The traditional ring, coin, and thimble are often placed in the cake, each girl carefully scrutinizing her piece to see what her future lot is to be. The gifts to the bridesmaids are usually awarded at this luncheon, and should be all alike. Some small article of jewelry to be worn at the wedding is usually chosen. _L’Art Nouveau_ suggests many pretty things that are not necessarily expensive, the theory being that jewelry should please by color and design rather than by costliness. Brooches, pendants, bracelets, hat-pins, or fans are among the suitable gifts. They may be set one at each place as souvenirs.
Since the bridesmaids’ luncheon is intended to be a gay and merry rather than a somber and melancholy affair, it is well to ask one or two of the guests to arrange some amusing feature for the day. Thus, if the bride has many admirers, a dance of the rejected suitors would be appropriate. These could be represented by two of the company. They should be furnished with large bandana handkerchiefs on which to weep copiously. After treading a slow and melancholy measure, each should break a stick over his knee in accordance with the old tradition.
A dinner is sometimes given instead of a luncheon, and to this the groom, best man, and ushers are occasionally asked. A novel way to give a bridesmaids’ luncheon would be to ask each girl to prepare beforehand one article of the bill of fare. The bride also should contribute something of her own manufacture to the menu. A judge, duly appareled in wig and gown, should be appointed to award the prize to the maker of the most toothsome article, or a feminine jury of three might be impaneled. The prize-winner should have a blue ribbon declaring her to be the most promising candidate for matrimony. At the bride’s place should be a small souvenir album with white cover, containing the receipts used for the different articles of the bill of fare, and mentioning the school or cooking-class where each girl had acquired her culinary skill. It would be quite in order to invent imaginary colleges and degrees, phrased in home-made Latin, as, for instance, _Cookia Superba Prattii Institutionis_.
Sometimes a bridesmaids’ lunch is followed by a rehearsal of the wedding procession at the church, the ushers and young girls returning to the bride’s home for afternoon tea. It is pleasant to have the members of the wedding-party meet beforehand in order to make one another’s acquaintance. Thus a dinner or a theater party for the bridesmaids and ushers is sometimes given two or three days before the marriage takes place.