The fashion of celebrating a succession of wedding anniversaries has
passed its high tide and is on the wane. Nevertheless, the custom is not
out, by any means. The tenth, twenty-fifth and fiftieth anniversaries,
known as the tin, silver, and golden, are those most frequently observed.
The first anniversary of the wedding day gives occasion for a paper
wedding; the second is cotton; the third leather. The fourth is omitted;
the fifth is the wooden wedding; next to be observed is the tin,
celebrating the close of the first decade. The next skip is to the china,
when twenty years have elapsed; and the quarter century of wedded
happiness is recognized in the silver wedding.
The wooden and tin weddings are occasions of great hilarity, and mean a
general frolic. The former began years ago with the gift of a rolling-pin
and a step-ladder. The gifts are of those practical, useful articles that
replenish the kitchen, though handsome gifts are of course easily
selected. Carved wooden boxes, handsome picture frames, articles of
furniture, are at the service of those who choose to pay their price.
Invitations to a wooden wedding are sometimes written or printed on birch
bark or thin strips of wood, or are engraved on cards which imitate wood
in appearance. The refreshments have been served on wooden plates procured
from the grocer. So far as possible the wooden idea is carried out.
Tin Weddings.--Gifts for the tin wedding are of course in that material,
and there is a wide range of choice. The tinsmith is often called upon to
manufacture fantastic articles, anything to raise a laugh. Thus one couple
were adorned, the wife with a set of tin curls, the man with a tin hat. A
tin purse enclosing a check for "tin" was once presented to a tin bride on
the occasion of her tin wedding. The freakish fancy of one's friends is
generally much in evidence at a tin wedding. As at the wooden wedding, the
bride cuts a wedding cake decorated with a monogram formed of the initials
of her own and her husband's name, and the year of the wedding and of its
anniversary. Refreshments may be served from tin dishes, and the guests
provided with tin plates.
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The Silver Wedding.--Cards for a silver wedding are printed in silver, or
in black on silvered cards--the former being in better taste. The
form--which may be used for all with the variation of but one word--that
designating the nature of the anniversary, is as follows:
1885 Mr. and Mrs. Smith 1910
request the pleasure of your company on
Thursday, February the twenty-fourth,
at eight o'clock.
Silver Wedding.
George Smith Anna Hall
As the couple who celebrate are generally in the prime of life, and their
friends of about the same age, a silver wedding is usually a very
enjoyable function. The many beautiful articles now made in silver afford
a wide range of choice in the way of gifts, both valuable and in those
inexpensive trifles that please everybody because so artistic. Silverware
is marked with the initials of the married pair, often enclosed in a true
lover's knot. Toilet articles, pomade jars, silver jewelry, spoons, silver
parasol and umbrella handles, picture frames in silver, rings and
bracelets, besides the manifold pieces for table use, offer a wide
individual range in choice and price.
The supper at a silver wedding is quite elaborate. The bride that was cuts
a wedding cake in which a silver piece is baked; the person who gets it
being expected to live to celebrate his or her silver wedding. Speeches
are made, often an original poem read, and not infrequently the health of
the pair pledged in a glass of wine.
Golden Weddings--Occasions for the celebration of fifty years of union are
much rarer than any other. Nor are they wholly joyful. The aged couple are
looking from "life's west windows" at a fast declining sun. A few short
years and it must set for them. The festivities are usually planned and
carried out by their descendants, who so far as possible summon to the
celebration the friends of "Auld lang syne," the clergyman who performed
the ceremony and any of the bridal party yet alive, and the dearest
friends of the present. Invitations in the conventional form are printed
in gold letters; often a monogram formed of intertwined initials is placed
between and a little above the years at the top of the invitation. The
wedding cake has a yellow frosting, or if in white, the monogram and the
years--1860-1910--are in yellow to represent gold.
Gifts in this precious metal are naturally circumscribed, but a gold coin
is apropos, particularly if Fortune has been chary of her favors. In the
seventh and eighth decade people have small use for bijouterie.
A golden wedding must be a sad anniversary to the participants. When they
were wedded, they were looking forward, joyously; now they recall the
past, its losses and trials and misfortunes. They remember the children
who are dead, or far away; or the prosperity once theirs, but now fled.
Few old folks would care to celebrate their golden wedding; it is usually
some well-meaning grandchild who sees in it "an occasion." Often, too, the
excitement, the fatigue, the unusual strain on mind and body, result in
illness which sometimes proves fatal.
The Courtesies of the Occasion.--There is no formal etiquette for any of
these anniversaries. Friends, as they arrive, are greeted by members of
the family; then, in the case of the elderly celebrants, are conducted to
them as they sit side by side, and presented. Failing eyesight and dulled
ears demand this. The congratulations are offered, and good wishes for the
future. If any speeches are made, they should be brief, that neither the
old couple or their guests be over-fatigued. The stay should be brief.
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Gifts.--Gifts for the anniversary wedding are sometimes sent the day
previous, sometimes carried in person. Anything fantastic is generally
presented at the gathering, to contribute to its hilarity. The silver
wedding gifts are nearly always sent in advance, and are displayed on a
table, the cards of the donor usually being left on them. The recipients
are to tender their thanks in person or by note.
Every effort should be made to have these festivities joyous. Especially
should the wife subdue her emotion if the review of the years since her
bona fide wedding day have seen the loss of beloved children. She must
stifle her sad recollections for the sake of her guests.
The members of the bridal party, the more honored guests at the first
wedding, the clergyman who officiated, are sought as welcome guests at the
anniversary. The bride that was wears something she wore on the first
occasion. If the wedding dress and the bridegroom's suit have been
preserved they are worn--and wonderfully quaint they often look, so great
the change in fashion.