Thumbing through the 1963 edition of The Good Housekeeping Home Encyclopaedia 1963, sandwiched between advice and guidance on waxed furniture and weevils I came across the following:
Bride’s parents: Trousseau; linen; press announcements; reception and wedding cake; flower decorations in church and reception hall; photographs; cars for bride, self and guests.
“Guests should congratulate only the bridegroom, never the bride. Wish her happiness, but to congratulate her is to assume that she is lucky to have managed to marry at all.”
Extract from Good Housekeeping’s It’s Your Party 1961