Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-05-28

Standing on the threshold Of June. rare
indeed Is the family that has not a per-
sonal interest in some of the many we'd
ding chimes already trembling on the
air. If the cause lies not in the imme-
date family there are always friends
with whom to rejoice though sometimes
tears come easier than smiles 1t is no
light thing to sever the close companion
ship of a lifetime. TO realize that the
pretty room with all It's girlish keepsakes
will soon he tenantlcss: the bird out
grown its nest: that hereafter there will
be vacant place at the table and by the
hearth while one listens in vain for the
familiar step on the stair and voice in
the hall
That these things are common does not
make the individual experience any the
less bitter, but being in the natural or
der of things and not to he cured they
must he endured. bravely. cheerfully.
There is no place for tears at wedding.
While n church wedding Ia easier to
achieve If a great many guests are to be
invited, a home wedding is less formal
and, naturally, far more honey" II
one can strike out some novel idea in its
celebration so much tho better. We all
inherit some of the beliefs of the old run
worshippers-cvon to it's crys.allization in
the familiar proverb. Happy is the bride
that the sun shines on
A marriage out of doors at dawn, as is
the custom among some of the primitive
Indian tribes of the Southwest, has in it
something suggestively beautiful-the
rising sun typfying all Joy and gladness
to come; but denizens of city streets,
hemmed in by all the conventionalites
Of ultra civilization. would md it ex-
tremely awkward to antedatc the milk
mans cry and the bakers ring at the
door.
A few years ago a young woman who
had summer home in the Catskills
elected to he married just at sunrise the
bridal party standing on huge fat
boulder in the meadow where the bride
had spent many happy hours as a child
playing house.
The grass had been cut close in a
broad path leading to this natural altar.
eliminating all danger of dew bedra billed
skirts. Meadow larks sang their epitha-
lamum. daisies ana clover nodded re-
sponsivcly and the mountain peaks,
hathod in sunlight, stood mute but in
spring witnesses as vows were OK
changed and the words spoken that made
the twain one.
a delightful wedding breakfast, straw
berries. cream, brook trout. cress. fried
chicken hot biscuit and delicious coffee
followed, served on the vine shaded
porch. after which the young people
as far rs Williamstown, Mass.
Unconventional, truly-but what an
idyl to look back upon instead of the too
common nightmare of swarminS merce-
narics gaping crowds. noise, confusion,
hustle nerves, and an aftermath Of $50
much larger than I expected" bills.
At fashionable Newport wedding the
ceremony was performed in the house
under a Gothic arch made of white roses,
lilies OF the valley and rare white orchids.
but the wedding breakfast was served on
the wide piazza and the lawn. upon which
large tent was erected. In this there
were Is round tables. each decorated with
a basket of pink sweet peas In the CEN
tire of the bridal table, which vas set on
the veranda, stood the brides cake. COM
pletely surrounded with a wide border Of
lilies of the valley and orchids.
Although fashion in some instances
has decreed that a mound of dainty
white boxes, each containing a slice of
the brides cake, should usurp the time
honored function of an elaborate we'd
ding cake, cut by the brides cwn hand.
the majority OF brides prefer to cling to
the method approved by their mothers
and grandmothers before them. There
IS touch of sentiment in cutting the
wedding cake" which endears itself to