WEDDING CUSTOMS AND FASHIONS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13453, 1 June 1907, Page 6 (Supplement)

WEDDING CUSTOMS AND FASHIONS.

Military or naval grooms often have a! "guard of honour" furnished from their! regiment or battleships. A bride sometimes! has a similar "guard" of the children of her Sunday-school class. But quite & new idea was struck the other day when, a bride well known for her parish work had two !guards of honour — one from the flower-girls I she bad interested herself: in, the second from her mother's meeting. All pelted her ; with! flowers, rice, and confetti. _ A bride recently hit on a picturesque idea for her wedding. She and her. bridesmaids were all! dressed in white and silver, and only silver ornaments were worn. j

The slippers of the bridal party were silvered, and both the bride and her attendant maids of honour earned silver baskets filled with lilies. The baskets were tied tip with silver gauze ribbon, and the wedding favours distributed in the church were tiny bouquets of "lilies of the valley fastened "together with bows of silver tissue. All the house decorations for "the reception were carried out to match, and the j refreshment table:? were most daintilv and beautifully decorated in white, crystal, and I silver. , ■

The bride went away in white cloth, and! her big picture-hat was of the newest fashion in silver "tissue and nodding white plumes. She wore a chinchilla coat with silver belt and buckles, so that in every) detail, although but a bride, she attained a silver wedding! "Three times a bridesmaid never a bride" is an old-fashioned saying which has little truth in it, Somo girls have figured 10 or 20 times as bridesmaids before they go to the altar on their own account. One such girl says: " It made mo feel like a very blase bride — as though ■ I had been married dozens of times before!"

When bride or groom hail from the Emerald Isle, and their wedding-day falls on or near March 17, the wearin' o' the green, despite the proverbial bad. luck of this colour, proclaims their patriotism. The bridesmaids wear white with shamrockgreen velvet, carry baskets of white flowers and shamrocks tied up with green and white ribbons, and their presents usually consist of four-leaved shamrock pendants or brooches with diamonds.

As a matter of fact, shamrock-green is not the national colour at all. The real Irish green as worn by the Irish Guards is a most lovely shade of blueygreen. Most English people call it blue, and cannot bo persuaded into the belief that it is the real, indisputable St. Patrick's green. ' ; ■.