Two people in full-body inflatable dinosaur costumes showed up at San Francisco City Hall this week dressed for a wedding, complete with a long white veil and a pink and white bouquet. They appeared to have just gotten married, then waited to take photos on the Grand Staircase. The moment, caught on video by a visitor who happened to be touring the building, has since circulated on social media, leaving onlookers somewhere between delighted and deeply confused.
The newlyweds, as far as anyone watching could tell, seemed to be in on the joke, according to a social media video cited by KRON4. The dinosaur-costumed couple wore traditional wedding attire over their inflatable dinosaur costumes and waited their turn to take photos on the staircase just like any other pair of newlyweds that day. The station reports the video was recorded by a visitor named Rio de León, who said spotting the couple was a complete shock.
De León told the station the dinosaurs were waiting to take wedding photos on the Grand Staircase when the encounter happened, and that dinosaurs had always been a favorite of his growing up. He said he had come to City Hall specifically after hearing about its architecture, only to stumble into one of the more bizarre weddings the building has likely seen.
Why City Hall Draws Scenes Like This
San Francisco City Hall is built for exactly this kind of unplanned spectacle. The building operates as a fully open public facility during regular weekday business hours, according to SF.gov, meaning tourists, municipal workers, and casual visitors can freely walk through public corridors and watch Grand Staircase photo sessions unfold alongside ordinary government business. That open-door policy is precisely how someone like de León ended up witnessing the dinosaur duo in the first place.
The dome above all that foot traffic is part of the draw too. City Hall’s Beaux-Arts dome rises 307 feet above Civic Center, making it taller than the U.S. Capitol dome in Washington, D.C., per Ask Me SF. That architectural pedigree, paired with the building’s open layout, has made the Grand Staircase a magnet for photographers, tourists, and now, apparently, costumed reptiles.
What It Actually Takes to Get Married There
Behind the spectacle is a fairly straightforward bureaucratic process. Under 2026 San Francisco County Clerk regulations, couples pay $129 for a California marriage license and $113 for a standard civil ceremony, a relatively modest $242 total for a wedding inside one of the city’s most photographed buildings. Public civil ceremonies are also available at City Hall.
The couple’s identities remain unconfirmed.
Whatever route they took, the ceremony itself would have been brief. Public civil ceremonies at City Hall are typically 5-to-10-minute proceedings officiated by volunteer deputy marriage commissioners or assigned municipal officials, per the Red Eye Collection, with couples required to present a valid California marriage license beforehand since walk-in ceremonies aren’t permitted. That quick formality is usually just a prelude to the real main event: an extended photo session on the staircase, dinosaur costumes optional.
A Building With a History of Unconventional Vows
City Hall’s fondness for offbeat or landmark weddings didn’t start with two inflatable raptors. The building hosted one of the most famous civil ceremonies in American history on January 14, 1954, when baseball star Joe DiMaggio married Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe in Judge Charles S. Peery’s chambers, an event that reportedly drew more than 100 press members and fans crowding the hallways outside, according to KQED.
A March 16 Hoodline report said Bayview chef Dontaye Ball of Gumbo Social planned to reopen Café Mélange beneath the marble staircase the following Thursday; city officials and staff frequent the café, and wedding photos are taken nearby.
Part of a Bigger Costume Trend
An Unusual Wedding-Day Sight The dinosaurs made for an unusual wedding-day sight at City Hall.
The couple’s identities remain unconfirmed. For now, the video stands as one more entry in City Hall’s catalog of weddings, alongside the famous DiMaggio-Monroe ceremony and, as of this week, two very committed dinosaurs.
