St. Patrick's Day One of the first spring holidays that party-givers seize upon as an excuse for entertaining is St. Patrick's Day, March 17. It is a fine, meaningful date on which to have a few friends in for supper, a Shamrock Chowder Supper planned to satisfy the hungry, tickle their ears with Irish tunes, and end the evening with reels, jigs, or more modern versions of the dance.

Smaller Weddings When there is no room for a reception or for other reasons only the immediate families attend the wedding, a family luncheon may follow the church or home ceremony. At such a luncheon there is usually only one table with bride and groom and their families seated informally around it. The menu for this occasion is whatever the bride and her parents prefer. They may serve the traditional wedding breakfast menu, or something quite different.

Traditional Menu, usually called a breakfast, is actually a luncheon. This begins with hot chicken or clam bouillon usually topped with seasoned whipped cream, or, if the day is warm, jellied MadrilIne or some other iced soup. There is a main dish, such as delicate creamed chicken or sweetbreads-and-mushrooms in patty shell, with new peas and tiny parsleyed potatoes. Sometimes included is a green salad or a jellied salad, an aspic, lobster mousse, or any other delicate fish or meat mousse.

Decorations The reception buffet table and small tables traditionally are covered with white linen cloths, the table decorations in the same color with garlands of smilax (any florist can order these) and white flowers, or for a summer wedding in the country, mixed bouquets of garden roses. For a second wedding the color scheme may be any favorite colors of the bride. If there is music it should be lively and gay but not so obtrusive that it drowns out conversation.

If the plan includes dancing after the reception, rugs should be taken out and the floors made ready for dancing the day before. Prepare the room according to your plan of what you want the reception to be. The object of the rigid clearance is to provide space for the receiving line, for reception guests, for a buffet table, for the bride's table and possibly other tables for guests.

In every large city as well as most smaller centers, there are florists, entertainment bureaus, decorators, and caterers who specialize in weddings. Some of these specialists have large staffs and they can take over all planning, preparation, food, decoration, music, and service with trained maids and butlers and other helpers for every detail.

The wedding breakfast and reception cannot be discussed in the usual terms of party planning and party giving, since all aspects of the wedding ceremonial, and the entertainment for family and friends that surround it, are steeped in tradition, controlled more or less as to form and even the details.

In deference to the expectant mother, the menu should be simple but delicious, and served in an atmosphere of leisure and happy conversation rather than the high jinks that sometimes dominate this kind of shower. An umbrella-shaped cake makes an amusing final touch to the menu (see sketches). Here is the recipe and directions for making it:

UMBRELLA CAKE FOR SHOWERS
1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup hot water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon flavoring

Table Setting Shower should not be a surprise unless the young bride has registered her choices of patterns at local stores and the shower gifts match her selections. For instance, serving pieces in the silver or china patterns, dessert plates of some harmonizing pattern, and, to extend their glassware, perhaps Mexican or other peasant glass for porch and kitchenette meals may be selected.

This is more timely if given after the couple have moved into their apartment or house, since it is a shower of packaged foods, especially delicacies for impromptu meals.

Gifts can be various mixes, specialties such as rarebit, canned and powdered soups, appetizing smaller canned and packaged foods such as imported sausages, pâtés, anchovies, spreads, olives, sandwich fillings, fine crackers.