ars the same dress in
blue, with pink sash, blue hat trimmed with pink, and carries pink roses.

At Lucy Gilding's wedding, her bridesmaids were dressed in deep shades of
burnt orange and yellow, wood-colored slippers and stockings, skirts that
shaded from brown through orange to yellow; yellow leghorn hats trimmed
with jonquils, and jonquil bouquets. The maid of honor wore yellow running
into cream, and her hat, the of the same shape of leghorn, was trimmed
with cream feathers, and she carried a huge cream feather fan.

As in the case of the wedding dress, it is foolish to enter into
descriptions of clothes more than to indicate that they are of light and
fragile materials, more suitable to evening than to daytime. Flower girls
and pages are dressed in quaint old-fashioned dresses and suits of satin
with odd old-fashioned bonnets--or whatever the bride fancies as being
especially "picturesque."

If a bridesmaid is in mourning, she wears colors on that one day, as
bridesmaids' dresses are looked upon as uniforms, not individual costumes.
Nor does she put a black band on her arm. A young girl in deepest mourning
should not be a bridesmaid--unless at the very private wedding of a bride
or groom also in mourning. In this case she would most likely be the only
attendant and wear all white.

As a warning against the growing habit of artifice, it may not be out of
place to quote one commentary made by a man of great distinction who,
having seen nothing of the society of very young people for many years,
"had to go" to the wedding of a niece. It was one of the biggest weddings
of the spring season in New York. The flowers were wonderful, the
bridesmaids were many and beautiful, the bride lovely. Afterwards the
family talked long about the wedding, but the distinguished uncle said
nothing. Finally, he was asked point blank: "Don't you think the wedding
was too lovely? Weren't the bridesmaids beautiful?"

"No," said the uncle, "I did not think it was lovely at all. Every one of
the bridesmaids was so powdered and painted that there was not a sweet or
fresh face among them--I can see a procession just like them any evening
on the musical comedy stage! One expects make-up in a theater, but in the
house of God it is shocking!"

It is unnecessary to add--if youth, the most beautiful thing in the world,
would only appreciate how beautiful it is, and how opposite is the false
bloom that comes in boxes and bottles! Shiny noses, co