NEW WEDDING RINGS

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 31, 29 April 1927, Page 9

NEW WEDDING RINGS

ORANGE BLOSSOM DESIGN Apparanently age cannot -wither nor custom stale the association of orange blossom with the bride. Even Dame Fashion, who lias played queer pranks with old ous.toms and festivities, has not banished orange blossom from the marriage festival. For centuries its delicate petals and snowy buds have ornamented the headdress of the bride, and to-day orange blossom still holds the pride of place in her floral adornment. The custom had its origin in the festal marriage ceermonials of ancient times, when, in the orange groves of Southern Europe, young men and maidens decked the bridal couple with garlands of laurel leases and floweis crowned the bride with a wreath of orange blossom —an emblem of youth and beauty, breathing the fragrance and freshness that typify the springtime of life. Nowadays every bride does not go to the altar wearing wreath and veil. But many a modern bride still associates orange blossom with her wedding festival by favouring an orange blossom ring—the latest vogue in wedding rings. Thus the fine chasing of delicate orange blossom carried out in o-piu or platinum and looped round the narrow surface of her wedding ring preserves that association in pernianer.t form, and combines with the symbol of marriage the happy sentiment and romance that have gathered through the centuries round the marriage festival.