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A Wedding on the Lawn
GIRL who lived in a small town and had a big lawn chose to be married outdoors in August. The blossoming hydrangea hedge in front of the house was made thicker with small evergreen branches stuck down into the ground. One corner of the yard where there was a natural alcove curving in among the shrubs, she picked out for the wedding itself.
The porch was decorated with Japanese lanterns and flowers, and beforehand the guests gathered in groups there or on the lawn. [157] When it was time for the ceremony, some girl friends of the bride marshalled the guests to the chosen place and then returned to the house to act as ribbon girls. There were about a dozen of them in light summer dresses, and the first couple, holding the ends of long white ribbons, preceded the bridal groups, roping off an aisle across the lawn and among the spectators.
A chorus of young musical friends came first, singing the words and music of Lohengrin. [158] L
A short account of an August wedding held at home, in a small town, on the family’s own lawn. It describes the staging rather than the ceremony, and the text breaks off at the procession.
- The hedge was thickened with cut branchesSmall evergreen branches were pushed into the ground along the flowering hydrangea hedge to make it denser. It is a stage trick, used to close a gap in a backdrop, and it holds for a few hours in damp soil.
- The altar is a gap in the shrubberyThe corner chosen is described as a natural alcove curving in among the shrubs. The whole design of the event is to find a frame the garden already provides and point the guests at it.
- Ribbon girlsA dozen friends of the bride, in light summer dresses, walked out holding the ends of long white ribbons to rope off an aisle across the lawn and through the standing guests. The role has disappeared from weddings, and it solves a real problem: how to make an aisle where there is no building to supply one.
- Lohengrin means Here Comes the BrideA chorus of young musical friends sang the words and music of Lohengrin ahead of the bridal party — the Bridal Chorus from the Wagner opera, sung rather than played, because there is no organ on a lawn.
- No tent, and no rain planThe guests gather on the porch, which is hung with Japanese lanterns and flowers, or on the lawn itself. There is no marquee anywhere in the account and no alternative for weather, which is the thing a modern version of this would start from rather than finish with.
Everything in this wedding is supplied by the household and the people in its circle. The venue is the family’s own lawn, the decoration is the garden with branches added to it, the aisle is held up by the bride’s friends, the music is sung by more friends, and the ushering is done by girls who then go back into the house to collect their ribbons. No vendor appears anywhere in the account. The social labour is the thing being described, and the book offers it as a model precisely because it was within reach: a girl in a small town with a big lawn could be married at home in August without hiring anything at all.