Four lists, therefore, are combined in sending out wedding invitations; the bride and the groom make one each of their own friends, to which is added the visiting list of the bride’s family (made out by her mother, or other near relative) and the visiting list of the groom’s family made out by his mother, or a relative.  Each name is clearly marked, of course, whether for “house” or “church” invitation.

When the four lists are completed, it is the duty of some one to arrange them into a single one by whatever method seems most expedient.  When lists are very long, the compiling is usually done by a professional secretary, who also addresses the envelopes, encloses the proper number of cards, and seals, stamps and posts the invitations.  The address of a professional secretary can always be furnished by the stationer.  Very often, especially where lists do not run into inordinate length, the envelopes are addressed and the invitations sent out by the bride herself and some of her friends who volunteer to help her.

=THE MOST ELABORATE WEDDING POSSIBLE=

This is the huge wedding of the daughter of ultra rich and prominent people in a city such as New York, or, more probably, a high-noon wedding out of town.  The details would in either case he the same, except that the “country setting” makes necessary the additional provision of a special train which takes the guests to a station where they are met by dozens of motors and driven to the church.  Later they are driven to the house, and later again, to the returning special train.

Otherwise, whether in the city or the country, the church (if Protestant) is decorated with masses of flowers in some such elaborateness as standards, or arches, or hanging garlands in the church itself, as well as the floral embellishment of the chancel.  The service is conducted by a bishop or other distinguished clergyman, with assistant clergymen, and accompanied by a full choral service, possibly with the addition of a celebrated opera soloist.  The costumes of the bride and her maids are chosen with painstaking attention to perfection, and with seeming disregard of cost.

Later, at the house, there is not only a floral bower under which the bridal couple receive, but every room has been turned into a veritable woodland or garden, so massed are the plants and flowers.  An orchestra—­or two, so that the playing may be without intermission—­is hidden behind palms in the hall or wherever is most convenient.  A huge canopied platform is built on the lawn or added to the veranda (or built out over the yard of a city house), and is decorated to look like an enclosed formal garden.  It is packed with small tables, each seating four, six, or eight, as the occasion may require.

=THE AVERAGE FASHIONABLE WEDDING=