The Scientific Wedding

I've written a little in the past about my difficulties with incorporating our scientific selves into the wedding. When I first got engaged and began thinking about venues, I really liked the Brooklyn Botanical Garden because I thought it would work as a "scientific showcase." The trick would be to focus on the classification aspects of science - i.e. taxonomy. Bench science, as Tom can attest, is not very sexy, but the isolation and obsessiveness of certain projects can be. In fact, I even took a class in college called "Romanticism and the Sciences." The most obvious example of the romantic/sexy scientific period is the mid-nineteenth century British physicists-cum-naturalists who set out to describe the world in exquisite detail, subverting bodily needs in the process. Perhaps the best expression of this state of mind is captured in A.S. Byatt's novel (and movie) "Angels and Insects." In fact, that book was my inspiration for choosing the period of the history of science that I studied in undergrad.

As I've written, I think glass is key to make a wedding "scientific," because so much of what we do revolves around glass - making things in it, peering through it, and in my case, breaking it. I thought it would be fun at a BBG wedding to create little tablescapes or terrariums of classification and flowers in rows in glass - something more modern than the Hail, Brittania! flower arrangements the BBG space can engender. And while I may have been a bit over-excited about the Metropolitan Building last night, I believe that space can support this idea as well.

I suspect I'm not making much sense (and am probably losing my readers). Hence, the Inspiration Board above (from Snippet and Ink - she's really reading my mind these days!) and her description of the board below. I think she's hit the nail on the head, far more eloquently than I. And so the dilemma: a fun, whimsical wedding or a romantically whimsical one?

"Board #160: Chasing Butterflies

I found this photo by Rodney Smith, of the man and the boy chasing after butterflies, via Perfect Bound, and it inspired this board. What a fun idea, to have a wedding that has a bit of a butterfly theme, without being overly girly and pink, and instead is reminiscent of old scientific papers and illustrations. I imagine centerpieces under bell jars, notes from guests dropped into an old bird cage, and butterfly-shaped seating cards arranged in a shadowbox. You could even name each table after a different species' Latin name. For little guests, butterfly nets make a fun favor, perhaps with a long ribbon tied onto the handle."

PS. I'm starting to realize that this blog is perhaps too consuming (collective roll-of-the-eyes), so I'm going to try to limit my posting as I enter finals next week. Doubt I'll be missed.