Wedding Rehearsal Dinner Reminiscences...a Week Later

Across St. John's Harbour--a Fjord, is the Easternmost Point of North America

My son and daughter-in-law were married last Saturday in the bride’s hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland. My husband and I hosted the rehearsal dinner the night before at the Clovelly golf club in St. John’s. I had never been to Newfoundland before and needed to make all the plans from home in Toronto. Early on Friday, the day of the rehearsal, my husband, daughter, and I arrived at the club with pre-printed menus, name cards, memory runners for the two tables, and last minute instructions for the club. Our dinner was scheduled to be held in the club’s regular restaurant, but to our pleasant surprise, the events people offered us the members’ lounge exclusively for our party.

The members’ lounge is a large square masculine style room with dark furniture and paneling. There is a bar in one corner, and a grouping of wing chairs in another corner bracketed by large bay windows. Another seating area is in front of a rustic fireplace.

After the rehearsal at the church, all of us arrived at the club, the bridal couple, their ten attendants, and the bridal couple’s parents. Because it was a little cool outside, the fire was already burning in the fireplace making the room warm and inviting. Two tables were set with dark brown table cloths, the memory runners, votive candles, and flowers in long bud vases. We had a chance to bond as we lingered near the fireplace over drinks and appetizers before sitting down to dinner. My son made a gracious speech thanking everyone for their help. He and his fiancée then distributed their gifts to everyone in the bridal party. Excitement reigned and stayed with us in anticipation of the following day’s festivities.

The two memory runners I mentioned earlier were a surprise for the bride and proved a great success. The bride and her two sisters were thrilled; I received huge hugs from all. A twitter friend in San Francisco, Linda J. Marshall (@LindaJMarshall), designed and custom made them, replicating the design on the rehearsal dinner invitations. To make them especially meaningful, she added the first names of each member of the bridal party to the runners. She suggested the couple would use them each year on their anniversary. Think of the stories they will tell their children in years to come.

The long bud vases with yellow daisy-like flowers were not exactly what I had ordered from the florist, but we were able to group them in an attractive way on the tables. Later in the evening, I was glad the flowers worked out as they did. The bud vases were attractive, quite heavy and square in circumference. There were enough of them to give each of the ladies attending a bud vase filled with yellow daisies to take home.

The Maid-of-Honour's Keepsakes

In some future posts: more wedding photos.

Glass

Pressed glass basket

Glass has been produced since ancient times. Glass is made from silica, lime, and soda. Lime is the stabilizer and soda serves to lower the temperature when added to the silica.

Royal Brierley candlesticks

The way glass objects are made can be divided into four major groups: blown, mould-blown, pressed, and moulded glass. Blown glass is the traditional method where a glass blower dipped a long hollow pipe into molten glass and picked up a small glob on the end and blew into it to adjust to the correct size. The product was finishing by rolling it over a slab of marble or metal. The mould-blown method is done by blowing the glass into a mould and forcing it against the sides of the mould. The pressed glass method is forcing molten glass into moulds without using blowing power. Pressed glass was first made in 1827. Pressed glass pieces always have smooth interiors and patterned exteriors. Moulded glass objects are made in the same way as pressed glass, except that larger moulds were used.

Orrefors decanter

As I search for additions to my boutique inventory, I generally come across glass objects that originated in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Most 19th Century glass objects that have survived until today show they are lovingly made and so exquisite that they are hard to resist. During the 19th and 20th centuries, glass factories produced large quantities of glass objects. Some of the beautiful glass objects produced since the 1920s are vintage and not yet antiques. Many of them are works of art highly prized today and are destined to become antiques of the future.

Victorian enameled decanters ca. 1880

Glass is coloured through the addition of oxides to the molten glass. The other ways glass is decorated are primarily by cut, etched, engraved, painted, and stenciled decoration.

Cranberry glass ca. 1875

Highly prized is cranberry glass is named for its colour. Cranberry glass was blown, or mould-blown. The colour was produced by adding powdered gold to molten amber glass and reheated. Less expensive glass made by adding copper instead of gold can be identified by a bluish tinge in the colour of the glass. The set of glasses above are antique cranberry glass, true to the cranberry colour.