Perks of Planning your Wedding at the Bodleian Library
Welcome back to the Bodleian Wedding Blog!
So, it’s been a long time coming, but the Bodleian Weddings team are now back in plan, plan, planning mode! That’s right – weddings are back on – they’re happening and we’re ready.
This blog post highlights the perks of planning your wedding at the Bodleian and how the wedding team remain on-hand throughout the process to help the nitty gritty feel easy breezy.
Tell me more about the planning process…
Perk number one for booking your wedding at the Bodleian is our flexibility. We are hugely aware that wedding planning does not fit into the standard 9 – 5 working pattern. Yes, you might spend your morning commute adding to your Pinterest board, or quickly checking the DJ’s set list in your lunchbreak, but sitting down and working out the logistics can take a little bit more time. At the moment, the majority of our details meetings take place on Zoom or over the phone, but in Pandemic free times, we usually invite you into the venue for a full walkthrough.
The details meeting
This meeting is typically arranged up to three months before your wedding at the Bodleian. During this meeting, we cover the following topics…
- Guest numbers/seating plan (if you are having one)
- Bridal party arrangements – how many bridesmaids/flower girls will be present on the day
- Seating – will you be standing or sitting during the ceremony?
- Signage – will you require easels?
- Gift table – where will you want this to be placed?
- Florals – What do you have in mind?
- Key timings – talking through each moment on the day – from arrival to departure
- Who is your florist, musician, photographer?
- Admin – Wedding insurance, Oxford Registry Office and general housekeeping
- Toilets – where to go when you need to go!
Familiarising yourself with the venue…
Visiting your wedding venue for the first time can often lead to sensory overload. There’s so many things to consider, and the excitement of it all can understandably make it challenging to absorb all the important bits. This is why the weddings team will always encourage you to come back 2-3 months ahead of the big day and re-familiarise yourselves with the spaces. The same applies to your suppliers. If you’ve opted to choose a band or florist who hasn’t been to the Old Bod before, then we also encourage them to do a recce prior to the big day.
Another perk to re-viewing the venue is that it will give you peace of mind. Our top tip is always to remind yourselves about the following:
-Entrances/exits
-Toilets
-Timings
We’ll be there for you!
A final perk to planning your wedding at the Bodleian is the added advantage that one of us will be there on the day. Seeing a familiar face on one of the biggest days of your life can only be a good thing right? We want to make you feel as relaxed about the day as possible.
How will we help?
We will be on-hand to meet and greet you, all of your guests and suppliers. At this point, the reins are handed over to us and the caterers, and there’s nothing logistical that you will need to do or worry about on the day.
Other duties have included escorting brides for very last minute toilet trips, providing tissues to the father of the bride before the ceremony doors open, re-fluffing LOTS of dress material, and teaching 3 y/o flower people how to walk down the aisle… slowly…
Until next time…
As you will definitely know by now, wedding planning has many different elements to consider. For this reason some couples opt for wedding planners to help ease the load. But as a team, we like to think that we’ve got you covered for all of the venue related logistics. So, we hope this has perked you up about planning your wedding at the Bodleian!
Website: visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/venue-hire/weddings
Contact us!
Photo credits (by order of appearance)
–MT Studio
–Weddings by Nicola and Glen
–Zaki Charles Photography
–byLumiere
–Barker Evans Photography
