Religion: Packaged Marriage

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U. S. undertakers (who prefer to be called "morticians," call their places of business funeral "parlors" or "homes") have long offered complete funerals for a flat fee. Last week in San Francisco, one Patricia Morgan, onetime Manhattan model and proprietor of a "charm" school, offered weddings similarly packaged. Her "Wedding Home" was aimed at business girls who, without church or family background, "have the same yearning as society belles to wear a bridal veil and are just as much entitled to." Miss Morgan priced her nuptials on a sliding scale, beginning with a curt ceremony in street clothes for $10. For $75, she offered a hall, flowers, music, minister or magistrate, bride's trousseau and bouquet, six prop bridesmaids (gowned), a flower girl, announcements, a photograph of the whole business. Miss Morgan had some ministers (anonymous) on call, said she would pay them from $5 to $25 per ceremony. Thrice married, thrice divorced, Miss Morgan believes she knows "the wedding field." Says she: "Nothing is so colorless as an elopement."