he bride's mother and the bridegroom's
father are the last.

[742 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

If only twenty-five or thirty guests are present the wedding breakfast is
preferably served at small tables. The clergyman and his wife, who should
always be invited, are seated at the bride's table. So also the
maid-of-honor, the best man, the ushers, and the parents of the pair, with
sisters and brothers if convenient. Or, the bride's table may be reserved
strictly for the bridal party.

The bride may cut her own cake if she chooses, or the wedding cake may be
dispensed in boxes as at the reception following a church wedding.

The departure of the newly wedded pair is on the order already indicated.

After the Wedding.--It may be said here that the "horse play"--for it is
nothing else--sometimes indulged in as "an after clap" to a wedding, in
which practical jokes are played on the pair, is not only unkind and
ill-bred, but in most execrable taste. To placard the luggage "Just
married;" to tie white ribbons on it and the carriage in which they are
driven away; to substitute a suitcase packed with the things a man doesn't
want on his journey for one containing what he does, is not at all
"smart."

Why should some coarse, ill-bred persons, whether they have or have not
been favored with invitations, strive to embarrass and make uncomfortable
those to whom the situation is already sufficiently trying? Why, after so
much pains and expense have been employed to make the occasion beautiful
and impressive, should the "practical joker" take it upon himself to spoil
it all by an ill-timed "pleasantry" which is the acme of rudeness and
discourtesy? It is a curious character that can enjoy perpetrating what
are really outrages upon other people's sensibilities.

Wedding Gifts.--Very soon after the wedding invitations are out the
presents begin to pour in. The fashion of gift giving on such an occasion
is not as prevalent as at one time; it was overdone, carried beyond the
limits of good taste, and of course a reaction was inevitable. Some men
profess to share the feeling of the Scandinavian immigrant who was so
deeply affronted at the offerings made by his bride's friends--as if he
were not able to furnish his home with the necessary articles--that in his
Berserker rage he was with difficulty restrained from casting gifts and
donors together into the street.

Generally speaking, only relatives and intimate friends send gifts, though