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Selfridges Turns Full-Service Wedding Venue

I DO: Selfridges is committed to bringing back joy — and rethinking what retail means in a post-lockdown world.

After introducing its ambitious Project Earth initiative and pledging to “change the way we shop,” debuting a dedicated rental platform last week and an outdoor Soul Cycle studio, it will now begin to operate as a legal full-service wedding venue for couples looking for “a nontraditional ceremony.”

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The venture into wedding planning and hosting came as the answer to the growing trend for alternative and smaller-scale wedding celebrations, after the COVID-19 outbreak halted the wedding plans of more than 150,000 couples in the U.K. last year — which makes finding a wedding venue in 2021 extra challenging.

Selfridges thought its historic Oxford Street building could offer an apt solution, so the retailer has obtained a wedding license that will allow ceremonies to be hosted in its flagship for a limited time this year.

It will offer couples three wedding packages including Just the Two of Us, which allows for a small ceremony of up to four guests; Earth Lovers, which will give couples access to the Selfridges team’s sustainability expertise to ensure their ceremony is done in the least wasteful way possible, and All-Out Extraordinary, where couples can have a party of 20, be officiated by drag icon Jonny Woo and pick a Selfridges in-house DJ for the after party.

Ceremonies will take place in the retailer’s new Wedding Suite on the fourth floor, which will be decorated according to couples’ chosen packages, and parties will continue at its restaurant, the Brasserie of Ligh.

To mark the occasion, there will also be a wedding takeover in Selfridges’ ever-evolving Corner Shop, with a selection of vintage men’s and women’s wear for both the guests and those getting married.

“We’re driven by making our customers’ world brighter through unforgettable experiences,” said Rebecca Warburton, Selfridges’ director of events and customer experiences.

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