Regional Wedding (Pennsylvania), Barnesboro, PA, 1991

Like many Americans of mixed parentage, Stacy and Christopher perform their own versions of customs, developed for the many ethnic intermarriages of those who settled the area. A Slavic "bridal dance" ends the reception, each guest putting a dollar into a pouch worn by the bride's sister to be permitted a whirl with Stacy.

Katrina Thomas's notes: Regional customs prove more elusive than finding ethnic weddings but crop up when least expected. In one instance, a widow and widower from New Orleans, while walking in New York City from their nuptials to the reception, observe their hometown custom of a second line, originating at jazz funerals when mournful music turns to joyous. The other example is a couple of mixed heritage, married in a rural community in Pennsylvania, where those of every ethnicity attend religious services in a Ukrainian church, built by the first immigrants. At the reception they celebrate a variety of customs, the origin of which they do not know but which have become the pattern for the community's country weddings.