The Wedding Breakfast - 1914

Every girl loves to have some of the charming little table conceits so popular just now, as well as flowers, and dainty things to eat, for her wedding breakfast, and if the affair is not too large to prevent tables, she can, with the aid of members of the family, or loving girlfriends, devise any number of fascinating little bridal favors, place-cards, bonbonnieres, and candle-shades, if lights are needed, making them as pretty and original as she pleases.

Plain square or long, narrow, gilt edge cards with a miniature gilded bell attached to the upper left-hand corner by a little white ribbon bow, make charming guest cards quickly evolved.

There are quaint bell-shape favor boxes of white satin, that go well with these cards, trimmed with small sprays of flowers like those used in the table decorations.

These may be made by covering small, inverted, cylinder-shape boxes of card-board, with white silk or crepe paper, or it might be the wedding dress material, thus lending a sweet touch of personality to each little gift.

A bit of cotton is placed on top, and the material gathered up over this to give it the bell shape; there is a twist of the cloth or paper added here for the ring, and a frill around the base, with narrow ribbon bands concealing where the material is pasted on.

Pretty bonbonnieres for holding salted nuts, and for serving ice cream in, may be made in the form of a lily, by fastening long, slim petals of white , crepe paper, wired down the centers like the petal of a paper flower, around plain paper cases, with flowers and leaves, well wired, forming a novel handle.

Candle shades, too, are formed in much the same manner, except- the petals are cut larger, and fastened to the top of a plain foundation. It is better to use artificial flowers for trimming these little accessories, as they must be made sometime before they are needed.

Tulle Flower Place Cards and Wedding Cake Boxes for the Home Wedding

If the wedding cake is not to be cut by the bride, but packed in the little boxes beforehand, it is a pretty idea to have them tied with pale green tulle, with tiny bunches of the flowers caught in the fairy loops of the bow, and these placed at each cover as favors.

Quaint bags made from squares of the tulle, with long pink ribbon strings and perky bows, filled with flowers, to shower the bride on her departure, some of the blossoms and buds peeping out at the top, make a charming addition to the bridal table.

The bows are pinned to the tablecloth at the right of each lady’s plate. The delicate ribbons with their bit of green dangling over the edge of the table gives a dainty touch of color to the white cloth.

At the end of the meal these airy trophies may he slipped over one arm or pinned at the side. If one likes, the place cards might have a bow of the tulle and a spray of flowers in the place of the little bells.

For a lovely centerpiece to go with the little favors and conceits suggested, get a low wicker basket and gild it, then have a tin basin fitted inside, and in the center of this stand a slim glass vase of water, and surround it with moist sand.

Put a few soft pink roses in the vase, and bank a mass of lilies-of-the-valley from the edge of the basket up to the rim of the vase, pushing the stern down into the sand.

Set the basket in the center of the table on a mat of lacy maiden-hair ferns, or a table mirror may be used.

If the bride prefers the pretty old-fashioned custom of cutting her wedding cake at the close of the breakfast, the wedding cake, handsomely iced and ornamented with flowers and ferns may take the place of the flowers.

In planning and preparing for the wedding collation there are always two points to be considered first, the number of guests invited, and the hour at which the ceremony is to take place.

The appointed time usually being at high noon (twelve o’clock) and four o’clock in the afternoon. The former is followed by either a simple or elaborate breakfast, and the latter by the buffet refreshments, served during the hours of the reception.

Menu for Informal Wedding Breakfast

For the informal wedding breakfast, where the guests are mostly relatives and intimate friends, and where everything is prepared in the home, the menu should not be long, or too elaborate, this is a practical, as well as an attractive, one:

• Strawberries au naturel
• Bouillon frappe
• Creamed sweetbread Vienna style
• Chicken croquettes with buttered asparagus tips
• Rolls or bread-and-butter-folds
• Cucumber and nut salad, cheese wafers
• Wedding cake, coffee
• Pistachio bisque, small cakes, fruit punch

Wash the strawberries and dry without removing the stems, then dip each in powdered sugar, and serve in tiny paper cases. Strain the bouillon, and while it is still very hot adding a little gelatin and stir until it is dissolved, then cool and chill.

For the sweet bread, split small Vienna rolls lengthwise, remove the crumb, and fry the shells a golden brown in deep fat; drain, and fill each with creamed meat. Serve with a tablespoonful of new pea purée piped above.

The salad is very attractive and dainty when made in this way. Remove a thick slice from the ends of medium-size cucumbers, and pare, then with a pointed knife cut six grooves crosswise, and the same number lengthwise, and divide the cucumbers into halves.

Scoop out the seeds to form a cup and scallop the edges. Arrange on lettuce hearts, and fill with chopped almonds and cubes of cucumber, moistened with French dressing, and serve crisp and cold, adding a little cream or mayonnaise dressing, and a sprinkle of the chopped nuts, to the top of each.

The frozen sweet is a plain ice cream mixture with pistachio flavoring and tinted with leaf green coloring. When partly frozen add one-half cupful of chopped pistachio nuts, and one cupful of powdered macaroons, then pack in one large mold, or in fancy individual ones, bury in ice and salt, and set aside until needed. Any rich fruit cake, prettily iced and decorated, may be used as the wedding cake.

If this is made at home, it would be nice to follow up the old-time custom of baking a ring in it, or, get the little silver symbols of destiny, which consist of a ring, a thimble, a button, and a wishbone. These can be bought from almost any jeweler at a small cost.

Rosamond Lampman, "The Wedding Breakfast," in Table Decoration: Illustated and Compiled from Most Authentic Sources, Los Angeles: International Cooking Library, A. C. Hoff, 1914, p. 42-49.