Bright and early in the morning he hurries to the house of the groom,
generally before the latter is up. Very likely they breakfast together; in
any event, he takes the groom in charge precisely as might a guardian. He
takes note of his patient's general condition; if he is normal and "fit,"
so much the better. If he is "up in the air" or "nervous" the best man
must bring him to earth and jolly him along as best he can.
=BEST MAN AS EXPRESSMAN=
His first actual duty is that of packer and expressman; he must see that
everything necessary for the journey is packed, and that the groom does
not absent-mindedly put the furnishings of his room in his valise and
leave his belongings hanging in the closet. He must see that the clothes
the groom is to "wear away" are put into a special bag to be taken to the
house of the bride (where he, as well as she, must change from wedding
into traveling clothes). The best man becomes expressman if the first
stage of the wedding journey is to be to a hotel in town. He puts all the
groom's luggage into his own car or a taxi, drives to the bride's house,
carries the bag with the groom's traveling suit in it to the room set
aside for his use--usually the dressing-room of the bride's father or the
bedroom of her brother. He then collects, according to pre-arrangement,
the luggage of the bride and drives with the entire equipment of both
bride and groom to the hotel where rooms have already been engaged, sees
it all into the rooms, and makes sure that everything is as it should be.
If he is very thoughtful, he may himself put flowers about the rooms. He
also registers for the newly-weds, takes the room key, returns to the
house of the groom, gives him the key and assures him that everything at
the hotel is in readiness. This maneuver allows the young couple when they
arrive to go quietly to their rooms without attracting the notice of any
one, as would be the case if they arrived with baggage and were
conspicuously shown the way by a bell-boy whose manner unmistakably
proclaims "Bride and Groom!"
Or, if they are going at once by boat or train, the best man takes the
baggage to the station, checks the large pieces, and fees a porter to see
that the hand luggage is put in the proper stateroom or parlor car chairs.
If they are going by automobile, he takes the luggage out to the garage
and personally sees that it is bestowed in the car.
=BEST MAN AS VALET=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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