Rain did fall on the wedding day of Tatianna “Tanya” Aksenova and Jeremy Lee, but only after the ceremony and not enough to dampen anyone's day.

The first-generation Russian immigrant and her fiancé planned their wedding around sunshine colors and golden traditions.

The bride wore a champagne-colored gown and carried yellow and white roses.

Her bridesmaid wore a brown dress and carried lilies and sunflowers.

For the outdoor wedding June 21, 2008, at Oak Hills Country Club in Omaha, the couple arranged for a tent to harbor guests from rain.

As guests took shelter, the newlyweds were whisked away (immediately after the ceremony) in a limousine.

That gave the bride's family time to prepare a traditional bread-and-salt welcoming.

This tradition has the bride and groom breaking bread, pulling and pulling on a round white loaf until one or the other wins the larger portion of the loaf. The larger share generally signifies who will be the head of the household. (Tatianna said the bread broke fairly evenly.)

Another tradition practiced by Ukrainian families dates to a time when the groom's family paid for a bride.

Tatianna's family observed the tradition by challenging the groom to answer questions about the bride.

Tatianna said she had fun preparing questions for her brother to ask Jeremy.

And Jeremy, taken by surprise by this tradition, had all the right answers.

Tatianna and Jeremy live in Chicago, where he is a first-year medical resident.

Tatianna is an actuary with Milliman Corp.

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