MODERN MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14931, 2 March 1912, Page 5 (Supplement)

MODERN MARRIAGE CUSTOMS.

WHITE FLOWERS FOR DECORA-

TION.

Aristocratic weddings have been, for some time tending towards a standpoint of elaborate simplicity, and at present all their arrangements, though very costly, are outwardly as plain as possible.

Invitations are issued on plain white cards, never colouredj, and are oftener in black lettering than in I silver.

As a rule the type used is plain: script (imitation of handwriting), and the design, of course, is devoid of any ornamentation. The custom of wearing artificial favours is as dead as the Dodo— the great regret of the wedding-cake manufacturers, who netted a good profit, out of them. White flower favours are generally worn now, and they usually represent the bride's name or her favourite flower. ■ *

One iof the most fashionable peerage weddings -which recently took place was characterised by the use of only snowwhite flowers for the decorations in the bride's house. All the tables were .covered with, lovely white flowers, which were in very flat low vases, the only raised effect being given by tall silver vases filled with white smilax. The effect was wonderfully charming, and seemed to harmonise with the bride's youth and'beauty.

At this and several recent society weddings it was noticed that the bride and bridegroom stood at the end of tho room furthest from the door to receive their friends, the bride's mother standing at the first door, and shaking hands first as the guests passed in. , This young bride also departed .from tho old going-away custom which demands that tho bride shall . go straight to her carriage when, she has changed her dress, and in this case—and her example has been followed by several other fashionable brides— returned to the reception-room and said good-by to her relations and intimate friends.

When she entered her carriage, however, the quaint old-fashioned custom of throwing a white satin slipper after, it was strictly observed, and amid laughter and merry voices it was gaily thrown after her. • ■ . :•'■'•

Rice is now displaced in favour of charming little silver horseshoes made of silver paper. These aro handed round from silver horseshoe boxes by the pages or little bridesmaids, and not only have a. prettier effect, but do a great deal less damage than rice. i

The latest idea is that the "swastika" is going to bo adopted in place of, the little horseshoes by a . forthcoming society bride. Thousands of them are to be fashioned of silver paper v and thrown after her to bring . her • luck. The history of this little luck charm dates back to the earliest times, and the actual name is said by some writers to mean " divinty," and by others to be rerived from two Sanscrit words meaning "well being." However that may be, the symbol has been is use as a charm among many nations as far back as tho bronze ages. In wedding cakes there can bo but little change, the bride's favourite flower or the bridegroo's profession, if he be in the army or navy, are the more often chosen as designs. At some fashionable weddings the coats-of-arms of the- two families are on tho cake, or sometimes tho interlaced initials of the bride's Christian and the bridegroom's Christian and surnames. . Modern brides very frequently design, their own cakes, but there seems to be no change of fashion in the little, bridal boxes in which they send it away to their friends.