at the Santa Barbara Courthouse works. As Santa Barbara Courthouse Elopement Photographers, here are 5 tips before Your 1-Hour Santa Barbara Courthouse Elopement :
When to arrive: show up 10 min before your appointment slot to ensure you have enough time to park and walk over.
The Santa Barbara Courthouse is a tourist destination as well as a wedding venue. It can get busy, especially in the summer and fall. Be sure to give yourself enough time in case you run into parking issues or traffic.
When to arrive: show up 10 min before your appointment slot to ensure you have enough time to park and walk over.
The Santa Barbara Courthouse is a tourist destination as well as a wedding venue. It can get busy, especially in the summer and fall. Be sure to give yourself enough time in case you run into parking issues or traffic.
2. Where to park: there are many parking structures surrounding the courthouse, the one by the public library is the closest. Each one of these structures allows you to have the 1st 75 min free and is $3 per hour after that.
Be careful parking on the street! MANY spots are 75 min or less. The police station is just a few blocks away from the courthouse and you will get a $50 fine if you are park in a 75 min spot for too long.
3.Where to meet your photographer: You and your photographer should decide on a meeting place in advance but many of us choose to meet our clients under the main arch of the courthouse because it is the most prominent structure and hard to miss!
4. Where does your appointment start?: The hall of records is where your 1 hour appointment will start. You will go in there, see a court clerk at a desk, and let them know you have booked a 1 hour appointment. They will get you seated and started on signing some paperwork (this is where you get your named changed if you'd like and go over all official documents)
NOTE: Only bring 1-2 witnesses with you to the hall of records. The rest of your friends and family will stay outside of the hall of records awaiting your ceremony on the courthouse grounds.
Do NOT forget your ID's as well as the ID of the person(s) you would like to be your witness
4. Where does the ceremony happen?: There are 2 places the ceremonies take place: upstairs in a hallway or outside overlooking the courthouse. My favorite and what I recommend is the outside looking over the courthouse. That way you get more angles and have more space
After your ceremony your photos will continue. You can go inside and outside the courthouse to get all the romantic images you'd like. (NOTE: they do close the doors to the courthouse around 4:20pm so that they can ensure everyone is outside by 5pm. If you are doing a 3:00pm appointment be aware of this and try to begin your romantics inside the courthouse)
Hope this helps all you who are looking at getting married at the Santa Barbara Courthouse. There are many different ways to elope at the Santa Barbara Courthouse, this is just one way. Hope it was helpful!
Cheers!
Your Local SB Photographers,
Sofia & Blaze
