e frock would answer her requirements far
better, for, with the ever-changing fashions, the costly material
would have to be cut up and altered many a time before it was worn
out. It is a pity to weigh down a young girlish bride with heavy
brocades and silks that stand alone. Her freshness and beauty will
stand a simpler setting, and look all the sweeter in it. There are so
many soft, diaphanous fabrics made now, which fall into graceful
draperies, that I would like the young bride clad in some of them.

The Bridesmaids' Dresses.

The choice of a costume for the bridesmaids is not an easy matter. You
can find one that will suit two sisters to perfection, but there are
the others, with possibly such colouring as to forbid the very thing
that another will look her best in. White is taken as being generally
safe and becoming, but when worn unrelieved in the daytime it is very
trying to some. There are also the height and build of the various
girls to be considered, so altogether the matter demands much care and
taste.

Expense.

The question of cost should not be ignored unless the bride is in a
position to give all the dresses, then she may be as lavish as she
thinks fit.

It is hardly fair to expect her friends to go to the most {74}
expensive house and to buy the most costly hats and frocks, which will
perhaps be of little use to them afterwards, merely for her personal
gratification. This is especially the case where two sisters are asked
to be bridesmaids. A girl may long to attend her friend to the altar,
and yet be obliged to decline because her parents cannot afford the
outlay necessitated by the extravagance of the costume. If one has her
frock made by an artiste, the others must follow suit or the picture
is spoilt.

The bride who is married in her travelling dress does not have
bridesmaids but attendants, whose dresses should harmonise but not
eclipse her own. Due regard should be paid to the time of year in the
choice of materials. White gauzy frocks look chill and comfortless in
mid-winter, even if the wearers do not shiver perceptibly and are not
afflicted with red noses; but soft, thick fabrics like white cloth or
velvet trimmed with touches of fur, suggest the warmth that lies
beneath the snow. The flowers of the season may well provide schemes
of colour, for Nature is the prince of artists. Primrose and daffodil
tints for the spring, the warm tones of the chrysanthemum for the
autumn, while su