About Us
We believe we have a book for every occasion, whether you're looking for something large or small, playful or corporate - and if we don't have exactly what you have in mind, we can create it!
BeGolden is a British bookbinding company founded in 2008 and based in rural Oxfordshire. We handcraft personalised photo albums and guest books using traditional bookbinding techniques, and print every cover by hand using hot foil presses and either metal printing plates or brass letterpress type. We do not use digital printing. When you run your hand over the cover of a BeGolden album or guest book, you can feel the impression of every letter.
We make books for weddings, anniversaries, new babies, milestone birthdays, condolences, retirements, family memory-keeping, and corporate occasions. All books are made to order at our Oxfordshire studio and dispatched across the UK and internationally. We have sent out over 130,000 orders since our inception. Bespoke one-off orders - including custom logos, corporate quantities, and rush jobs - are always welcome.
Handmade in the UK
All our books are made at our workshop in rural Oxfordshire using time-honoured bookbinding techniques and real craftsmanship. Every book is bound with head bands, tail bands and endpapers - all the traditional tools of the trade - before being tissue-wrapped by hand so that opening your order feels like a genuine treat.
How We Print
We hot foil print every cover by hand using old Marshall print presses and either metal printing plates or tiny brass letterpress type. We deliberately avoid the ease of digital printing because hot foil press gives a higher precision finish - crisper, more tactile, and built to last.
Our Materials
We use three cover materials across our range:
Recycled leather is our most popular. It carries the traditional idea of how a photo album should feel - bound in leather, printed in gold - but the recycled nature of the material and our contemporary fonts give the finished result a modern edge.
Linen bookcloth is natural, organic and highly tactile. Our colours in this range are muted and soft, giving albums and guest books a timeless elegance. The distinctive weave of the linen makes these books particularly satisfying to hold.
Jewel bookcloth is our most premium offering - slightly iridescent, with a remarkable pigmentation and depth of colour that is sumptuous to stroke and compelling to look at. We pair this material with a wide range of fonts to keep the range fresh and exciting.
The People Behind BeGolden
BeGolden is a family business. It was founded by Bobby Adams, who has run it for fifteen years alongside her sister Claire. Anna manages the printing team, and Bobby's three grown-up children - Minnie, Mac, and Lola - do everything from running the social media accounts to mending the machines, from modelling the products to collecting books from the bookbindery.
It's an all-hands-on-deck kind of place, and everyone genuinely loves coming to work. The workshop is full of colour, texture, paint, cloth and leather, and Radio 4 is constantly on. It's a very stimulating place to be.
Bobby came to bookbinding having spent her career agency-side, which means she understands the importance of superb customer service, meeting expectations, and timely delivery - and why she personally answers every email (unless it's offering free SEO, cosmetic surgery, or a chance to win £5,000).
Biggest achievement: Keeping her tortoise alive for 43 years
Biggest ambition: To get BeGolden into Liberty London
Biggest mistake: Paying an Italian supplier €57,000 rather than €5,700 (luckily, it was refunded!)
What Our Customers Say
BeGolden has received over 160 verified customer reviews and over 1,000 reviews on Etsy. Customers consistently describe our books as heirloom-quality, noting the feel of the hot foil lettering, the quality of the binding and the care taken in packaging and dispatch. We are proud that many customers return to order again - for new occasions, new family members, and new chapters.
Bespoke & Corporate Orders
We are always excited by our customers' ideas. We can print bespoke logos, fulfil corporate orders, work with different creative fonts, change colours and rush jobs through when needed. If you have something specific in mind, email us at hello@begolden.co.uk and we'll do our very best to help.
Featured In
BeGolden has been featured by Hitched, Not On The High Street, Etsy, The Go-To and Most Curious. Our books are also available directly through this website, with worldwide shipping available on request.
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