Project Love Story: Weddings at the Library
San Francisco Public Library
Innovation Synopsis
To celebrate the San Francisco Main Library’s 30th anniversary month, the library decided to capture our community’s much expressed “love” for the library by allowing couples, for the first time ever, to exchange their vows inside the library. The innovation was launched under a crafty anniversary-themed slogan: “make our anniversary your anniversary,” to allow for special celebrations of the building’s birthday that went hand in hand with library fans’ desire to wed inside the majestic Main Library. San Francisco Public Library does not have a room policy or event venue system that allows for couples to be married within the building. But recognizing the many requests the library has received over the years, SFPL opted to allow them on a limited basis in celebration of the building’s 30th birthday.
Challenge/Opportunity
At 30 years old, the Main Library celebrated its share of birthdays over the years, generally reflecting back on the remarkable effort it took to build and open the “new Main” in 1996 and highlighting the remarkable opening day that featured dignitaries, storybook characters, local icon Robin Williams, a key delivered by a skydiver and aerial dancers performing off the building’s façade. This year, for its momentous 30th, the library leaned into its anniversary and thought about how the public viewed and celebrated anniversaries. That nugget of an idea led to wanting to celebrate the love that the San Francisco community feels for the library system. Thus, the decision to undertake an untried anniversary innovation: allowing couples to be part of the building’s history by becoming the first to be married inside the building. Using the anniversary theme and a new idea for community engagement brought tremendous positive attention, media coverage and awareness to the library.
Key Elements of Innovation
Partnering with the Office of the County Clerk, SFPL got a crash course in the procedures for civil wedding ceremonies including:
• How to perform weddings. The library riffed on the city’s official vows while adding a few new ones about the sanctity of library accounts and promising to help return each other’s books on time.
• Swearing in the City Librarian, the city’s Poet and Drag laureates and other library leaders as Deputy Marriage Commissioners.
• The intricacies of filling out official marriage certificates that were mistake-free.
• Helping the selected couples obtain their San Francisco marriage licenses in advance.
Concerned about demand, the library used an anonymous raffle system to select a dozen couples to be wed over two celebratory mornings. Each wedding party, which included a dozen guests and photographers, was assigned library staff teams that shepherd them to planned photo spots, ensured paperwork was precise, and created beautiful ceremonies for the couples.
Achieved Outcomes
The library received exceptional media coverage and library awareness when the wedding plan was announced. Ultimately, the library had more than 40 entries for its dozen wedding slots when it closed the interest form. The wedding days themselves brought more media attention with TV, radio and print news covering the April weddings. Combined media hit 1 million online views and social media reached 53K views from news coverage. It was an internal success too, with Main Library staff from all departments excited to assist on the scheduled days, becoming an internal “Project Love Story” team, to make sure each wedding or vow renewal was as magical as possible. The cataloging team that assisted with paperwork ensured that not a single marriage license was rejected for errors. The library is planning to make this an annual anniversary event as the initiative proved so beloved. Quotes:
- “Thank you all for being part of our story,” Sonya & MK.
- “Truly a dream come true,” Kat & Michael.
Supporting Materials:
- YouTube Short: @KQEDnews Couples Get Married at the San Francisco Public Library
