The bride with a good memory thanks each arriving person for the gift sent her:  “Thank you so much for the lovely candlesticks,” or “I can’t tell you how much I love the dishes!” The person who is thanked says, “I am so glad you like it (or them),” or “I am so glad!  I hoped you might find it useful.”  Or “I didn’t have it marked, so that in case you have a duplicate, you can change it.”

Conversation is never a fixed grouping of words that are learned or recited like a part in a play; the above examples are given more to indicate the sort of things people in good society usually say.  There is, however, one rule:  Do not launch into long conversation or details of yourself, how you feel or look or what happened to you, or what you wore when you were married!  Your subject must not deviate from the young couple themselves, their wedding, their future.

Also be brief in order not to keep those behind waiting longer than necessary.  If you have anything particular to tell them, you can return later when there is no longer a line.  But even then, long conversation, especially concerning yourself, is out of place.

=PARENTS OF THE GROOM=

The groom’s mother always receives either near the bride’s mother or else continuing the line beyond the bridesmaids, and it is proper for every guest to shake hands with her too, whether they know her or not, but it is not necessary to say anything.  The bride’s father sometimes stands beside his wife but he usually circulates among his guests just as he would at a ball or any other party where he is host.

The groom’s father is a guest and it is not necessary for strangers to speak to him, unless he stands beside his wife and, as it were, “receives,” but there is no impropriety in any one telling him how well they know and like his son or his new daughter-in-law.

The guests, as soon as they have congratulated the bride and groom, go out and find themselves places (if it is to be a sit-down breakfast) at a table.

=DETAILS OF A SIT-DOWN BREAKFAST=

Unless the house is remarkable in size, there is usually a canopied platform built next to the veranda or on the lawn or over the yard of a city house.  The entire space is packed with little tables surrounding the big one reserved for the bridal party, and at a large breakfast a second table is reserved for the parents of the bride and groom and a few close, and especially invited, friends.

Place cards are not put on any of the small tables.  All the guests, except the few placed at the two reserved tables, sit with whom they like; sometimes by pre-arrangement, but usually where they happen to find friends—­and room!

The general sit-down breakfast—­except in great houses like a few of those in Newport—­is always furnished by a caterer, who brings all the food, tables, chairs, napery, china and glass, as well as the necessary waiters.  The butler and footmen belonging in the house may assist or oversee, or detail themselves to other duties.