When Ben Rutz proposed to Caele Pemberton -- both of whom are avid library supporters -- KHCPL Director of Marketing Lisa Fipps had a proposal of her own: She asked them if they'd like to get married at the library. Fipps remembers their response. "They said, 'Are you serious? We can do that?!' And I said, 'Of course. We'll make it happen.' KHCPL works to find ways to say yes. And what better way to showcase people's love for the library and one another -- and further show the community that libraries are far more than warehouses for books -- than to host a wedding?"

The library has three locations, but KHCPL South was the best fit, since it's all on one floor and has the most open space. We took Ben, a local DJ, and Caele, a local former journalist, on a tour, showing them they could walk down the aisle between the rows of computers for public use to the quasi-altar, aka the reference desk, which happens to be just a few feet from our romance collection. They could use study rooms and the small meeting room for the wedding party to get ready. They could use the two large meeting rooms for the reception of their Halloween night wedding. "It was like the perfect romance novel. Two people fall in love. They plan a wedding. But then there was a plot twist: COVID," Fipps said. "So they had to scale down the invite list and add a Zoom option for people to watch from home. But, in the end, as with all good romance novels, love prevailed," Fipps said. "The photos tell such a beautiful story of a happy couple outside the library, of them saying their vows at the reference desk, and of them reading books in the stacks. It's one of the best chapters in the book about KHCPL."

Photo Credits, Franklin Focus.