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Announcements and Showers
HOW shall I announce my engagement?"
The engaged girl we have always with us, and the next step after the engagement is the announcement of it. Most girls like to have some kind of little social function to break the news to their special circle of friends. Usually a mother or a sister or a chum does the entertaining, though a girl herself may perfectly well plan and carry out such a party.
There are several sorts of affairs which may serve as a setting for an announcement. A favorite kind is a luncheon for a group of girl friends. Even less work is an afternoon tea and to that a girl's men friends may be asked also, though it's really easier to have girls only. Another kind of announcement party is the evening affair to which both men [107] and girl friends are invited and at which the announcement should be "sprung" as a total surprise as in all other announcement affairs.
After the engagement is known, immediately the friends of the bride-to-be begin to think of showers for her. One friend or a group of friends or her club may be hostesses and give such an affair.
There are different ways of planning them.
For instance, they may be appropriate to the month, like a Christmas Tree Shower in December or an Indian Summer Shower in November or a Rainy Day Shower in April.
Or they may take as keynotes the engaged girl's special likes, as in the case of an apple shower, a kitty shower or an old rose shower.
And then again, they may be just plain, ordinary, handkerchief showers, or linen showers, or kitchen showers, with an original touch somewhere. [108] A way. "A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME" LUNCHEON T a recent engagement luncheon the announcement was made in a unique A large wooden embroidery hoop was hung from the ceiling over the table and in the ring perched a gaily painted wooden parrot, the kind that rocks back and forth when touched.
From the parrot streamers of colored baby ribbon led to the different places, and tied to the ends of the ribbons were tiny notes in envelopes. These on being opened showed the names of the engaged couple and a short rhyme reading thus:
A little bird told me A very nice thing, That Randolph gave Sally A diamond ring. [109] The refreshments followed somewhat the parrot color scheme, with halves of grapefruit garnished with cherries, chicken à la King, pimento, walnut and cream cheese salad, orange ice, and little cakes with colored frosting.
Small celluloid parrots perched on the rims of the glasses were appropriate souvenirs. [110]
How to announce an engagement and how to give a shower, written as a survey of options rather than one plan. The engagement is treated as a sequence of parties, each with a job to do.
- The announcement is staged as a surpriseThe news is held back and sprung on the guests by a device at the table. A luncheon for girlfriends, an afternoon tea, or an evening party for both sexes: the page ranks them by how much work each takes, and says the tea is the least.
- Who gives the partyUsually a mother, a sister or a chum, though the page notes that a girl may perfectly well plan and carry out such a party herself. That aside is the most dated sentence here and also the most informative, because it was evidently worth saying.
- Showers had themes before they had registriesThe suggested keynotes are the month, with a Christmas tree shower in December, an Indian Summer shower in November, a rainy day shower in April; or the bride’s own likes, such as apples or cats or old rose; or the plain kinds, handkerchief, linen, kitchen. Naming the theme sets what is given and roughly what it costs, which is its real function.
- Baby ribbonThe coloured streamers running from the parrot to each place are baby ribbon, which means the narrowest width sold. It is used here as a delivery system, with a note in an envelope tied to the end of each one, all of them opened at the same moment.
- A luncheon menu chosen for the serverGrapefruit halves with cherries, chicken à la King, a salad of pimento, walnut and cream cheese, orange ice, little iced cakes. Every course can be made in advance and none of it needs carving or dividing at the table, which is what a luncheon for a dozen women was selected for.
- The celluloid parrotsThe souvenirs perched on the rims of the glasses are celluloid, one of the first commercial plastics and dangerously flammable. Novelties of this kind stopped being made for that reason, so anything standing in for them now will be another material, and the painted wooden parrot that rocks on its perch is the better object anyway.
The opening line, that the engaged girl we have always with us, sets the tone. This is a book of routines for a circle in which the same events recur every season and everybody knows the order of them: an engagement produces an announcement party, then a round of showers given by a friend or a group or a club, each with a theme that governs the gift. What the page documents is a small economy of obligation running through a group of young women, where the parrot on the embroidery hoop and the rhyme about the diamond ring are the visible part and the giving underneath is the substance. The book’s own contribution is the reassurance that a girl may run her own announcement if there is no mother or sister on hand to do it for her.