Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1892 — Self-Collected Brides. [ARTICLE]

Self-Collected Brides.

It is a surprising fact that the bride is almost always the one to bear the trials and embarrassments of the wedding ceremony with the most fortitude and sangfroid, despite the fact that she invariably is the focus for every eye. A shy, modest-looking little creature, robed in white, will stand perfectly erect, looking the minister calmly and squarely in the eye, without for any instant losing her selfpoise, while the big, blunt, sixfooter of a bridegroom by her side is pale and nervous and trembling. The bride very seldom makes any mistake, either at the ceremony or at the still more trying reception afterwards, while the man is almost always sure to put both feet in it and then flounder about in despair until his better half comes to his rescue and gives him the first chance to appreciate the advantages of having some one to take care of him. During Ihe ceremony the chances for the groom to make mistakes are not many. The most common one iB for hfm to get names mixed up. At a recent wedding at the most fashionable church below Twenty-third street the groojn calmly announced: “I, Annie, take thee, Harold, to be my lawful wedded wife.” The bridal party, who were the only ones who heard it, were convulsed, and even the stalwart young minister could not repress a twinkle in his eyes. Another much-rattled young man, when asked if he took the young wpman to be his wedded wife, stared nonplussed at the minister for fully ten seconds, then asked, blankly; “Beg pardon, were you speaking to jne?” Still another, when handed the ring, instead of passing it along, began nervously trying to put it on his own finger, and was only aroused by a sharp little pinch. But most of the small contretemps incident to a wedding can be successfully hidden from the knowledge of the guests, and it is not until the bridegroom is let loose at the wedding reception that the bride really begins to get fidgety for fear he “will do something dreadful,” a fear which is often realized.—[San Francisco Examiner.