SOLUTION

The schedule on the invitation is superimposed onto an analog clock. Between each event on the schedule, there are always 2 small groups of symbols, such as one or more stars connected by lines, or a moon. There are only ever 1, 2, 3 or 4 stars struck together, never 5 or more stars, and the moon symbol is always on its own.

TIME WILL POINT YOU IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

tells us to read in a clock-wise direction and to pay attention to the arrow that points from time V (5) to time X (10).

IF YOU AREN'T TOO STARSTRUCK TO ADAPT

tells us to focus on the stars and to notice the ones that are “struck” together and to change (“adapt”) that information.

Putting all this together, we go clock-wise around the clock, counting all the struck stars and mapping each star group to the digits 1, 2, 3, and 4 based on how many stars are struck together and mapping the moon to the digit 0 (since it has 0 struck stars). The symbols between each event results in a pair of digits, creating a two-digit number. Starting immediately following the first event, the ceremony, and wrapping all the way around the circle and back to the beginning of the event, we get the 8 numbers:

40 30 12 10 40 13 10 33

Since each digit can only take a value from 0 to 4, each digit is really a base-5 number. The arrow pointing from 5 to 10 around the clock tells us that we should convert (“adapt”) these base-5 numbers to our typical base-10 numbers. Doing this for each base-5 number gets us the following base-10 numbers:

20 15 7 5 20 8 5 18

These numbers can then be mapped to their corresponding letters in the alphabet, where A is the 1^st letter and so on, to get:

TOGETHER

Helpful clues to observe along the way:

• There are 8 groups of symbols, likely encoding an 8 letter word where each symbol group represents a letter. There are 2 pairs of identical sets of symbols that are repeated, so we might assume these encode common letters such as E and T (the 2 most common letters in English), which they in fact do!
• There are 26 letters in the alphabet, which except for one, can all be encoded with 2 digits in base-5. Thus, only 2 symbols were needed in between each event to encode each letter.
• 5→10 is a common motif. It appears on the outside edge of the invitation and is also our wedding time range (5 pm to 10 pm) and our listed RSVP date (5.10).
• There are two 4-struck stars on the spinning gold layer of the invitation. This results in the base-5 number 44 which is 24 in base-10. The 24^th letter of the alphabet is X, another common motif.

OTHER EASTER EGGS

• Besides an infinity sign and an 8 (a lucky number in Chinese), can you find the j and g hidden in our wedding logo on the front of the envelope?
• Did you notice that when you spin the gold layer to the correct spot, the largest peephole perfectly lines up with the diamond ring on the layer below, capturing the diamond through the hole?