Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-08-11
GETTING MARRIED IN FRANCE.
A Use for Eve Franc Pieces.

pld leu SdiNNi piattd tphSpiSuDo'''
near the exit from the bar of matri-
mony but also to each and every per-
son in uniform or dress suit who
looks expeetant. t
Marriage in France is a thoroughly
complicated as we'll as eminently re-
spectacle institution Napoleon dis
couraged the poor and the poetic from
entering the married state lightly by
wall of formalities. But it can be
done if your parents were married
and if you are free with your ) franc
pieces. Especially the latter, if you
are foreigner. But let the point be
emphasized: Paris is no Gretna Green.
After everybody concerned has lived
in Paris a month, if you don't blush
and arouse suspicious when you swear
to the substitute for a birth certificate
(Which no American ever owned); If
you can hire a real American lawyer
(and they are almost as expensive as
American dentists) to prepare state
nlent as to the marriage laws in your
home town; if you get your appliea-
ton in and can tie your witnesses
down in Paris so they can't escape
during the two weeks the banns must
be published, and if in the end you
other day of the week than the one
set for getting married in your parti-
eular police district, you can be mar
riea in Paris. 1t costs from ten to
fifty francs to grease the wheels. and
considerably more If one of your wit
nesses runs off to Carlsbad with an
aff,iction he never knew he had till he
got within striking distance of the
place.
Marriage is civil contract in
France But do not think that church
weddings are made attractive by sim
plicitv and ease of arrangement.
Their details are, if possible more in
trieate than the legal complications.
lust as YOU have to be welded eivilly
in the marie or city hall of your own
police district, so you cannot easily
indulge your desire to have large
and stylish wedding in Notre Dame or
the Sacre Occur if you live outside
those parishes. You pay a stated sum,
not small, for decorations and the ser
vices of choir bows and for the use of
the venerable red carpet you march
on.
The day of the ceremony the guests
arrive as early as they wish and wait
outside. The bridal party comes on
the stroke of the clock. usually noon
| They march down that velvet carpet
| the altar. the bride on the arm Of
her father her mother on the arm OF
the bridegroom (who comes along with
the bride by the way), and all her and
his relatives carefully and conven-
tionally mixed up according to spe-
cial code.
The ceremony over, the Verger lock
the doors and the bridesmaids. each
en- the arm of an usher (only they are
not called ushers) go about with little
baskets an dtake up collection for
the church. Each bridemaid passes
r her basket to each wedding guest. II
there are ten bridesmaids you have
to contribute ten times The custom
is to give a piece of silver to the first
and copper to each succeeding bride
maid.
After the church wedding the bride
and bridegroom and their families line
up in the sacristry, where the guests
pass by to offer congratulations, as in
other lands. And this over the wedding
party embarks for the inevitable we'd
ding breakfast at "Row-ban- zon.' st.
Cloud or the Pre- Catalan in the Bots.
On spring days brides are almost as
common a sight in Paris as the wee
little "fowers of Mary" going to their
first communion in their white dresses.
The healthy bourgeois bridal parties
travel in the long carryalls which i'm
agination associate with Cooks par
ties Stylish folk have private car
riages of the back variety used indis-
criminately for weddings and funerals.
But unhappily the bride and bride
groom go in particularly elegant
carriage with glass windows on all
sides and a pair of relatives on the
: front seat. No "Alone at last for
them. and the very uncomfortable rel
atives in front wish they weren't there.
A French wedding is cast in a mold,
and they never vary the model.
OF course the bridegroom wears a
dress suit, no matter what the hour. So
does every other man if it is q stylish
wedding. But they wear dress suits to
the civil wedding, too, particularly if
the religious ceremony is to follow at
once. But Americans don't. That is
one prejudice none of them ever over
comes, that against wearing evening
clothes in daylight.
Even foreigners come to feel the real
| wedding is that performed in the
marie.
| Bureau des marriages. they call the
| rooms where the weddings take place.
In fashiona BILE police districts the mar
riaee bureau occupies whole floof of
the municipal building. though it is
used hut once a week. The day is i'm
| mutable For instance, if Won live on
the staid and proper Rue Chaptal,
where the Grand Guignol is and where
Montmartre begins. you are married in
| the marie of the ninth reimbursement
| next to the Vienna restaurant, stei
| from the grand boulevards. And YOU
are married on Friday. You may cher
| sh all the superstitions there are about
| Friday marriages. and Friday may fall
| On the thirteenth, but no matter. You
must be married on Friday or change
your place of residence and wait a
month And who wants to wait Il
month to be married?
Americans are invariably the first to
be married after business begins at II
o'clock. Being early the Americans
never know just what to do. for even if
one of the witnesses was married in