The wooden wedding is celebrated five years after marriage. Invitations may be issued upon wooden cards, or wooden cards may be inclosed with an invitation written or engraved upon a sheet of wedding note paper. The presents may be anything made of wood, from a mustard spoon to a house or set of furniture.
The tin wedding comes ten years after marriage. Invitation cards are sometimes covered with tin foil, or tin cards are inclosed, or, if preferred, the invitation is printed on tin bronze paper. Presents should consist of articles made of tin.
The crystal wedding, fifteen years after marriage, is next in order. Cards may be issued upon transparent paper, or upon note paper with a card of isinglass inclosed.
The china wedding takes place twenty years after marriage. Semi-transparent cardboard will answer for the invitations.
The silver wedding is celebrated on the twenty-fifth anniversary, and is generally an occasion of much more importance than any of the foregoing anniversaries. The invitations may be printed on silver paper, and the presents are, of course, articles of silver.
The golden wedding, celebrated on the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage, may be said to be the one in which the young do homage to the old. It should be conducted by the near relatives or friends of the couple, and the occasion should be made one of retrospect, of encouragement, and of congratulation. The invitations should be on white paper in gold letters, and the presents should be of gold.
At each of these anniversaries it is customary to have the marriage ceremony re-performed, and all arrangements for the celebration are made in about the same manner as for the first marriage.
FOOTNOTE:
[B] In looking up any one point in this book,—as “dinners,” for instance,—one will be obliged sometimes to refer to more than one place. [Chapter II]., under “Notes of Invitation,” and [Chapter I]., under its three different heads, contain more or less information concerning “dinners,” which it seems difficult to classify anymore closely than has been done.