VANDERBILT WEDDING

Hokitika Guardian, 2 July 1920, Page 1

VANDERBILT WEDDING

A CAKE TO EAT IN 25 YEARS

NEW YORK, May 1

Three thousand persons witnessed the marriage yesterday at St. Thomas s Church of Mr Cornelius Vanderbilt jnr. and Atiss Rachel Littleton. As many more, including several hundreds of invited guests who could not gain admission, crowded Fifth Avenue in either direction from the church portals.

As a pageant, the ceremony surpassed in the matter of distinguished persons present and similar occasion in the memory of the oldest guests, and recalled the marriage in 1895 of the groom’s cousin, Miss Consuelo Vanderbilt, to the Duke of Marlborough, in the original St. Thomas’s Church, which stood on the site of the present structure. Even the most elaborate preparations of the police to handle the crowd which collected about the approaches to the church failed in some respects, for the motor car bearing the bride was caught in a traffic jam, so that she was fifteen minutes late in arriving. More crowds in the church vestibule delayed the ceremony almost half ail hour.

Tlie service was performed by the llev Dr Ernesto Stires, rector of St Thomas’s and was preceded by an organ recital and followed by a reception at the home of Mr and Mrs Martin IV. Littleton. The bride received gifts of great value from members of the various branches of the Vanderbilt family. A 251 b wedding cake was hermetically sealed and cashed. It will not be opened till the 25ili anniversary of the wedding. Mr Vanderbilt and bis bride left for Hot Springs, Virginia. Later they will go to Chicago and San Francisco, where j the groom will take up bis duties of reporting the llepublican and Democratic National Conventions for the “ New York Times.” Gifts of a total value of more than £200,000 were received by Miss Eacliel Littleton. Among the most costly was a diamond tiara, valued at £04,000, from Brigadier-General and Mrs Vanderbilt, the parents of tlie bridegroom. The wedding cake was more than ott hi oh. The list of guests included 5,000 “doughboys,” with whom Mr Vanderbilt served in France.