How to get married all over the world
Wedding ceremonies in each country have their own, and each of them can tell a lot about the country itself and its people. In Bulgaria, despite many years of a communist system that does not tolerate religion, Muslims hold bright winter wedding ceremonies. In India, Jordan, Japan and China, some weddings are mass in order to protect newlyweds from poor families from unnecessary expenses. Some ceremonies are truly extreme, while others are full of traditions, despite the years of their eradication. And while some are fighting for the right to get married, others get it after several years of struggle.
A Bulgarian Muslim bride from the Pomak ethnic group is being prepared for a wedding ceremony in the village of Draginovo. (Nikolay Doychinov - AFP/Getty Images)
24-year-old Afghan bride Zahara is preparing for the wedding ceremony surrounded by the female half of both families at a local beauty salon in Bamiyan. (Paula Bronstein - AFP/Getty Images)
The tallest man in the world Bao Xishun with his bride Sia Shujian (in red) during a traditional Mongolian wedding ceremony on the outskirts of the city of Erdos, Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, China. (Guang Niu - AFP/Getty Images)
A Chinese man shows a sign "I agree" during a marriage proposal to his girlfriend underwater in the Hefei Aquarium. (STR/China Out - AFP/Getty Images)
A Lebanese woman shakes the dust off her wedding dress at her partially destroyed shop in the suburbs of Beirut. (Anwar Amro - AFP/Getty Images)
The Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress, created by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, at Buckingham Palace in London. (Lewis Whyld/WPA Pool - AFP/Getty Images)
Finishing touches to the image of a Bulgarian bride from the Pomak ethnic group. (Valentina Petrova - AFP/Getty Images)
Wedding photo of an American military man in his helmet. (David Furst - AFP/Getty Images)
Household utensils and other items that will be presented to Muslim newlyweds in a warehouse before a mass wedding ceremony in Ahmedabad. (Sam Panthaky - AFP/Getty Images)
Couples are preparing for a mass wedding ceremony at the 11th Asian Wedding Culture Festival in Chengdu. (China Photos - AFP/Getty Images)
Jordanian brides are waiting for the start of a mass wedding ceremony in Amman. (Jamal Nasrallah - AFP/Getty Images)
Young boys and girls with torches participate in a wedding procession at sunset, before the traditional "Galichnik Wedding" in the Macedonian village of Galichnik. (Robert Atanasovski - AFP/Getty Images)
An Indian Muslim woman and her friends' hands decorated with mehndi paintings before the start of a mass wedding ceremony in Ahmedabad. (Sam Panthaky - AFP/Getty Images)
A Sri Lankan dancer adjusts the decorations on his headdress on the eve of a rich wedding ceremony in Colombo. Weddings in this country with a population of 20 million are a special event, and parents start collecting money for it immediately after the birth of a child. (Ishara S. Kodikara - AFP/Getty Images)
Ten couples who postponed their weddings due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were finally able to get married in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture. (STR/JIJI Press - AFP/Getty Images)
Ray Durand (left) kisses his partner Dale Shields after the wedding in New York. New York has become the sixth U.S. state to pass a law allowing same-sex marriage. (David Hanschuh - AFP/Getty Images)
A same-sex couple cuts a wedding cake at a party in Taipei. About 80 lesbian couples have tied the knot in the hope that the country will soon follow New York and legalize same-sex marriage. (Sam Yeh - AFP/Getty Images)
South African President Jacob Zuma sings and dances with his new wife Tobeka Madiba at a wedding ceremony in bright wedding costumes in the village of Nkandla. (Rajesh Jantilal - AFP/Getty Images)
The parents of 19-year-old Rachel Wassertog accompany her to her wedding with 19-year-old Aaron Noah Alter, the grandson of Rabbi Jacob Ari Alter, the leader of the Gursky Hasidim in Jerusalem. (Uriel Sinai - AFP/Getty Images)
The groom (left) and his witness walk with dirty faces and shackles around their necks behind the bride during the wedding ceremony in the Chinese province of Shaanxi. During the ceremony, the groom's friends and relatives smear him and his best man with shoe polish and put a lock around his neck, as if to say that the groom is "tied up in marriage." (China Photos - AFP/Getty Images)
American Peter Gelling and his young wife Retno Prativi stand by their decorated rickshaw during a traditional Indonesian wedding. (Peter Gelling - Courtesy)
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