Milestone wedding anniversaries are a cause for celebration both now and a hundred year ago. Here’s an old-time suggestion for a lovely silver (25th) wedding anniversary tablescape:
Inverted in a fern dish of the same metal a silver vase forms the fountain, the falling water being strands of silver tinsel. Feathery moss, violets, and lilies-of-the-valley are arranged in the top of the fountain; also border the “pool” which is a mirror. The silver dishes contain bonbons in violet, white, and pistachio.
Ladies Home Journal (November, 1911)
A Hundred Years Ago 
What I like about this is the creativity. No trip to the Dollar Store (or Macy’s) here, I’ll bet. Most women had a few nice pieces that could be used to create tablescapes, and this is a nice one.
I also really liked the creativity. I like how people used to use materials at hand to make lovely decorations.
No room for any food on that table! It’s all a bit schmaltzy for my taste but I can’t help but be impressed anyway!
I also wondered where they put the food. Perhaps it was served as a buffet – though I don’t think that buffets were as popular back then as what they are now.
Maybe they used a smaller table for the decorations and ate at a larger table.
I love the idea of silver bonbon dishes.
They look lovely, though it won’t be much fun to have to keep them polished. 🙂
Indeed not.
It is very elaborate. I wonder if it was common to have a party to celebrate the anniversary.
I think that anniversary parties may have been more common a hundred years ago than what they are now. The tight-knit rural communities and small towns that were so prevalent back then were the kinds of places where family and friends enjoyed coming together to celebrate milestones. And, with the shorter life expectancies that existed back then, reaching the 25th wedding anniversary may have been considered a very important milestone.
That is probably right.
I like the bowl made into a foundation, neat idea.
I also thought that it was a clever idea. People were so creative back then.
Mirrors. Oh yes. 55 years and expecting more. God Willing. Mirrored tables I will do next week. Anniversaries and birthday pot luck celebrations by Sheila’s mirrors. What absolute fun. I will report.
Sheila.
This sounds like so much fun. I can hardly wait to hear about more about the celebrations and mirrored tables. Congrats on the 55 years.
Fanciful!
Fanciful is the perfect word for the table in the picture. 🙂
Sure wish someone had made this much fuss over my 25th Anniversary. I guess I’ll have to do a whole lot of hinting to get something going for my 50th in a couple of years.
I don’t know why, but it doesn’t seem like 25th wedding anniversary celebrations are as popular as they once were. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you get a lovely event for your 50th.
Enchanting and very resourceful! I wonder what they meant by a “fern dish”?
I also wondered about that. In the picture, the base looks sort of like an upside-down mold, I have no idea why it was called a fern dish.
I love the idea of using mirrors to ccreate a dramatic table and still have a set to feature flowers and candles. It’s a rectangular mirror with beveled edges and two side pieces and the whole thing reflects and glows. Weren’t they clever 100 years ago? And many of us still follow their traditions.
I really like how people made decorations using materials that they had on hand back then rather than going to the store to buy commercially-made decorations.
I love the author’s attempt to make a visual representation of this. Imagine how beautiful it would look if photographed! The moss and Lily of the valley and tinsel and everything silver and reflecting. Beautiful!
I love your description of the table. It would have been stunning.
I think that’s rather sweet! But we had nothing like that when we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary. I kind of wish we did….
Quite a fuss – I’m betting not many farm families had time for this!