A Garden Wedding on Lake Steilacoom
Prominent Tacoma socialites Miss Ruby Shera and Mr. Thomas J. Handforth were wed under a canopy of oaks in an elaborate ceremony at the Tyler estate.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At 'Blue Jeans,' the summer residence of Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Tyler on Lake Steilacoom, Miss Ruby Shera and Mr. Thomas J. Handforth were married on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. The bride wore white silk mull trimmed with Valenciennes lace and carried a bouquet of white rosebuds and maidenhair ferns. The ceremony was performed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Paddock under four large oak trees, with ivy and white sweet peas decorating a rustic railing. Following the ceremony, guests were served salads, tea, coffee, ices, and cakes. Mr. Ed Terry, a conductor for the Union Pacific train, decorated the car that transported guests to and from the Custer station.
“The bride and groom met at the head of the steps and walked together to the rustic railing where the marriage was performed under four large oak trees.”
While 'Blue Jeans' was an estate on the shores of Lake Steilacoom, today the area is a bustling suburban community south of Tacoma. The lavish social life of the 1890s elite relied on private rail access and sprawling estates, a world away from the modern suburban density of the Steilacoom area.
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