§83. The _coemptio_ began with the fictitious sale, carried out in the presence of no less than five witnesses. The purchase money represented by a single coin was laid in the scales held by a _libripens_. The scales, scaleholder, coin, and witnesses were all necessary for this kind of marriage. Then followed the _dextrarum iunctio_ and the words of consent, borrowed, as has been said, from the confarreate ceremony. Originally the groom had asked the bride: _An sibi mater familias esse vellet._ She assented, and put to him a similar question: _An sibi pater familias esse vellet._ To this he too gave the answer "Yes." A prayer was then recited and sometimes perhaps a sacrifice offered, after which came the congratulations as in the other and more elaborate ceremony.
§84. The third form, that is, the ceremonies preliminary to _usus_, probably admitted of more variation than either of the others, but no description has come down to us. We may be sure that the hands were clasped, the words of consent spoken, and congratulations offered, but we know of no special customs or usages. It was almost necessary for the three forms to get more or less alike in the course of time, though the cake of spelt could not be borrowed from the confarreate ceremony by either of the others, or the scales and their holder from the ceremony of _coemptio_.
§85. The Wedding Feast.--After the conclusion of the ceremony came the wedding feast (_cena nuptialis_) lasting until evening. There can be no doubt that this was regularly given at the house of the bride's father and that the few cases when we know that it was given at the groom's house were exceptional and due to special circumstances which might cause a similar change to-day. The feast seems to have concluded with the distribution among the guests of pieces of the wedding cake (_mustaceum_), which was made of meal steeped in must (§296) and served on bay leaves. There came to be so much extravagance at these feasts and at the _repotia_ mentioned below (§89) that under Augustus it was proposed to limit their cost by law to one thousand sesterces ($50), a piece of sumptuary legislation as vain as such restrictions have usually proved to be.