The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-06-02
The Marriage Of George
Vanderbilt and Miss Dresser

Vd0uefUiil dnu HISS UiCo9gt
The marriage of George W. Vanderbilt,
the millionaire owner of beautiful Bit
more, and Miss Edith Dresser, of New
York, will occur today at Paris, France,
at the Church of the Trinity, on Avenue
d'Alma. All the Vanderbilt clans have
been gathering for several days at the
French capital. to witness the nuptials OF
their fortunate young relative. and the
pretty American BELLE According to
French law there will be two ceremonies,
the civil and the religious The former is
the only one recognized by the republic
For this both Mr.. Vanderbilt and his bride
will have to furnish before witnesses, ans
having as witnesses members of their own
family, their baptism certificate, the mar
riage certificates of their parents, the
written consent of the guardian of the
young woman to her marriage and abso-
lutte proofs of citizenship in this country.
The baptismal certificate must give the
full name of the bride or bridegroom, the
date their birth. the place of residence,
the names of the father and mother, of
the grandfather and grandmother, evidence
of the legality of their marrige, the name
of the clergyman and church and locality
of same, and a sworn statement under
notarys seal that the information was
taken from and is copy of the records of
the church.
To this must also be appended the mar
rage certificate of the parents or a copy
of the same, and absolute evidence on the
part of the man of his citizenship. 1t is
not required in the case of Americans to
give a certificate of immunity from mill
tary service.
The written consent of the brides guar
dian, il she be under eighteen, is also nee
essary, and his verbal consent, if over
that age, must also be given.
The baptismal and other documents of
George Vanderbilt were prepared some
weeks ago and sent to him.
Miss Desser and Mr. Vanderbilt, with rel
atiyes and witnesses, appeared yesterday
morning at the Maire--a kind of police sta
1ion and court-before the mayor, who had
already received the necessary papers and
certificates.
At the civil ceremony all the documents
relating to the case are read and verified.
A contract of marriage is prepared and the
parties sign the contract, which is also
signed by the witnesses and the mayor HIM
self This is all in which that ceremony
consists. In. the meantime the bands of
matrimony must be read at the Sunday
services of the Church of the Trinity by the
pastor, the Rev. Dr. Morgan.
After this civil service French etiquette
demands that Mr. Vanderbilt and his wit
nesses and Miss Dresser should return to
their respective hotels residences. The
police laws of Paris still limit the priv
ileges of those marriages occurring at Prot
estant churches in that city. The floral dec
orations are attended to by the sexton and
are required to be very simple and unos-
tentatious.
AS soon as the parties enter the church
they are obliged to sign the register and
to present to the clergyman the civil con-
tract, without which the wedding cannot
take place. After the signing of the regis
ter the ceremony will proceed. The am
bassador or one of his secretaries is present
and signs for his countryman.
After the ceremony the happy couple go
into the vestry where they receive con-
calculations During this time their friends
crowd into the vestry. and collection is
usually taken up by the beadie for the poor
of the parish
Miss Dresser's bridal gown will be of
cream satin and will be trimmed with the
same point lace that her great grand
mother wore at her wedding nearly CEN
fury ago. She will also probably wear the
veil of this same great grandmother Her
bridesmaids will be attired in white NOUS
seine de Sole with frlls of yellow lace, over
pale green taffeta silk slips. Black pic
ture hats will complete the costumes and
each bridesmaid will carry large bunch
of pink roses. The best man at the Van
derbilt-Dresser wedding will be Jonathan
Sturgess, of New York. who graduated
from Princeton only last year, and conse-
quently is very much younger than Mr..
Vanderbilt.
The ushers will be VIM. B. Osgood Field.
Joseph Howell Hunt, New York. Frank
Andrews, Washington, d. c., and Count
Antoine Sala, SON of former secretary
of the French legation, at Washington.