When a poor girl marries, her wedding must be in keeping with the means of her parents.  It is not only inadvisable for them to attempt expenditure beyond what they can afford, but they would lay themselves open to far greater criticism through inappropriate lavishness, than through meagerness of arrangement—­which need not by any means lack charm because inexpensive.

=WEDDING OF A CINDERELLA=

Some years ago there was a wedding when a girl who was poor married a man who was rich and who would gladly have given her anything she chose, the beauty of which will be remembered always by every witness in spite of, or maybe because of, its utter lack of costliness.

It was in June in the country.  The invitations were by word of mouth to neighbors and personal notes to the groom’s relatives at a distance.  The village church was decorated by the bride, her younger sisters, and some neighbors, with dogwood, than which nothing is more bridelike or beautiful.  The shabbiness of her father’s little cottage was smothered with flowers and branches cut in a neighboring wood.  Her dress, made by herself, was of tarlatan covered with a layer or two of tulle, and her veil was of tulle fastened with a spray, as was her girdle, of natural bridal wreath and laurel leaves.  Her bouquet was of trailing bridal wreath and white lilacs.  She was very young, and divinely beautiful, and fresh and sweet.  The tulle for her dress and veil and her thin silk stockings and white satin slippers represented the entire outlay of any importance for her costume.  A little sister in smock of pink sateen and a wreath and tight bouquet of pink laurel clusters, toddled after her and “held” her bouquet—­after first laying her own on the floor!

The collation was as simple as the dresses of the bride and bridesmaid.  A home-made wedding cake, “professionally” iced and big enough for every one to take home a thick slice in waxed paper piled near for the purpose, and a white wine cup, were the most “pretentious” offerings.  Otherwise there were sandwiches, hot biscuits, cocoa, tea and coffee, scrambled eggs and bacon, ice cream and cookies, and the “music” was a victrola, loaned for the occasion.  The bride’s “going away” dress was of brown Holland linen and her hat a plain little affair as simple as her dress; again her only expenditure was on shoes, stockings and gloves.  Later on, she had all the clothes that money could buy, but in none of them was she ever more lovely than in her fashionless wedding dress of tarlatan and tulle, and the plain little frock in which she drove away.  Nor are any of the big parties that she gives to-day more enjoyable, though perfect in their way, than her wedding on a June day, a number of years ago.

=THE WEDDING HOUR=

The fashionable wedding hour in New York is either noon, or else in the afternoon at three, three-thirty or four o’clock, with the reception always a half hour later.  High noon, which means that the breakfast is at one o’clock, and four o’clock in the afternoon, with the reception at half after, are the conventional hours.