A Busy Few Months!
We are over half way into Autumn now, and we have been busier than ever these past few months. September and October are usually some of our busiest months of the year, but this year has been the busiest for us so far! It’s so great that the word about The Old Library is spreading and we are attracting more events all the time. These months are unique in the fact that wedding season is still in full swing, but we also see a return of the corporate events after the summer break, so Autumn is a real mixed bag of events. September and October saw 13 corporate events, 4 weddings, 3 anniversary parties, 2 wedding parties and 2 birthday parties! Read on to learn more about some of our Autumnal event highlights:
K & C’s Wedding
On Saturday 6th September, we had our first wedding of the month and what a wedding it was! K + C had their full day with us, and made the most of our blank canvas venue to decorate exactly how they wanted to. They recruited our trusted suppliers Shiny People Events to do their epic orange and pink draping, and Carrie Newnam Scott Floral Design put together their beautiful dried floral window ledge and backdrop pieces. Speaking of their statement backdrop, this was created fully from scratch by the couples’ family – how special! Other notable décor choices included a massive gold disco ball, a mirror seating plan and real fruit on the tables.
They had a wonderful humanist celebrant ceremony by Lisa Isabella Ceremonies, and then enjoyed some canapes & drinks and tacos & sides served family style by our in-house caterers Digbeth Catering. A fabulous evening of dancing then followed with some delicious Greek evening food served in a food truck outside by Untamed Grill. This was a truly memorable wedding, all made possible by a dream team bunch of suppliers, which kicked off a fabulous few months for us.
Betrayers
On Friday 19th September, we were excited to host a very unique team building away day for the company Shoosmiths. The team at Shoosmiths wanted a team building activity with a difference, and to go along with that, they wanted an interesting venue in a quirky location – cue The Old Library! They “recruited” (if you know, you know) the events company Go To Events, to put on a Traitors themed activity afternoon for their employees. The Old Library was set-up in a different way than it ever has been before, with 12 group tables surrounding the central roundtable where the banishments took place! A “Betrayer” was chosen in each group, with each group then having to find the Betrayer in order to add to their prize pot. The group who then successfully banished the most Betrayers and had the highest prize pot were the winners.
Once the game had finished, the whole group were treated to some celebratory drinks and then some yummy tacos & sides served as a buffet by Digbeth Catering. We coordinated with our bar management team based in The Old Crown pub just next door and reserved the company a few tables in their garden to continue their away day into the evening! It was interesting to see a twist on traditional team building activities and see a TV show brought to life in our venue for the afternoon.
Uni Quest
On Friday 17th October, we were pleased to welcome Uni Quest, who had their annual company meeting and awards with us across the afternoon and evening. For all of our corporate events, we work with the wonderful AV company Paul James Promotions, and Uni Quest opted to hire a full daytime technician (as well as other AV) and an evening DJ from them, so their AV needs were in safe hands from start to finish. They arrived to a conference buffet lunch provided by Digbeth Catering and then had a productive team meeting, ending on a fun slideshow of photos from the previous year.
The Old Library and Uni Quest teams then worked hard to turn the room into an evening awards gala set-up, with their décor matching our venues gothic elegance, a sea of reds, blacks and tall candles looked lovely in our space. The guests arrived to a sparkling cocktail reception and their awards ceremony. Digbeth Catering then served up a delicious 3-course meal for everyone, with dishes including Tomato & Lentil Soup to start, Chicken Supreme for main, and Dark Chocolate Ganache for dessert. This was a great event for us, and we were pleased to have hosted such an important evening for Uni Quest.
It has been a busy, but very fun and successful few months here at The Old Library. Some other notable highlights include, a National Day of Turkey celebration, a 2-day conference including an evening dinner for the River Trust, and the appearance of a Helter Skelter in the venue for a 70th birthday party! We are open to any and all kinds of events here, just get in touch and start the conversation – we love to work with people just as passionate about their events as we are about our venue. As we look forward to another busy few months over the festive period, we invite you to follow along with us on our socials and right here on our blog!
