LONDON CHURCHES

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 137, 11 June 1932, Page 4 (Supplement)

LONDON CHURCHES

FASHIONABLE WEDDINGS

MARRIED AT ST. MARGARET'S.

Many fashionable marriages take placo at St. Margaret's and one of the participants has now unfolded the methods to an English paper. Their

first act, says a writer for the Would-be Benedicts, is to go down to St. Margaret's between the hours of 2.30 and 4 p.m. and ask for Miss Austin, the Dean of Westminster's wedding secretary. Miss Austin looks at her diary and finds that tho church is already taken for a wedding on the Wednesday they have tentatively selected two months ahead. Tuesday and Thursday are also booked. Would they like the Monday or the Friday? Many of the guests are likely to be away for the week-end and might find it hard to arrive on tho Monday, so tho Friday is chosen. Several points then arise in rapid succession. Have they someone to marry them ? Or would they like to ask the Dean? The Dean of Westminster, it may be pointed out, must either take tho wedding service himself or not at all. In other words, he may not assist any other clergyman. Do they want a fully choral service? Or perhaps they would only like the organist V Or, maybe, only the choir boys and not the tenors and basses? An'd what about flowers? Shall Miss Austin arrange it for them, or do they want to supply their own? Then there is tho question of the carpet. Should it be blue or red? Of course, they will want an awning? And what about the church service? What music, and so on? And which kind of lettering do they like on tho outside of the wedding leaflet? And perhaps tho initials of

the young couplo should bo printed at the corners? J?y this time the- young man is in a slate of complete dither. Ho is then asked whether he is a parishioner of St. Margaret's. The odds are heavily against this, for the parish is tiny. In that case, Miss Austin points out, lie must qualify as a parishioner by staying three weeks, or at least three week-ends, inside the prescribed radius which she indicates to him. (There is a short cut past this difficulty.) If the service is to be fully choral, Miss Austin points out, it needs to start at 2.30, so that it will be over by 3 p.m. Then, presumably they would like a peal of wedding bells. As to the question of keeping the crowds back, Mis 3 Austin will look after that herself. I mean, that she will order a certain number of constables and an inspector or two, according to the probable size of the crowd. The bill for this, so much per constable, per mounted policeman and per inspector, will be sent in after the wedding. For the others there is a flat rate of payment which only varies according to what you order. I used to think, states the writer, that the actual wedding ceremony alone cost about £250, but a trifle over £00 is all it amounts to, as the following itemised list clearly shows: —Marriage fees: Publication of banns before marriage, 1/li; the marriage itself, 14/1; ordinary license, £2 2/; special license, £4 4/. Optional expenses: Full choir and organist, £23; choir boys without organist, £13; organist alone, £0 G/; peal of church bells, £5 5/; awning, £4; blue carpet, £2; red carpet, £1; policemen, 0/ each. The would-be bride is given the option of only three florists from whom to buy the flowers. These, unless a special request is made for them to go to a hospital, automatically revert to tlie Deanery after the wedding service. •St. Margaret's is undoubtedly a lovely old church. Tradition ascribes its foundation to Edward the Confessor, who reigned between 1042 and 10(iG. But all that is known with certainty is that it was in existence by the twelfth century. Twice dining the next 400 years it was found necessary to rebuild it almost from top to bottom.