Berber Mother and Daughter, Morocco Photograph by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. Conveying blessings and bittersweet good-byes, a Berber mother in Morocco plants a kiss on her daughter’s knee as she gives her in marriage to a man more than twice her age. Days of feasting will weave into nights of singing and dancing for the bride, who has captured the liver—the Berber embodiment of love—of the man sworn to protect her.

Maasai Wedding Day, Kenya Photograph by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. A single tear marks the moment of farewell for lavishly beaded Nosianai as she leaves her family home in the Loita Hills of southern Kenya. Wedding-day tears may express true sadness among Maasai girls, who submit to arranged marriages with much older men whom they barely know.

Rashaida Bride, Eritrea Photograph by Carol Beckwith and Angela Fisher. Veiled behind an elaborate mask called a burga, a Rashaida bride stays in seclusion before her wedding. The Muslim Rashaida are Bedouin merchants and camel breeders, originally from Saudi Arabia, who keep to themselves and marry only their own.