For those who love love love etiquette
I want to take a moment to talk about difficult conversations. Grief, death, illness and other life tragedies are some of the toughest subjects to broach with others and because of this, we often don’t. In the past people generally avoided discussing these topics as taboo. There were elaborate social customs which allowed one to acknowledge a…
Read More
The practice of giving symbolic anniversary gifts is a very old one. There are references to symbolic gifts going back to the Middle Ages in France and Italy. It’s likely that these came out of religious or superstitious traditions. I think we all in western society realize this instinctively since we’re raised with the tradition…
Read More
The Wedding Breakfast was common in Western countries well into the twentieth century. Now, let me caveat this by saying that when one is discussing a wedding breakfast, one is speaking of the tradition that is tied historically to a Christian tradition. I hope to cover many religious traditions for weddings, (and holidays) in future…
Read More
“The time has come,” the walrus said, “to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships – and sealing wax – of cabbages and kings” Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, (1886) When I was a kid my dad read Alice in Wonderland out loud to me. At the point that he came to…
Read More
Now that we talked about the punch bowl, you may be wondering what punch should you try? Here are some basic recipes for punches that can start you off. I’m using my grandmother’s recipes that were made for home gatherings, so they are not punch on an epic scale. Over the years we’ve fancified a…
Read More
Now-a-days, we tend to think of napkin folds as kitsch. If we fold at all, it’s to have an always-used, exceedingly plain, “signature fold”. This is posited as our own hallmark on the table, rather than an attempt at something dramatic or whimsical. Somehow, it is perceived as trying too hard if we create fancy…
Read More
“The breakfasts at which we entertain are usually held at anytime from eleven-thirty o’clock to twelve-thirty o’clock. As a matter of fact, a wedding breakfast after a noon ceremony will probably not get under way until early afternoon. Hunt breakfasts usually take place about noon after the riders return and those Sunday morning breakfasts, which…
Read More
Anyone who loves romantic period dramas, loves the idea of a ball. It’s so fanciful, with all those lovely dresses, white tie and top hats. I covered the differences between a Ball and a Dance in an earlier post, but now let’s look at the minutia of going to a ball by planning one. Where…
Read More
I’m going to say right now that all of this is going to be a massive oversimplification. I’m not looking to go into every detail of how breakfast became the modern meal we know and I’m only considering western food at this point, and the medieval times were an astounding number of centuries, so just…
Read More
Hello friends, File this tidbit of information under useless things – I graduated college with degrees in Art History and English. Yup. Two majors, not one with a job prospect attached to it. I can’t say I regret it. I loved studying Art History and English Literature. When you study a painting, you don’t just…
Read More