Radio Digest (May-Oct 1930)

JUNE BRIDE FOR REFRESHMENT 59 /F YOUR FOOD and service is simple, yet dainty, the guests will be satisfied, says Evelyn Gardiner, for they are more interested in how the bride looks than in what they eat. Arrangements depend on the size of the wedding party. By Evelyn Gardiner Director KDKA Home Forum PAUSE for a moment, all you June Brides, to heed what we have to tell you about refreshments for your wedding. You are busy with your teas, parties, new dresses and the hundred other things there are to look after when a wedding is to take place. But how successful would your wedding be if you did noli serve suitable refreshments to your guests? Let us be sensible this year and start off the season in simple style. Of course, a bride is a law unto herself and she may make the plans for her wedding as simple or as elaborate as she wishes. If she decides to have a simple wedding and simple refreshments, she will be less rushed before the wedding and less worn out afterwards. Brides, remember that your guests come to see you and to wish you health and happiness. They do not wish to see a weary bride but a radiant one. I wonder if people really know afterwards just what they have had to eat at a wedding? They are so much more interested in how the bride looked, how everyone was dressed and if the general effect was right. So if your refreshments are simple, yet dainty, your guests will be satisfied. Whether your guests sit down or stand up for refreshments, depends upon the number of guests, the size of the house, the number of servants and the wishes of the bride. If you have but a few guests they may easily be seated at one table. If there are many, you may have a bride's table and a parent's table for immediate relatives and friends and let the rest stand. This may not seem hospitable but it is correct at large functions where it is impossible to seat everyone. The bride and groom sit at the bride's table with a few invited guests. The table decorations are generally in white and the bride's cake occupies the center of the table, at the small home wedding. The bride sits beside the groom to his right at the head of the table. The best man sits to the right of the bride and the maid of honor to the left of the groom. Other members of the bridal party and intimate friends of the bride and groom are invited also to sit at this table. If you wish you may have a parents' table with the bride's mother presiding at the head of the table. The groom's father is to her right. Opposite the bride's mother is the bride's father with the groom's mother to his right. Then the minister and his wife as well as other close relatives may be seated at this table. SOMETIMES there is but one table and this is usually the bride's table. It is correct for the bridal party to be seated while all the others are served standing. Tables may be set for all guests if you wish, or all the guests, including the bridal party, may be served standing up. The service then becomes buffet service and is a form of service quite commonly used. Buffet service is easier for the bride and her mother. There is much less This is a picture of a real bride, Miss Josephine Fresh, as she is about to cut the first slice of the cake. Miss Fresh was assistant to Miss Gardiner at KDKA until she resigned to be married this spring. work in the preparation and serving. The bride's, table then becomes a buffet table. The bride's cake may still be the center of this buffet table. It is the feature of the wedding and no matter what method of serving the refreshments is used, the bride's cake should have a prominent position. This is a white cake with a white frosting. It may be made in one layer or in several. If but one layer, the center is often left open and filled with small flowers on a standard. If there is a second layer or more, figures of various kinds may be used on the top. These are usually tiny figures of a bride and groom or of a bride alone. The stand on which the cake rests should be decorated with roses and lilies of the valley or some suitable bridal flowers. On either side of the bride's cake are low bowls of white flowers, such as roses, sweet peas, gardenias or lilies, or candle-sticks with long candles to match the color scheme used for the wedding. Perhaps the bride has a particular color scheme she is carrying out in her decorations and bridesmaids' costumes. Select your flowers, candles and food to blend with this color scheme. Silver or glass candle-sticks of varying height may be attractively used with colored candles. If candles are used on the table with the bride's cake, flowers may be used as a background or placed on other tables in the room. Besides the candles, flowers and cake you will, of course, make a careful selection of the cloth used. Nothing is in any better form at a wedding than a snowy white cloth of linen or linen and lace.' This may be a large cloth to cover the entire table or you may use runners or a smaller luncheon cloth to show some of a highly polished table. We do not wish the bride's cake to repose in lonely grandeur on the buffet table, so we will add a coffee or chocolate urn, at one end, platters of cold meats and salads and plates of sandwiches, candies and nuts. (Continued on page 108)