I’m always up for meeting with an Oxford wedding venue and so when the girls from The Bodleian Library called for a coffee I jumped at the chance. We chatted a lot about weddings at The Bodleian Library, and to my surprise, they are a lot less conventional than I first expected.
Famous for being featured in Harry Potter, The Golden Compass and The Favourite, The Bodlian Library sits smack bang in the centre of Oxford City and is surrounded by some of Oxford’s most ancient and iconic buildings. It’s rather grand one would say, and that’s why I was so surprised to learn, from chatting to Kate, Hannah and Megan, it’s so much more of an alternative wedding venue than I first realised.
I’ve shot a handful of weddings at The Bodleian, and they’ve all been with very relaxed couples, all of who have a connection with Oxford. Each couple loved the idea of a traditional church wedding, but neither were religious and getting married in this fantastic historical building, seemed to replaced the idea of a church ceremony. See: A BODLEIAN LIBRARY WEDDING and A BODLEIAN WEDDIN CEREMONY and see how cool getting married in a court room looks like!
The lovely ladies who run all the events at The Bodleian; Kate, Hannah, and Megan, shared some wonderful stories of weddings they’ve hosted here. One being a Sweedish-Indian fusion, with a super zen couple and hundreds of rugs and cushions outside, so guests could chill-out while a sitar played in the background. Another couple got married here and had their wedding rings tattooed onto their fingers during the ceremony – I mean how cool is that!
The weddings they’ve hosted range from crazy Harry Potter themed, to dreamy rustic outdoor ceremonies… there is no norm it seems, although they do say that the only one thing that connects all their clients is that most of them have some attachment to the city itself. Be it the couple met here, studied here, got engaged here, live here, were brought up here… but there seems to be a real passion from the couple to get married in this epic building.
The old feel of the building gives it that sense of formality, but these ladies tell me anything goes. There are a few restrictions due to it being a public space, but apart from that you really can do anything you want, they want to to see it as a blank canvas and in fact they encourage you do ditch the traditional and get creative. So there we have it, the bodliean library – officially an alternative Oxford wedding venue!
If you want to take a peek and chat to the ladies, they have a showcase on 9th November from 7-9pm, I sadly can’t make it, but it’ll be well worth a peek. It’s free, but if you want a free goodie bag sign up here: BODLEIAN LIBARY WEDDING SHOWCASE You can also click here to download their brochure which has more details about price etc: BODLEIAN LIBRARY BROCHURE
If you are still on the hunt for your perfect Oxford wedding venue check out this blog post: 12 OXFORD WEDDING VENUES IN THE CITY