MINNEAPOLIS -- Five Saturday weddings featured something old, something new, something borrowed and something red. Make that something “read,” since the weddings happened at Minneapolis Central Library.

The weddings took place in 15-minute intervals in Pohlad Hall, with receptions in a nearby meeting room. Each couple were allotted 25 guests for their wedding, along with an officiant, music by cornet player Philip Potyondy and accordionist Andy McCormick, cupcakes, gift bags and a dance with discs spun by the library’s Vinyl Revival team.

Romance and libraries. You might say it’s a pairing that is overdue.

“Ever since I was little, I’ve loved going to the library, so it’s a treat and an honor to be married here,” said Pearl Kristina Faldet, who married Gabriel Copland Smith in the first of five ceremonies April 25, the last day of National Library Week.

Faldet encountered what Hennepin County Library calls “Love at the Library” on the HCLIB website when she was looking for new titles to add to her request list.

“Gabe and I were engaged already so I said, ‘What do you think?’”

Faldet and Smith have been reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s “Earthsea” series together.

Books also united Jane Christine Miller and Zachary Scott Kies, who read the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy together, both listing “Return of the King” as their all-time favorite book.

It was their affection for reading that drew them to “Love at the Library,” which they heard about the first time it happened at Minneapolis Central Library last year. Three couples were wed in 2025, but Miller and Kies weren’t quite ready to take the plunge then.

“The library is the public institution I think that I trust more than any,” said Kies, a library volunteer. “We thought, ‘What better place to start our relationship than in a place of learning?’”

Kies’ attendant, Michael Strand, said that’s why the library was ideal for the couple: “They planned the timing of their wedding around this. I had never even heard that library weddings were an option, but it seemed perfect for them.”

In many ways, the five weddings resembled traditional ceremonies. There were occasional gurgles from restless babies, some wedding-day jitters (six couples were included in the program, but one didn’t show), attendants charged with safeguarding rings, Hennepin County Service Center officiants saying, “By the powers vested in me by the state of Minnesota and Hennepin County, I now pronounce you married,” and even a few tears. Clothing varied from informal to Faldet’s full-on wedding gown.

But guests — who included library patrons and employees, clad in black “tuxedo” T-shirts — said weddings hit a little different in the library.

“We talked about the inspiration people get from literature,” said Amy McNally, deputy director for public services at HCLIB. “There’s a lot of joy and connection people have here. And then, of course, as a public library, we provide free services for people. We are here for everyone.”

The main expense for the five couples was paying for the marriage licenses.

“Weddings are really expensive, but this is a low-cost way for people to celebrate their special day,” McNally said.

And it was a day in the library with no shushing, at least in the wedding and reception areas. Library employee P.J. Maracle, who was the dance floor DJ, said 95% of the music came from HCLIB’s collection, with a few supplements from his personal stash. Each couple provided song lists, beginning with a Dolly Parton number for Faldet and Smith and including classic reception bangers such as “Let’s Get It On” and “Love Shack.”

“We’re really trying to give them the vibe the couples asked for,” Maracle said.

While swaying to the music, Strand said he particularly liked the arch made of books that couples were married in front of. McNally said it and other decorations, including paper roses folded from the pages of discarded books, were created by the library’s craft club. (Not many love stories were bound together in the book arch, although “The Sack of Panama” and Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” were.)

Seated onstage next to the arch, the musicians may have had the best view of the ceremonies.

“People coming together. It’s always interesting,” said Potyondy, the cornet player, who also performed with McCormick at “Love at the Library” last year. “We get to see them all, the couples and all of their people’s faces, too. It’s a treat.”

Probably the main difference between the library weddings and those that were happening throughout the Twin Cities on the same day was the brevity of the Minneapolis Central Library ceremonies. With 15 minutes per wedding, the couples and their guests moved briskly to make sure the next affair could start on time.

Smith, after his three-minute ceremony, said: “Maybe that’s how they should all go.”

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