=PROCESSION TO CHURCH=

Whether the pictures are taken before the wedding or after, the bridesmaids always meet at the house of the bride, where they also receive their bouquets.  When it is time to go to the church, there are several carriages or motors drawn up at the house.  The bride’s mother drives away in the first, usually alone, or she may, if she chooses, take one or two bridesmaids in her car, but she must reserve room for her husband who will return from church with her.  The maid of honor, bridesmaids and flower girls go in the next vehicles, which may be their own or else are supplied by the bride’s family; and last of all, comes the bride’s carriage, which always has a wedding appearance.  If it is a brougham, the horses’ headpieces are decorated with white flowers and the coachman wears a white boutonniere; if it is a motor, the chauffeur wears a small bunch of white flowers on his coat, and white gloves, and has all the tires painted white to give the car a wedding appearance.  The bride drives to the church with her father only.  Her carriage arrives last of the procession, and stands without moving, in front of the awning, until she and her husband (in place of her father) return from the ceremony and drive back to the house for the breakfast or reception.

If she has no father, this part is taken by an uncle, a brother, a cousin, her guardian, or other close male connection of her family.

If it should happen that the bride has neither father nor very near male relative, or guardian, she walks up the aisle alone.  At the point in the ceremony when the clergyman asks who gives the bride, if the betrothal is read at the chancel steps, her mother goes forward and performs the office in exactly the same way that her father would have done.

If the entire ceremony is at the altar, the mother merely stays where she is standing in her proper place at the end of the first pew on the left, and says very distinctly, “I do.”

=AT THE CHURCH=

Meanwhile, about an hour before the time for the ceremony, the ushers arrive at the church and the sexton turns his guardianship over to them.  They leave their hats in the vestry, or coat room.  Their boutonnieres, sent by the groom, should be waiting in the vestibule.  They should be in charge of a boy from the florist’s, who has nothing else on his mind but to see that they are there, that they are fresh and that the ushers get them.  Each man puts one in his buttonhole, and also puts on his gloves.  The head usher decides (or the groom has already told them) to which ushers are apportioned the center, and to which the side aisles.  If it is a big church with side aisles and gallery, and there are only six ushers, four will be put in the center aisle, and two in the side.  Guests who choose to sit up in the gallery find places for themselves.