This important luncheon is given by the mother or an aunt, a sister or older female relative, or a close friend of the engaged girl for her and her best friends and favorite female relatives. Any delicious favorite menu, simple or elaborate, can be served, depending on the season and the facilities of the home of the hostess and whether she must prepare and serve the luncheon or whether there is a cook and waitress or some other helper.
It is planned and served like any other luncheon party. Near its end the hostess tells her guests the engagement news. Some indirect and amusing means maybe employed to announce the engagement: the dessert might be miniature 3-tier wedding cakes, each no bigger than a cupcake iced with white frosting and with initials of the engaged couple in pink or yellow frosting on the top. (Bake cake in single sheet; use 3 sizes of cookie cutters.)
Or, as dessert and coffee are served, a record of the wedding march (from Mendelssohn’s Incidental Music for A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is heard playing in another room and the hostess walks around the table, placing tiny bride-and-groom doll favors on the table before each guest. Smaheart-shaped cards are tied to the dolls, the girl’s initials or name on the card fastened to the bride doll and her fiance’s initials on the groom.
Another charming way of telling the engagement news: as soon as coffee is served, place small nosegays of fresh flowers at each place setting, with names of the engaged couple on two cards tied to each bouquet.
Or, a centerpiece, such as a low bowl of flowers, might hold the announcement news. From this bowl, narrow flower-embroidered ribbons are laid to each place setting. As dessert and coffee are served, guests are told that there is a secret on the hidden end of the ribbons. They pull the ribbons from the centerpiece bouquet and each ribbon has a tiny spray of artificial orange blossoms tied to it and a card with the names of the engaged couple on it.