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Astrological charts determined the auspicious date for Kalpana and Rajesh to marry. In a designated sacred space, covered with a sheet in a small apartment, the wedding is attended by eleven guests. Rajesh puts red vermilion in the parting of Kalpana's hair, the mark of a wife., Katrina Thomas's notes: A wedding is a major rite in the Hindu life cycle, its format and sequence varying greatly in the regions within India as well as abroad. The earliest weddings I photographed were performed by Ram Patwardhan, the first Hindu priest in New York City, who in 1956 designed a modern Vedic ceremony, preserving its essence while streamlining a three- or four-day event to little more than thirty minutes. There being no Hindu temples here at the time, weddings took place in the home or in restaurants serving Asian Indian food. Later, I photograph weddings in newly built Hindu temples, all of which accommodate differing priests and the various traditions which marry a couple. If the couple has not the same homeland, they agree to choose a region of North or South India.

Parwana, wearing her bridal veil and a green dress, green being a symbol for happiness, has already given verbal assent to her marriage. Now the bridegroom Assadullah brings the contract for her to sign., Katrina Thomas's notes: Islam is the common thread that runs through Afghan weddings no matter what region the bride and bridegroom are from or what their native language. Muslim faith separates the couple until the settlement of the mahr, the money a bridegroom awards his bride divided in three parts, which she accepts in signing a contract. At the weddings I attended, she wears a green dress before signing and changes into a white gown for attending the feast with her husband. At the reception, sitting together under a shawl, the newlyweds see each other first as a couple in a mirror and read a sura in the Koran. Among other wedding rites is the use of henna, a brown sticky paste put on the bride's palm and the groom's little finger, and offered to guests for good luck. The newlyweds exchange glasses of sharbat, a fruit drink and eat malida, a sugary crumbly cake. The couple's main activity during the feast is for the two to sit side-by-side, receiving congratulations from guests and posing with them for photographs. One of the first western customs adopted by newcomers is to cut a white-iced wedding cake. Family and guests dance until late in the evening; the newlyweds may dance or they may not.

After the nuptials, the newlyweds are driven to the reception in a car, decorated with a "just married" emblem., Katrina Thomas's notes: The homeland of Carpatho-Rusyns is located on the slope of the Carpathian Mountains where the borders of Ukraine, Slovakia and Poland meet. Never having had their own state, they have lived since the sixth century as a national minority in kingdoms whose borders frequently change. And yet they manage to keep their traditional customs, marrying under gilt crowns in the tradition of Eastern Rite Christianity, accompanied by Carpathian plainchant. I photographed two weddings observing various traditions, the highlight of both being the Rjadovyj, during which everyone dances with the bride, ending with the bride's mother placing a silk matron's cap, a cepec, on her daughter's head, while guests line-dancing shoulder to shoulder close in around the new wife, forming walls through which the bridegroom must fight his way to capture her and carry her away.

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.

The kolo, the principal folk dance of Balkan cultures, at one time considered stately, during which dancers sang songs, verse after verse, is today speeded up to a modern tempo, the dances becoming more energetic as they progress., Katrina Thomas's notes: Croats are Slavs, who emigrated from the nation state of Croatia, once part of the former Yugoslavia. They are predominately Catholic. Their folk music is played by plucking a tambura, a Balkan string instrument made in five different sizes. I photographed two marriages, one in NYC and the other in Pennsylvania farm country. The country wedding keeps many traditions because the bride is descended from immigrant families, who came to mine coal when it was a company town, known as Shaft Four. The village population of 890 swells to 1200 to celebrate the nuptials of the mayor's daughter, who is an accomplished folk dancer and musician. Seven tambura groups play constantly from morning until after midnight, several starting before breakfast, one leading the procession to church, another accompanying Schubert's Ave Maria during the nuptial rite, various providing music for dancing, and finally after the newlyweds depart tamburas continue to set the beat for rock 'n roll.

Following the time of uniting the pillows, a stand-in for Deap's absent father starts congratulatory wrist-tying. He ties their wrists with rose thread wishing them luck as man and wife. A bare light bulb replaces candles which are not afforded., Katrina Thomas's notes: The Cambodians I photographed are newly arrived refugees, having fled the communist Khmer Rouge after the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975. Many came without their families, who had been killed or had remained to guard their properties. In the U.S. Khmer weddings usually take place on a single day. I photographed four, three on a single day, one lasting two days. All are abbreviated when compared to those in the home country. With little guidance, they try to keep traditions for a proper celebration but without their native substances or their own foods. Rather than falling in love, all the couples were matched by others and most weddings are conducted by their own people without the licenses to do so legally but able to marry them in the eyes of their own community.

Instead of bearing crowns on their heads for the nuptial rite, Mari and Kirkor, who are Turkish Armenians, wear narods, which are red and white twisted cords with a small cross that dangles over their foreheads. The marriage service for the Armenian Church of America is traditionally sung with organ accompaniment., Katrina Thomas's notes: In 301 A.D. Armenians are the world's first nation to adopt Christianity. The Orthodox Armenian church considers marriage a sacrament, and at the beginning of the tenth century, the Rite of Crowning became the service for blessing the union of husband and wife. For Turkish Armenians, the crown may be a braided cord, known as a narod. During the nuptial rite, crowning is followed by the Blessing of the Common Cup, which is drinking of wine from a goblet in remembrance of the marriage at Cana of Galilee.

As the first sunlight glances off the roofs, in preparation for marriage, Sam Ath, known as Ath, and Savath are blessed by a Buddhist monk. Shaking a pink rose, the monk sprinkles holy water on the couple. Friends are present but play no active role in the proceedings., Katrina Thomas's notes: The Cambodians I photographed are newly arrived refugees, having fled the communist Khmer Rouge after the fall of Phnom Penh in 1975. Many came without their families, who had been killed or had remained to guard their properties. In the U.S. Khmer weddings usually take place on a single day. I photographed four, three on a single day, one lasting two days. All are abbreviated when compared to those in the home country. With little guidance, they try to keep traditions for a proper celebration but without their native substances or their own foods. Rather than falling in love, all the couples were matched by others and most weddings are conducted by their own people without the licenses to do so legally but able to marry them in the eyes of their own community.

Sunday shoppers in lower Manhattan, seeing the bridal party, call out "Mazel Tov, which prompts a kiss from Renee and Jeffrey, during their walk from the synagogue to the reception., Katrina Thomas's notes: More than populate Israel, there are an estimated 5.7 million Jews in the U.S. In addition to two nationality backgrounds, Ashkenazi and Sephardic, they belong to four movements, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Hasidic. Jewish weddings today combine elements, dating back to biblical times when two separate rites were performed, perhaps months or years apart, known in Jewish law, as kiddushin and nissu'in. The first is betrothal, during which the ring is given, and the second, the actual marriage. Over a period of twenty-five years, I photographed a variety of weddings, some with hundreds of guests and some small, all of them essentially the same but different in regard to details. All couples are united under a chuppah, both rites performed at one time. In general, traditions are kept more reverently by Jews than are customs retained more casually by other religions and ethnic groups.

An important rite of a "Big Wedding" is the all-night bowing ceremony in which both bride and bridegroom participate. Sarn Poo will honor ancestors first, family next, and then every guest, by lowering himself to his knees several times for each one. Meuy Chow, standing beside him with her two attendants, will kneel only once to each of those, being honored by her husband., Katrina Thomas's notes: Also known as Iu Mien, a tribal people settled in farming communities in southeast Asia until disrupted by the Vietnam war, when they came here from Thai refugee camps in the early 1980's. Today perhaps 50, 000 Mien live in the U.S., most of them in the states of Washington, Oregon and California. When they first arrived, I photograph several weddings, including Big Weddings, known as tom ching ta, celebrated for three days, catnapping in my car in front of the bridegroom's house so as not to miss any of the day and night ceremonies. The bride may already have birthed several children fathered by the bridegroom, and whether celebrated for one day or three, a Mien wedding is no more and no less than a transfer of the bride to her new home with rites to insure her acceptance by the bridegroom's household spirits. During the period of an overnight or three days, many meals are prepared, principally for the bride's extensive family, perhaps 60 or more, and also for friends. I photograph rites that welcome the bride, and for "Big Weddings, an important all-night bowing ceremony, performed by the bridegroom to ancestral spirits, to living relatives and to all family members.