Weddings blend cultures as well as families

When Kavi and David Moltz tied the knot in summer 2010, the multicultural couple -- she's Hindu and he's culturally Jewish -- tried to honor both their traditions.

"I had to ride in on a horse ... a giant Clydesdale adorned in Indian raiments," recalls David of the Hindu wedding tradition. "But we gave a nod to my culture, too," he says.

In Hindu culture, friends and musicians playing traditional Indian music accompany the groom's ride to the ceremony. Instead, David had his friends play drums, and he wore a traditional yarmulke and tallith (prayer shawl) that had been his father's and grandfather's, as captured in photos by Justin & Mary.

The evening before, during the Mehndi party in which the bride and members of her party are adorned with henna designs (an impermanent skin ink) on their hands and feet, David wore a traditional Indian suit.

"(Kavi's parents) wanted me to wear a turban, too, but I'm a tall skinny white guy, and I thought that would look funny on me," he says with a laugh.

"The ceremony should ideally be all about you, but truthfully it is so important to the families and the parents, too. You have to be flexible and ... be on the same page with your wife or husband. (Wedding details) are some of the first things you have to pick and choose your battles about," he says. "If (a detail) is really important to the families, then go with the flow," he advises.

Today, more and more intercultural and interfaith couples are getting married. Finding meaningful ways to bring two (or more) very different cultures and religions together in one ceremony can be difficult.

"There's been a drastic change in the last 15 years in the way intercultural and interfaith marriages are viewed," says the Rev. Susanna Macomb, author of the book, "Joining Hands and Hearts: Interfaith, Intercultural Wedding Celebrations."

"(Years ago) I would get calls from (engaged couples of different cultural or religious traditions) who were desperate and sad ... and after a ceremony I would secretly hear a family member or maybe the florist say (about the wedding couple), 'Oh, that's not going to work,' " Macomb says. "Today I don't hear that anymore."

Macomb, an interfaith minister who honors all religions, has been officiating weddings since 1996, and many of them have been for couples from different cultural or religious paths.

"Couples today want to be intimately involved in the wedding ceremony," she says.

By Helyn Trickey, Special to CNN