KinSource - Tale of the Week - The Etiquette of Outdoor Entertaining

KinSource

Minnesota Tales

The Minneapolis Journal, June 18, 1911, Women's Section, p. 6

The Etiquette of Outdoor
	Entertaining By ELIZABETH BIDDLE

ow is the season for all sorts of outdoor entertainments and sports, and probably the most popular form of entertainment is the garden party. This may be a very simple affair or a very elaborate one, only all the paraphernalia of artificial life must be excluded.

The love of country life is growing in America and of all delightful ways of showing hospitality none is so charming as an outdoor fete.

As a rule, the garden party is but an afternoon tea given out of doors, with as a rule, an orchestra which plays at intervals during the afternoon.

However, one may make a musical of it, or it may be in the form of a lawn fete, where tennis and croquet are played, and during the evening dancing is indulged in by the younger people.

If the entertainment is given between the hours of 4 and 7 the refreshments should be light in character. Three or four maids in black dresses, with white caps and aprons, may either serve the refreshments at little tables, or pass things around as at a buffet supper. All the dishes should be cold.

Some young girls may assist in pouring out the tea and chocolate, or serving the cafe frappe.

The possibility of rain must be planned for and in such an event the servants must be instructed to serve everything in the dining-room.

For a very formal garden party the invitations should be engraved on large white cards, or the engraved cards of invitation which are bought nowadays, where the name, form of entertainment, hours and date are written on, may be used.

The following forms are correct for those which must be engraved: --

Mrs. Edward Everett Manning
Requests the pleasure of
..................
Company on Wednesday afternoon, the
Twenty-eighth of June,
From 4 until 7 o'clock.
Garden Party
Summit Grove, Morristown.

Or:--

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Everett Manning
At Home
Wednesday afternoon, the twenty-eighth
of June, from 4 until 7 o'clock.

If it is to be an evening affair, the invitation may be worded in the same way, simply changing the hours, and adding "Dancing" in the lower left-hand corner of the card, under the words "Garden Party."

When such an invitation is sent to persons living in a nearby town or city, a small card giving information regarding trains should be inclosed with the invitation.

If the garden party is to be a small affair, the hostess may write below her name on her own visiting card, "Garden Party, June the twenty-eighth, from 4 to 7." These cards inclosed and sent by post are perfectly correct and entirely adequate.

Few cards of invitation to a garden party bear the request for an answer, yet on receiving one, unless one is quite sure that it is to be merely an afternoon tea out of doors, it is safest and best to respond immediately with either a regret or an acceptance.

If one has a well kept lawn, no matter how small - though a large on is better - a delightful garden party may be given.

Rugs should be laid here and there on the grass, and comfortable chairs and little tables placed in shady spots, where the guests may sit and chat, or partake of the refreshments. Each table should have its centerpiece of flowers and attractive doilies.

The musicians may be seated on the porch, or on a platform built for the purpose in some shaded place on the grounds, where they will be partially hidden by the bushes and trees.

At the earliest hour at which the guests may be expected the music should begin, and the hostess, dressed in a dainty and cool afternoon gown, should take her place on the lawn or on the porch at one side of the house and be in readiness to greet each new arrival.

A hostess may receive with her husband or daughter, or she may receive alone.

At a large garden party, the guests, as a rule, leave their cards on entering the house.

At a small al fresco affair this would be a needless formality.

The women always dress for a garden party in dainty costumes of silk, linen or muslin, with attractive hats and parasols. The men wear either the cut-away morning coats or sack coat suits and straw hats. At a very informal affair, or when tennis is to be played, or sports of any kind indulged in the men may wear white flannels.

If the garden party is to extend into the evening it is best to choose a moonlight night for the affair, but even with the beautiful light of the moon one must add the less beautiful light given by numerous lanterns or shaded electric lights.

A platform must be built for the dancing and, as it is uncertain how the night will turn out in regard to weather, it is safest to have the platform enclosed, or, at least covered with a canvas canopy.

No doubt the garden party is a troublesome affair, but it is very beautiful and very amusing, and worth all the trouble.

To Mrs. J. M. S.: -- The arrangment of a country wedding, with the numerous details, large and small, is an undertaking that must be carefully planned and also carefully systematized.

A separate list must be made of the guests who are to come on a special train or special car, and arrangements made with the railroad company for those who are on the special train or car, not to be charged the regular fare. This means, of course, that the train or car is paid for in advance by the bride's father, or some member of her family. If no special car or train is provided the guests are, of course, expected to pay their fare as on an ordinary trip.

If a special train or car is provided, the guests, as a rule, show a card (which has been enclosed with the invitation) as they go through the gate at the station, or as they enter the car.

Particular attention should be given to seeing that there is an ample number of conveyances to meet the trains, so that the guests may be driven from the station to the church or to the house, and afterwards to the trains for the return trips.

To Guest:-- When the hostess does not specify the trains on which her guests are expected at a house party, the guests are at liberty to make their own arrangements. It is customary, however, for all of these little details to be arranged for in advance by the hostess so that the guests may be met at the station by some member of the household, their luggage looked after, and all conveyed in coaches provided by the host or hostess to their destination.