=THE EVENING WEDDING=

In San Francisco and generally throughout the West altogether smart weddings are celebrated at nine o’clock in the evening.  The details are precisely the same as those of morning or afternoon.  The bride and bridesmaids wear dresses that are perhaps more elaborate and “evening” in model, and the bridegroom as well as all men present wear evening clothes, of course.  If the ceremony is in a church, the women should wear wraps and an ornament or light scarf of some sort over their hair, as ball dresses are certainly not suitable, besides which church regulations forbid the uncovering of women’s heads in consecrated places of worship.

=THE MORNING WEDDING=

To some, nine o’clock in the morning may sound rather eccentric for a wedding, but to people of the Atlantic Coast it is not a bit more so than an evening hour—­less so, if anything, because morning is unconventional anyway and etiquette, never being very strong at that hour, is not defied, but merely left quiescent.

If, for any reason, such as taking an early morning train or ship—­an early morning wedding might be a good suggestion.  The bride should, of course, not wear satin and lace; she could wear organdie (let us hope the nine o’clock wedding is in summer!), or she could wear very simple white crepe de chine.  Her attendants could wear the simplest sort of morning dresses with garden hats; the groom a sack suit or flannels.  And the breakfast—­really breakfast—­could consist of scrambled eggs and bacon and toast and coffee—­and griddle cakes!

The above is not written in ridicule; the hour would be “unusual,” but a simple early morning wedding where every one is dressed in morning clothes, and where the breakfast suggests the first meal of the day—­could be perfectly adorable!  The evening wedding on the other hand, lays itself open to criticism because it is a function—­a function is formal, and the formal is always strictly in the province of that austere and inflexible lawmaker, Etiquette.  And Etiquette at this moment says:  “Weddings on the Atlantic seaboard are celebrated not later than four-thirty o’clock in the afternoon!”

=WEDDING PRESENTS=

And now let us return to the more particular details of the wedding of our especial bride.

The invitations are mailed about three weeks before the wedding.  As soon as they are out, the presents to the bride begin coming in, and she should enter each one carefully in her gift book.  There are many published for the purpose, but an ordinary blank book, nicely bound, as she will probably want to keep it, about eight to ten inches square, will answer every purpose.  The usual model spreads across the double page, as follows: