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Standing in front of a Chinese "Double Happiness" banner, Glenn and KC hold hands. Behind them is an American flag hung on a shed., Katrina Thomas's notes: The precepts of a Chinese wedding, laid down in feudal times before the Christian era, stipulate a go-between, who seeks genealogical and horoscope data for matching the couple and for fixing the date for the bride's transfer to the groom's household. Upon her arrival in the conjugal home, the bride pays ceremonial respect to the bridegroom's family and ancestors before the marriage may be consummated. In the U.S. many customs have been abandoned for marriages of couples who fall in love. I photograph Chinese wedding customs three times: one in Chinatown, NYC where the bride's family is mostly absent because her father is dying; another, a mixed marriage in Massachusetts; and the last one in two locations, California and New York City because the couple fell in love while attending architectural school in NYC. Her family lives there; his family lives in St. Louis, MO. They fly to California for their banquet celebration so that her 84 year-old grandmother can be present.

During the henna evening, Soha and Naim are enthroned between their two mothers standing beside them. The bridegroom's mother bears a pillow on her head on which is pinned jewelry which will be awarded to the bride. The bride's mother bears a bowl of henna decorated with greens and candles. Arabs consider henna halal, meaning that it is holy., 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.

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.

Prior to the "bedaken"/veiling, Yosef sits, apart from the women, behind a screen at the head of U-shaped table, known as the "chosen's tisch, with the rabbi, his father, male members of his family, and male friends, who toast his good health and good fortune., 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.

During the money dance at their reception, Arthur and Maria dance together. Friends have placed a fanciful crown of dollar bills on the bridegroom's head. Both have been draped with streamers of many dollars., Katrina Thomas's notes: Nearly three million Filipinos live in the U.S., bringing with them the Spanish, Mexican and American cultural mix of the islands. Most are Roman Catholics, who include the Spanish coin ceremony, the giving of arrhaes/arras, thirteen pieces of gold or silver by the groom to the bride as part of the marriage contract. During the nuptial mass, their sponsors place the bride's veil over the bridegroom's shoulders, adding a laso, a long silken cord or white string of flowers, which they entwine around the necks of the couple in the form of the mathematical symbol of infinity.

During the nuptial ceremony, or "pelea ruom khnoevy, San and Heng lie prostrate on their elbows before a pillow while the well-wisher, acting as the officiant, provides a marital lecture. The will be the first to tie blessing strings around their wrists., 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.

At the end of the nuptial rite, it is customary for French newlyweds to sign the marriage certificate on the altar with the priest and their two witnesses.

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.

Denoting their married status, Erika wears an aube, a matron's cap, put on her head by her mother-in-law. Peter's father-in-law has put a hat on his head and a pipe between his teeth., Katrina Thomas's notes: Despite long periods of foreign domination, these Baltic people have maintained a distinct national culture, characterized by dainas, their folk songs of which more than 60, 000 have been collected. Most Latvians in the U.S. are Lutheran and, still speaking their language, preserve ancient customs. Wedding receptions that keep traditions are distinguished by the use of oak leaves and constant singing, particularly toward the end when the micosana, a pre-Christian rite, is performed. At this time, the bride's maiden wreath is removed and replaced by a matron's cap or wimple, and the bridegroom may receive a hat and pipe, testifying to his change of status. One wedding I photograph is a double celebration, occurring on the day Latvia declares its independence from the USSR.

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.