| A week
before the wedding I gave a luncheon for Louise, the other two attendants
(Frances Allen and Leigh Whittemore), and four others – Emma Whitaker,
Edith Collins, Mattie Sproule, and Bessie Clark. The four silver vases
filled with pink sweet peas adorned the table. After lunch, when most
of the girls had gone into the sitting room, Louise pulled me into the
hall and said, "Where did you get those exquisite vases?" Then
I told her that they came from Wells and were bought for her first, but
that I became so fond of them that the candlesticks were chosen for her.
We laughed over her choice of bouillon spoons and I think she was a bit
sorry she had been so frank. When she came to my parties in later years
we enjoyed the vases together. However, this frankness between us continued
throughout our long friendship and probably kept it strong.
It must have been during my visit with my New York
friends that Louise's father died. If I had been in St. Louis I would
have gone to his funeral which probably was held at Christ Church Cathedral.
I cannot remember. However, it happened so soon after Christine's death
that they were all very sad. This made a difference in the wedding plans.
They had a small wedding in the Boffinger Chapel instead of the cathedral.
This was on April 17, 1901. Louise wore a simple silk wedding gown with
a lace bertha and faggoted yoke and the high collar of that period. Oscar's
gift was a pretty pearl and gold necklace of interesting design. The jeweled
pin and crown she received when queen of the Veiled Prophet ball were
worn in her hair and held a corner of a handsome real lace shawl that
had belonged to her grandmother McCreery. The opposite corner of the shawl
reached almost to the end of her short train. This heirloom lace completely
covered her shoulders and the simple gown. Her flowers were lilies-of-the-valley
in a silver holder. The bride's cousin Frances Allen, Leigh Whittemore
and I were bridesmaids. Louise's little sister Catherine was flower girl.
Our dresses were of French muslin, hand-embroidered, with three wide flounces
that were fullest about our ankles. The material for these dainty gowns
was bought by Mrs. McCreery in New Orleans where she had gone in the late
winter for a visit with friends and a rest. We carried purple lilacs tied
with white satin ribbon. We wore white satin slippers and short tulle
veils with two small ostrich feathers above our high coiffeurs - a lovely
spring costume. It was my best dress for a couple of summers. Oscar's
groomsmen were from the east and former Yale college friends - all very
fine men. The reception was held in the McCreery’ s home in Westminster
Place. The couple went abroad on their wedding trip and were gone about
a month. They had rented a house in Westminster Place about a block west
of the McCreery hone. Mrs. McCreery had helped fix it up for them, making
the Dutch-style double fringe-edged curtains while they were away. I inherited
these curtains years later for an apartment.
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