Barnum suggested that Commodore Nutt act as best man at the wedding, with Minnie Warren as bridesmaid. The Commodore refused without giving any reason. A few weeks later he told Barnum that Charlie Stratton had asked him to act as best man, and that he had accepted. “And when I asked you, you refused,” said Barnum. “It was not your business to ask me,” the Commodore answered. “When the proper person asked me, I accepted.” III The public announcement of the forthcoming wedding of General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren created great popular excitement. The levees held at the Museum daily by Lavinia Warren were crowded beyond the capacity of the space, and she sold daily three hundred dollars’ worth of photographs of herself. The receipts at the Museum were more than $3,000 each day, and Barnum offered General Tom Thumb, who was on exhibition with his fiancée, $15,000 if he would postpone the wedding for one month and continue the joint appearances. “No, sir,” the General said excitedly, “not for fifty thousand dollars!” “Good for you, Charlie,” said Lavinia, “only you should have said one hundred thousand.” Barnum’s profits were so large that he could well afford a fine wedding. He determined to make it a grand occasion, because he wanted to do the right thing by his exceptional wards, he tells us, but he was also doing a good thing for his Museum. Many accused Barnum of having arranged this diminutive marriage on a large scale as an advertisement. “Had I done this,” he wrote later, “I should at this day have felt no regrets, for it has proved, in an eminent degree, one of the ‘happy marriages.’” But he did not arrange the attachment General Tom Thumb felt for Lavinia Warren, and it is probable that the match was for him a financial loss, because it meant the end of his lucrative contract with Lavinia Warren and the renunciation of a European tour which would have brought him large profits. It was suggested to Barnum that he hire the Academy of Music and charge admission to the wedding ceremony. But that impressed even Barnum with its lack of dignity; there was always something sacred to him about any church ceremony, which aroused his sense of propriety as nothing else could. He had promised the couple a respectable wedding, and he intended to see that they had one. Preparations were made for one of the most imposing social events of the time. Two thousand invitations were issued to New York’s notorieties, plutocrats and celebrities. As much as sixty dollars was offered for one of these private invitations, but none was sold by Barnum. The _Herald_ printed a long protest against Barnum’s part in the wedding. The motive for it is difficult to understand, for Mr. and Mrs. James Gordon Bennett were among the invited guests, and Mrs. Bennett sent the couple a miniature silver tea set. The _Herald_ wrote: