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After the Orthodox nuptial rite, Nada and Joey emerge on the church steps above the plaza where their wedding guests are dancing. The "kum, who is a central figure in a wedding, throws coins to the crowd., Katrina Thomas's notes: Serbian society centers around the Orthodox Church, as does the community in Milwaukee, where I photograph two weddings in a splendid cathedral, built in 1956-58, in which couples celebrate both the nuptial rite and the reception. One couple belongs to a folk dance group and elects to wear national dress, keeping many old-world customs at the home of the bride before the church ceremony as well as later during the reception in the church hall.

In the couple's home, Wahiba, dressed for the wedding, which announces her marriage to a Brooklyn cousin that occurred months earlier in Jerusalem, joins relatives who dance. A tabla (drum) they brought sets the beat for dancing while women ululate their joy., Katrina Thomas's notes: I photographed Arab Muslim celebrations billed as engagements, henna evenings and weddings in Brooklyn, NY and also in Dearborn, MI, which maintains the largest concentration of Arabs in the U.S. Couples may be matched; some meet at family weddings. Muslims make a distinction between marriage and a wedding. The marriage solemnizes a written or an oral agreement, al-mahr, money awarded to the bride by the bridegroom, and usually takes place privately in the home. It is not photographable because the bride and groom remain in separate rooms. Presumably, the marriage is not consummated until after the wedding, which announces the union of man and wife to the community. It takes place any time from a few hours after the marriage to a few years. A henna evening may be celebrated before either or both. The bridegroom's family pays for all festivities. What is distinctive besides the lack of alcohol, except clandestinely, and the sexes being divided so that women dance on one side of the hall and men dance -- dipping, hopping, stamping their feet -- on the other side, is that the bride and groom do not participate. They sit like royalty on a dais presiding over their jubilant guests.

Processions, led by children bearing gifts, are always possible in sunny California. Having parked their cars before walking the last few blocks to the bride's house, the bridegroom Cap, holding flowers, follows bridesmaids carrying foods and two boys with a roast pig., Katrina Thomas's notes: Under a special act of Congress, refugees from Vietnam were first admitted to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon in April 1975. They included ethnic Chinese, Eurasians and Amerasians born there, most of whom are Christian. Vietnamese have settled largely in Texas, and in California, the state in which I photograph them. Weddings start at the bride's house with a formal introduction of the two families, followed by bestowing jewelry on her by the bridegroom's family, and progress to the bridegroom's house to honor his family. In their home country, their own customs were influenced previously by French culture so that couples here adapt rapidly to American ways. The ethnic nuptial rite has been superseded by the Christian rite or a Buddhist blessing.

Igor and Christine, upon arrival at their wedding reception, are welcomed by their parents with bread, salt, and wine. Bread is the staff of life and salt represents life's bitter moments. This pervasive Slavic tradition was retained whereas the families kept no other explicitly Ukrainian wedding customs., Katrina Thomas's notes: Ukrainians number perhaps a million today in the U.S., and even more in Canada. When the Ukraine was under Soviet subjugation, those who settled abroad were determined to revive their culture in a new land, and pass on relevant customs to future generations. To this end they establish Plast, their scouts organization, to which both boys and girls belong, and which fosters relationships that may end in marriage. Although most embrace the Orthodox Christian faith, the weddings I am able to photograph are Eastern Rite Catholic. Before the nuptials, the parents bless their children, using bread or icons. A bridal procession follows, and at the feast, instead of sharing a white wedding cake, they have their own ritual breads, korovai, which are decorated with twigs, herbs, flowers, and symbols in dough. The celebration ends soon after the maiden bride accepts the Slavic headgear of a married woman. However, today this rite is often omitted. Ukrainians, seeking a better life, still come to the U.S.

The bride Mee, in tears, has bid farewell to her mother. She now belongs to her husband's clan and waits with his cousin, who guides and keeps an eye on her, for her husband to drive her to his home. One of her messengers holds the umbrella which represents her., Katrina Thomas's notes: Originally inhabiting the mountainous regions of southern China and northern areas of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, a few Hmong began to emigrate from Laos starting in 1975. Due to devastation and loss during the Vietnam War, an estimated 145, 000 came to the U.S. The first wedding I photograph is Hmong Christian in Minneapolis in1986. Later weddings, photographed in Fresno, CA, retain their animist traditions, heeding the spirits and demons of nature, and honoring ancestors. The couple meet when playing a courtship game of pom pov during a festival held in late December and if a boy and girl like each other, he kidnaps her and sends a message to her family that he wants to marry. In preparing for every wedding four "messengers, two from each family, negotiate her bride price, which is preceded by a tie hand" rite, designed to facilitate a favorable outcome. The wedding itself is feasting and ritual drinking by men, according to many rules, while the bridegroom and best man genuflect constantly to honor living and dead members of both families. As the Hmong have become integrated into mainstream society, many of their marriage customs have disappeared.

During her wedding celebration, Julie neither speaks nor eats, and drinks only water. She stands virtually motionless with her matron of honor, her new husband's aunt, serving as a chaperone on her wedding day., Katrina Thomas's notes: An Albanian wedding in the Bronx, NY in 1986 retains unique customs based on tribal culture which signal that a bride is joining another clan. Marriages are arranged but a matched pair may refuse the partner. On the morning of the wedding, while the bride dresses, her family entertains guests at a large celebration. When she is ready to go to church, they say farewell to their daughter because they will not attend either her nuptials or the bridegroom's reception in the evening. In fact, after the wedding she is not permitted to see her family or return to her childhood home for a specified number of days. When she does visit, she is no longer treated like a daughter but as a guest. For a year after marriage, she is considered to be a bride and when her own sisters enter a room she stands in respect. As Albanians have become Americanized many of these customs have been dropped.

Peter and Borromluck, still holding a bottle of cognac and a bowl of favors, come outdoors to pose for a picture on the porch amid the shoes of their wedding guests, the feasting inside., Katrina Thomas's notes: Laotians, emigrating from Laos or Thailand, came to the U.S. in the greatest numbers when the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Their weddings are well-wishing ceremonies, called baci/basi, conducted by an elder, conversant with Buddhist practices. Two phakhuane/"spirit trays" embody the spirits that protect life and health. These support floral and food arrangements, and serve as altars. The officiant, holding threads connected to one tray, recites good wishes to the young couple and chants verses about how a husband and wife serve each other. He ends the rite by tying sacred threads, phuk ken, around their wrists. Wedding guests tie more strings of good luck on the newlyweds' wrists. Without a common language, I photograph four weddings with varying success. The one in Milpitas, CA kept the most traditions, which are explained to me by the bridegroom.

Leslie and Jalsa visit a Kalmyk Buddhist temple, built in 1976, for a marriage blessing. Bowing first to various altars, they sit on a white sheet for the blessing by a monk. Then, observing the western custom, but without ceremony, they put a ring on each other's finger., Katrina Thomas's notes: Kalmyks are the descendants of the Oirats, a semi-nomadic Asian Mongolian people, who lived in felt yurts, and adopted Tibetan Buddhism during their migration from Asia to the European part of Russia. They remained there for nearly 400 years. After World War II, despite America's stringent immigration laws, 571 were admitted in 1951 and 1952, as displaced persons, under a special dispensation of the US attorney general. Others soon followed. Their weddings observe rules and hours, set by an astrological priest, for specified events which incorporate their traditions of a white road. It is based on the fact that milk and milk products are essential to the culture of a herding people. I photographed one wedding in Philadelphia. All the others took place in their rural neighborhood of Freewood Acres that has taken root in Howell Township, NJ.

During the nuptial rite, Ravinder and Paramjit sit before the Guru Granth Sahib, the Holy Book which embodies God. The text lays down moral and ethical rules for development of the soul, spiritual salvation, and unity with God. The language is Punjabi; the script is Gurmakhi., Katrina Thomas's notes: Sikh culture is based on a distinctive religion, founded more than 500 years ago by a mystic in the Punjab, a region of the northwest Indian subcontinent. It is a monotheistic creed which bridges the gap between Hinduism and Islam. In the 19th century many Sikhs emigrated, specifically to California, looking for work in lumbering and railroad construction. Their temples, known as gurdwaras, are centers of religious, communal, and political activities. Many couples are matched. They have faith in the wisdom of their families, who match them, and tend to stay together because of the parental support they receive in times of marital trouble. I photograph first in Richmond Hill, Queens, NY, where many Sikhs reside, and later in Yuba City, CA, where there are three gurdwaras. The course of a wedding includes the arrival of the barat/the groom's party, the milni/the greeting of the two families, the anand karaj/the nuptial rite which is followed by lunch and dancing in the bride's home or rented hall, and the doli, being the sad departure of the bride, leaving her family for her husband's home.

The parents of Luba and Alexander hold bread, a symbol of plenty, with which to bless the couple so they will never go hungry. In the past this blessing validated a union, after which they were considered to be man and wife. A church rite simply fulfilled a religious obligation., Katrina Thomas's notes: Ukrainians number perhaps a million today in the U.S., and even more in Canada. When the Ukraine was under Soviet subjugation, those who settled abroad were determined to revive their culture in a new land, and pass on relevant customs to future generations. To this end they establish Plast, their scouts organization, to which both boys and girls belong, and which fosters relationships that may end in marriage. Although most embrace the Orthodox Christian faith, the weddings I am able to photograph are Eastern Rite Catholic. Before the nuptials, the parents bless their children, using bread or icons. A bridal procession follows, and at the feast, instead of sharing a white wedding cake, they have their own ritual breads, korovai, which are decorated with twigs, herbs, flowers, and symbols in dough. The celebration ends soon after the maiden bride accepts the Slavic headgear of a married woman. However, today this rite is often omitted. Ukrainians, seeking a better life, still come to the U.S.