The Silver Wedding Anniversary

After the china wedding has taken place the anniversaries become far too precious to trifle with in lighter vein. Games and dancing parties seem almost too frivolous modes of celebration; for the bride and groom, even though they may have united their fortunes very early in life, are growing into staid, middle-aged folks now, and probably leave these pastimes to their children and grandchildren.

Receptions, dinners, and whist parties are the most congenial ways to entertain one’s guests in the latter days, and these can be as elaborate or as simple as the entertainer’s fancy or bank account dictates.

The silver wedding celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary, and when twenty-five years of married life have tinged the heads of the married couple with silver it is fitting that the anniversary should be called the “silver wedding.”

For this the invitations are sent out on heavy white satin paper, printed in silver ink. If the affair is to be a reception the drawing room can be made very pretty by draping the mantel, pictures, and windows with silver gauze, which is not expensive but which shimmers with charming effect.

Sons act as ushers in receiving the guests, and daughters take the place of bridesmaids in the same way. In some instances the invitations are issued by the children of the couple.

The refreshments should be served, as far as possible, on silver, and should be white in color, which is not as difficult a matter as might appear on first consideration.

A good menu with this end in view would consist of creamed sweetbreads or oysters, chicken salad, chicken sandwiches, dainty little cakes with white frosting, and snowy ices frozen in the forms of doves or calla lilies. For a silver dinner the table can be decorated effectively by using only silver and cut glass, and by spreading a scarf of silver gauze across the center. The floral decorations should be white and green.

Have silver candelabra, green candles, and shades of filigree silver.

In the center arrange a tall silver vase of flowers with a broad flat base, which should be banked with blossoms and ferns. Among these conceal tiny packages twisted in silver paper, each having some silver trifle—a scarf-pin, pencil, paper knife, or a locket engraved with the two important dates.

Attach one end of a silver ribbon (broad silver braid will do) to each package and carry the other to the place of the guest for whom the gift is intended. The silver stripes radiating from the flower center will look exceedingly pretty. When the guests are seated, at a signal from the hostess each pulls his or her individual ribbon gently, thus releasing the little souvenir at the other end.

It is needless to mention the thousand and one silver articles which would be appropriate to send the bride and groom at such a time, for, since silver has become so plentiful, almost anything, from a thimble to a bicycle, can be obtained in the precious metal. Heavily plated articles are permissible also as presents and are certainly quite as useful as the solid ware.

At a recent silver wedding the hostess, who was acknowledged among her friends as a collector, received so many separate tea and coffee pots, that, of themselves, they filled one of the dining-room cabinets.

A Silver Dinner

For the silver wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Huguely, the invitations were printed in silver on heavy white paper, and in the left-hand comer of each was a silver crescent moon, with the date “1880” uniquely depending fr om one horn and “1905” from the other.

The sheets were folded once and enclosed in silver-edged envelopes, which were tied with white silk cord and silver wire twisted together; and these envelopes in turn were placed in plain white ones, upon which the addresses were written. Enclosed with each invitation was Miss Huguely’s card, and also that of Miss Hunt, a charming young girl who was visiting her. Both these cards were also printed in silver.

On this occasion, white, blue and silver were used extensively in decorating the house, and mirrors, of course, played an important part. A novel and appropriate feature was the introduction of the pale-tinted foliage of the silver poplar in the treatment of the large hall. The newel-posts and stair-rails were first covered with sheets of tinfoil, and then twined with garlands of the leaves tied with narrow pale-blue ribbons.

In the center of the hall stood a square fancy table with prettily turned legs and cross-bars, which was entirely covered with sheets of tinfoil so smoothly arranged that it seemed to be made of burnished silver. The tall, spiral-legged hall chairs, and the grill-work above the staircase and sliding doors were similarly covered with sheets of foil, which were held in place by bows of pale-blue ribbon and decorated with wreaths of poplar leaves.

On the hall table was a large silver tray bearing a handsome silver punch-bowl containing delicious wine sherbet, which the guests drank from dainty silver mugs throughout the evening.

The crescent and dates that appeared on the invitations were reproduced on a larger scale and hung in the center of the stairwell. The crescent was cut from card-board and covered with silver paper, and was suspended by a silver wire; and the figures in the two dates were strung on wires one beneath another and hung from the tips of the moon. Perched astride the moon was a cunning little waxen Cupid with an arrow fitted in his bow, ready for game.

The supper room was almost wholly decorated in white, blue and silver. From a large, silvered full moon in the center of the ceiling radiated draperies of blue gauze sprinkled with silver stars and a frieze was made of a band of similar gauze looped up with silver crescents.

Upon the walls several pale-blue silk banners trimmed with silver fringe were suspended by silver cords, and upon them were quotations regarding marriage done in quaint silver lettering. These sentiments were taken from Shakespeare and other authors.

A circular mirror was placed at the center of the table, bordered by a band of silvered artificial roses and leaves, and on each side of this central piece was a crescent-shaped mirror supporting a silver swan-shaped boat, which was fitted with delicious bonbons.

Of course, all the silver dishes included among the presents were used in setting the table, and the board presented a most beautiful and brilliant appearance with its artistic burden of silver, china and cut-glass. The edibles were exquisitely served, and were ingeniously chosen to be quite in keeping with the occasion, the menu presented being:

• Blue Point Oysters on the Half Shell.
• Silver Fish Salad.
• Olives.
• Silver Pheasants.
• Sardine Sandwiches.
• Beaten Rolls.
• Ice Cream in Silver Foil.
• Silver Cake.
• Cafe au lait.

The fruit was also served in foil, every banana, peach, pear and orange, and even every grape in the clusters, being carefully wrapped in a thin silvery coating. This course was presented on silver trays, which were decorated with silvered artificial leaves.

Jean Wilde Clark, Ed., "Wedding Anniversaries: The Silver Wedding," in Weddings and Wedding Anniversaries: A Book of Good Form in the Conduct of Marriage Ceremonies . . . with Added Chapters about the Various Anniversaries, New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, 1910, p. 116.

Jean Wilde Clark, Ed., "Wedding Anniversaries: A Silver Dinner," in Weddings and Wedding Anniversaries: A Book of Good Form in the Conduct of Marriage Ceremonies . . . with Added Chapters about the Various Anniversaries, New York: The Butterick Publishing Company, 1910, p. 117.