5

Alabama - Mrs, Blanchard, Professional Mother 5

"An improvised altar had been arranged in the group of bay windows
in our living room, and here the double ring ceremony was performed.
My sister was the only attendant. She wore a fawn colored - I mean
beige - silk dress, and looked better, I thought, than anyone else
at the wedding. My mother wore black taffeta, and cried softly through-
out the ceremony. None of Mr. Fenton's people were there.

"As soon as the minister concluded the benediction, the company
surged forward to kiss the bride. And amid such banal queries as 'Well,
Mrs. Fenton, how do you think you will like being married?' we drifted
into the dining room. There, our old Negro servant and her nephew (who
had been borrowed for the occasion) served us a supper of chicken salad
and beaten biscuit, fruit compote, charlotte russe with lady-fingers,
salted almonds, and wine.

"On the table, that was covered with a lace cloth, was the bride's
cake, and my grandmother's silver candle-sticks with lighted pink tapers.
Pink candles shed their light from the mantel too, and the large oak side-
board, while every available space was banked with pink asters and maiden-
hair ferns. But only white flowers, and white tapers formed the decorations
in the living-room.

"Everybody said they had never seen a prettier home wedding. I know
I have never been so happy since. No incident arose to mar any detail.
It all moved smoothly - without a hitch. And I am glad it was so, because
that was the last time I was ever to be singled out for adulation and
attention.

"About an hour after the ceremony, some boys came to serenade us.
While they were singing, I slipped upstairs to change into my going-away
suit of Oxford gray.

"At a quarter to six, the cab came to take us to the Railway station
where we were to board the train for Oklahoma City.

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