The engagement is generally announced at a luncheon given by the
parents of the prospective bride. This is usually a small affair,
only fifteen or twenty of the most intimate friends of the
engaged “couple” being invited. It is one of the customs of
engagement luncheons that all the guests shall be tremendously
surprised at the news, and great care should be taken to aid them
in carrying out this tradition. On the invitations, for example,
should be written some misleading phrase, such as “To meet
General Pershing” or “Not to Announce the Engagement of our
Daughter.”
The announcement itself which should be made soon after the
guests are seated, offers a splendid opportunity for the display
of originality and should aim to afford the guest a surprise and
perhaps a laugh, for laughter of a certain quiet kind is often
welcome at social functions. One of the most favored methods of
announcing an engagement is by the use of symbolic figures
embodying the names of the affianced pair. Thus, for example, in
the case of the present engagement of Richard Roe to Dorothy Doe
it would be “unique” to have the first course at luncheon consist
of a diminutive candy or paper-mache doe seated amorously upon a
heart shaped order of a shad roe. The guests will at first be
mystified, but soon cries of “Oh, how sweet!” will arise and
congratulations are then in order. Great care should be taken,
however, that the symbolic figures are not misunderstood; it
would be extremely embarrassing, for example, if in the above
instance, a young man named “Shad” or “Aquarium” were to receive
the congratulations instead of the proper person. Other
suggestions for symbolistic announcements of some of the more
common names are as follows:
“_Cohan-O’Brien_”—ice cream cones on a plate of O’Brien potatoes.
“_Ames-Green_—green ice cream in the shape of a man aiming at
something.
“_Thorne-Hoyt_—figure of a man from Brooklyn pulling a thorn from
foot with expression on his face signifying “This hoits.”
“_Bullitt-Bartlett_—bartlett pears full of small 22 or 33 calibre
bullets.
“_Tweed-Ellis_”—frosted cake in the shape of Ellis Island with a
solitary figure of a man in a nice fitting tweed suit.
“_Gordon-Fuller_”—two paper-mache figures—one representing a
young man full of Gordon gin, the other representing a young man
fuller.
“_Hatch-Gillette_”—figure of a chicken surprised at having
hatched a safety razor.
“_Graves-Colgate_”—figure of a man brushing his teeth in a
cemetery.
“_Heinz-Fish_”—57 assorted small fish tastily arranged on one
plate.