Croatian Wedding, Cokeburg, PA, 1984

After her morning run, before dressing for her wedding, Bernadette sings along with a tambura group that includes a singer, entertaining relatives and close friends. Formerly they helped the bride prepare; now they come for breakfast and stay for lunch.

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.