THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
759 
A Beautiful Yet Inexpensive Wedding 
Tbe season of weddings is here. I 
wonder how many girls whose homes are 
in the country and whose opportunities 
for a beautiful home wedding are limited, 
are cudgelling their brains for some solu¬ 
tion of their problem. Because I know 
there are many, and because I know 
that it is a problem dear to the heart 
of every prospective bride, I am going to 
tell you how I solved the difficulty a 
year ago. 
My home was on the plains of one of 
our Middle Western States. It was 
a typical farm home—not wealthy but 
prosperous. Everything was plain but 
comfortable. After finishing our local 
roses in my big plain farm home I knew 
at once that they were not in keeping 
with my ideal wedding. It was a coun¬ 
try flower I wanted. 
During the next three weeks I watched 
for the spots where it grew most abund¬ 
antly. The. day before the wedding my 
girl friends helped me gather and bring 
home great armfuls. We placed great 
golden .bouquets all through the house. 
In one corner of the large living room we 
banked it high, and from the ceiling we 
suspended a bell made of the yellow blos¬ 
soms. We considered this bell quite a 
work of art, considering that the girls 
with deft fingers had created it out of a 
Wedding Feast on the Porch. 
high school I was sent to our State uni¬ 
versity, and it was there that I met the 
man who is now my husband. We were 
to be married immediately after com¬ 
mencement, but sickness in the family 
caused the wedding to be -postponed until 
September. My father had spent quite 
a sum of money on my education. My 
mother had been in the hospital, and the 
doctor’s bills were large. A drought was 
threatening the season’s crops. So after 
a family consultation it was decided that 
my wedding was to be made as inexpen¬ 
sive as possible. 
What girl in her dreams had not 
planned her wedding day over and over 
again? I had dreamed of this day for 
years. In my imagination I had pic¬ 
tured a simple home wedding—in the 
house where I was born—where there 
would be music and flowers and happi¬ 
ness; where everything would -be beau¬ 
tiful but simple, and in keeping with 
country folk and country ways; and yet 
a wedding to which I should be proud 
to invite my college friends and some 
wealthy city relations. I faced quite 
a difficult problem. I did so much want 
my wedding to be ‘beautiful, but I also 
disliked to burden father -with heavy bills. 
It seemed as if a hundred perplexing 
problems presented themselves. There 
were the decorations, the refreshments, 
my trousseau; and each called for a 
much larger sum of money .than I wished 
to ask father -to spend for me. 
Decorations* alone would mean quite 
a large bill if I followed the usual cus¬ 
tom of decorating lavishly with hot¬ 
house plants and expensive cut flowers. 
If I bought such flowers -I could afford 
only a few. I had attended weddings 
where quantity had ‘been sacrificed to 
quality, and the meagerness of the decor¬ 
ations had impressed me more than .the 
beauty. I did not want a few flowers. 
I wanted the house filled to overflowing 
with flowers. I racked my brain in vain 
for a scheme of decorating which would 
be inexpensive but which would not make 
my wedding hopelessly plain. 
One day while I was driving on one 
of our country roads I noticed a little 
spray of golden-rod, the very first of the 
season. It seemed to look at me, nod its 
head wisely and say, “I’ll answer some 
of your questions if you’ll only let me.” 
In three weeks the fields and roadsides 
would be a mass of delicate golden 
sprays. They would be there for the 
gathering and I could use them abund¬ 
antly. No city flower would fit into my 
home as naturally as this roadside blos¬ 
som. When I closed my eyes and pic¬ 
tured American Beauties or I.aFrance 
wire paper basket. We completely cov¬ 
ered the wires with flowers, and rounded 
out the straight lines of the basket. 
Around the lower edge we made a heavy 
border and for a clapper we used a cot¬ 
ton ball covered with flowers. No decor¬ 
ations could have been prettier and they 
did not cost a penny. 
I believe that we often leave the sweet¬ 
est flowers unnoticed because they are 
common, or because they cost us nothing, 
and we admire and pay enormous prices 
for more fashionable flowers that are 
less beautiful. What flower is more 
beautiful than the old-fashioned rose that 
grows in so many of our yards, or the 
daisies that cover the fields in so many of 
our States? Can the Rhododendron of 
our mountain regions be surpassed in 
beauty? I have a girl friend who is to 
be married in June. She too has always 
lived in the country. She loves the coun- 
Under the Wedding Bell. 
try atmosphere and the beautiful sim¬ 
plicity of her country home. Her father 
is quite wealthy, yet what flowers do 
you think she is planning to use for her 
decorations? Clover blossoms! Do you 
not think a country farmhouse would be 
beautiful with every niche and corner 
filled with fragrant clover blossoms? 
Perhaps you are now saying to your¬ 
self, “Oh, the decorating will be easy 
enough, but where can I serve the sup¬ 
per? Our dining room is so small.” 
Well, here is how I solved that prob¬ 
lem. Perhaps you cannot solve your 
difficulty in exactly the same way, but 
rest assured there is a solution. 
My home had a porch extending along 
two sides of the house and on it we ar¬ 
ranged small tables; part of them our 
own. part borrowed from the neighbors, 
and the remainder rented from one of the 
stores in a near-by town. At each table 
we could seat four or six guests. On 
each we placed a snowy cloth and a 
vase of golden-rod. The family dining 
table, drawn out to its full length, was 
converted into the bridal table and placed 
in the center of the porch, diagonally 
across the corner. Along the edge of the 
porch we hung Japanese lanterns and 
after the wedding supper, when the Sum¬ 
mer day was beginning to deepen into 
twilight, we lighted them. 
Our menu was quite simple and inex¬ 
pensive. The farm supplied almost 
everything. With plenty of chickens, 
eggs, cream and butter at one’s disposal, 
to say nothing of fruits and nuts, it is 
possible .to plan so many delicious salads, 
cakes an'd ice creams, that no one need 
worry about, “What shall I serve?” Ten 
little girl friends from 14 to 16 years of 
age, served the supper. This made it 
unnecessary for us to hire any help ex¬ 
cept in the kitchen, and my little friends 
were delighted to help. They made a 
pretty picture in themselves, with their 
whke dresses and with their fresh girl¬ 
ish faces radiant with the novelty and 
romance of the occasion. As a little ex¬ 
pression of my appreciation of their kind¬ 
ness, I. myself, had baked a cake for 
them, in which I had placed a ring, six 
coins and three thimbles. Each little 
miss found one of these in her piece of 
cake and read in it a prophecy of what 
fate held in store for her. These little 
gifts created a great deal of merriment 
besides giving my little friends a keep¬ 
sake ; and we all know how girls at that 
age value keepsakes. 
During the few minutes that inter¬ 
vened between the congratulations and 
the serving of the supper, everyone went 
out on the lawn. Here the bridal party, 
friends ami relatives were kodaked to the 
satisfaction of all. This entirely took 
away the gravity of the past hour and re¬ 
lieved the tension of overstrained nerves. 
Some of these pictures I am sending on 
to you, in the hope that they may give 
you a clearer conception of the possibility 
of a beautiful home wedding with a very 
small expenditure of money. n. m. d. 
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