Museum of Matrimony

The dress looks like a gigantic wedding cake, preserved as a work of art in the galleries of the Skirball Cultural Center and Museum. Piped with a thousand white and pink-tinged synthetic roses that run from the bodice to the 5-foot train, the 100-pound gown includes wheels that allowed its wearer to glide past her guests to her place under a canopy, where she exchanged vows with her future husband.

This elaborate dress was designed by Los Angeles artist Ed Massey for his bride, Dawn Harris, for what was, he says, “a very traditional wedding.” Perhaps more than any of life’s rituals, weddings are a place where personal artistry can blend with age-old customs. Jewish weddings, in particular, are filled with required forms, but they also allow for personal indulgences, as can be seen in “Romance & Ritual: Celebrating the Jewish Wedding,” which opens Sunday at the Skirball. The show includes more than 200 historical and period costumes, accessories, documents and artworks illustrating an international array of personal effects of Jewish weddings over four centuries, from China to Iran, Morocco to Los Angeles.

“Finding a soul mate, someone who shares your values and wants to walk the same path with you, is a very difficult thing,” says Rabbi Jacqueline Ellenson, chaplain at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles. “It’s also a very, very wonderful thing.”

As a reform rabbi, the weddings she presides over range from the highly traditional to the innovative, but the basic themes remain the same. “We look at every couple as a brand-new beginning, like Adam and Eve,” she says. “Every couple has the chance to start a new world all on their own.”

To assemble the show, Skirball curator Grace Cohen Grossman combed the museum’s collection, selecting objects that have been seen before, as well as some never before put on display. Among the latter is a grouping of commemorative medallions from 19th century Europe once given to wedding guests. Decorated with garlands, coats of arms and other auspicious symbols, they name the ceremony’s bride and groom and give the date of the nuptials.

The exhibition moves from the historical to the contemporary and then back again, but tradition plays a part throughout. Generally, the wedding ceremony takes place under a huppah , a wedding canopy, and several of these are hung overhead in the galleries. “The huppah is representative of the [couple’s] home,” explains Ellenson. The ceremony takes place in two parts, each including blessings over wine and prayers. In between, the wedding ring or rings are exchanged, after which the ketubbah --marriage contract--is read aloud.

Five beautifully decorated ketubbot , from the 17th through 19th centuries, line one gallery wall. Inscribed in Aramaic with the names of the couple and the terms of their marriage, they are hand-decorated with floral and architectural motifs of their day. One, done in parchment and dated 1832 from Fiorenzuola, Italy, places the text inside an archway under an elaborate Baroque tower, with the imagery delicately cut into the parchment. Atop the tower, Napoleon Bonaparte sits on horseback. Napoleon, Grossman explains, was considered a hero among Jews because he granted religious freedom in the lands he conquered.

Jews, of course, can be found throughout the world, and the works here illustrate the integration of a variety of cultures into Jewish traditions. One ketubbah , written in Chinese, was made in Shanghai in the 1940s for a German refugee couple. Bordered with a dragon design, the inset displays text and, in the lower right corner, a painting of two Mandarin ducks, a Chinese symbol for lifetime mating.

The marriage contract continues to be a fundamental element of Jewish weddings, and its standard wording derives from a 2,000-year-old text, but it can be updated according to the wishes of the couple. “It speaks mostly of the economic sustenance of the family and of the wife by the husband,” says Ellenson. “Now there are many other versions of this contract--modern ones are more egalitarian, more poetic. They recognize that marriage is more of a cooperative venture.”

The exhibition includes many artifacts from American weddings, including an elegant display of satin and chiffon gowns from the late 19th to the 20th century. Photos and mementos accompany these dresses, showing the bride in fashion with the times, whether the year was 1897 (the Decatur, Ill., wedding of Annie Oshinsky) or 1973 (the Beverly Hills wedding of Joan Felmus and David Holtzclaw, who were outfitted in gold and turquoise). Grossman lent a 1970s wedding photo of herself in a white mini-dress to the mementos section of the show, which is full of photographs, invitations and anniversary cards.

“What’s so wonderful today is that people do all kinds of different things,” says Grossman. “You can select from a really rich history and a whole gamut of customs, but you can also add that which is meaningful to you personally.”

Massey and Harris’ engagement also figures in the exhibition. To pop the question, he brought Harris to an outdoor birthday party where kids were swinging at a pinata, releasing an avalanche of color-coded gift boxes.

Inside Harris’ gift box, among the trinkets, she found a velvet, strawberry-shaped box with a diamond ring, then she saw Massey on his knees, proposing.

At the Skirball, the moment is re-created with a pinata, stuffed with boxes and snacks, and a ring in a strawberry case sits atop a pile of trinkets. Married for three years, the couple have a 17-month-old son and are working together on a public art project that Massey started in 1997, “Portraits of Hope.”

So, does marriage live up to the fairy tale of their nuptials? Yes, Massey responds dreamily. “I think Dawn and I are both the marrying type, and this may sound corny, but we’re still very much in love with each other.”

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Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission: $8; seniors and students, $6; free for children under 12. On Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Center is mounting a World Wedding Festival with reenactments of weddings from Cambodia and 19th century Eastern Europe, plus music, dance and food from a variety of cultures. (310) 440 4500.