After their beautiful ceremony at the historic Carclew house in North Adelaide, Vivian and Rohan held their wedding reception at the magnificent Mortlock library. This place is one of those locations that wedding photographers such as myself dream of shooting at, as the Mortlock Library provides sumptuous backdrops for some really intricate looking wedding photographs. It’s just a stunning space to visit and work in.

While commonly known as the Mortlock library as a wedding venue title, the building is actually now only a wing of the overall State library. The building now known as the Mortlock Wing was opened on 18 December 1884 as a Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery for the colony of South Australia with 23,000 books and a staff of three. In modern times, the Mortlock wing has been sandwiched between more modern additions to the state library and state museum, but the old French Renaissance design of the building is still freely visible and celebrated. The Mortlock library as a wedding venue actually boasts two separate locations to hold wedding celebrations. In Vivian and Rohan’s case we were heading to the larger, and grander of the two galleries which had been set up as a grand dining hall, complete with the marvellous two tiered book shelves lined with thousands of books all propped up on huge masonry columns. It’s really not hard at all to see why the library has been included in the world’s top 20 most beautiful libraries.

Mortlock Library Glamour photos

After arriving at the library after their wedding ceremony at Carclew house, we had a bit of time to make use of the stunning surroundings for a few glamour shots of Vivian and Rohan. The most stereotypical shot at this locations would have to be the bride and groom hanging out doing lovey dovey stuff near the Dent and Sons clock at one end. That clock by the way cost £50 in 1885, which is equivalent to $7,000 today. It’s stereotypical for a reason.. just look at those wonderful leading lines straight through the image lined with the texture of old books. It’;s an incredible sight.