Slovak Wedding, Brooklyn, NY, 1984

When every guest and her parents have danced with Elizabeth, Pavol, provoked by the sight of her in traditional dress, capped and wearing the kerchief of a married woman, engages her in a lively "czardas." Next he will pick her up and carry her out.

Katrina Thomas's notes: Slovaks have emigrated from villages in Austria-Hungary since the end of the19th century but in U.S. census reports were not differentiated from neighboring Czechs, despite separate histories and greatly differing religious, cultural, and social traditions. I never find a Czech wedding. The Slovak bride I photograph was born in the U.S.; the bridegroom emigrated from the Soviet Union. The wedding reception retains three traditions: welcoming the newlyweds with bread and salt, a wedding song improvised by women joking about the bride, and the final dance, redovy, during which all guests dance with the bride.