Wedding alert! The latest stage of my planning is the flowers, cake and general state of the reception tables. I’m totally inspired by Dutch still life paintings of the seventeenth century: the lush arrangements, messy draping with fruit, and casual droopy nature (with a few dying flowers in the mix) really speaks to me. Going along with our Odd Fellows theme, I’m having a ceramicist make a contemporary version of the hand and conjoined links seen above as wedding topper of some sort. (Are you a ceramicist? Could you make that? If so, talk to me!)

My friend Jaime is making our wedding cake, and we’re scheming how to make it as Dutch-inspired as possible. Lots of flowers will be strewn, and I’m fanatically searching for the right cake stand. Gold all the way!

For the tables, lots of taper candles are key. I’m debating between using old bottles or just a ton of mismatched candlesticks, with lots of flowers as well — I’d love to have ranunculus and peonies, but I’m on a budget, so we’ll see. We’re also planning on identifying each of the tables by different secret societies, their symbols and handshakes — so, for example, the Masons, the Daughters of Rebekkah, the Amicable Society (LOVE their snake and dove iconography), etc. Lots of research going on over on Pinterest, to be sure.

Find all of the images above on my wedding inspiration board.

Now to start trying on dresses. Eep!

So! I may have mentioned that JB and I are planning a Masonic / Odd Fellows / secret society wedding. Well, one of the first pieces of the puzzle is finally complete, and we’re so excited about it.

I’ve been working with artist Justin Durand to bring our wedding crest to life. What’s a wedding crest, you say? Well, it’s the guiding iconography for our wedding — so, our invitations, the table cards…lots of things! The sky’s the limit, really. We loved Justin’s style — seriously, his work is amazing — so we knew he was the only one to do the illustration for us. The design is based on this vintage iron piece (which I missed the opportunity to buy, sadly). We replaced the traditional “FLT” — the Odd Fellows principles of Friendship, Love, Truth — with our initials for the crest, but we’ll be integrating the conjoined links and FLT into other parts of the wedding.

We’ll be framing the original and hanging it as a keepsake in the apartment. Can’t wait!

Conjoined snakes — more specifically, conjoined snake jewelry — is my latest obsession. I did a little guest post on Honey Kennedy about Victorian symbolism, snakes and my upcoming wedding. Check it out!