Background: In this excerpt, Jewish factory owner Louis Borgenicht describes a wedding for one of his employees that was held at the winter home he built for his family in 1913. His family also owned a country estate in the Catskill Mountains that they lived in during the summer.

This last was a proud house, but we were humble. Just before the building was completed, Regina informed me that the daughter of one of the small contractors who handled work for me was being married.

“She can’t afford the kind of a wedding she’d like,” said my wife. She hesitated, then went on firmly. “Couldn’t we have it here, as sort of a housewarming?”

To me it seemed no festive occasion could match that wedding as an expression of joy and gratefulness in our hearts. The ceremony was held in the living room, to the music of fiddlers banked on the gallery above.

Source: Friedman, Harold. The Happiest Man: The Life of Louis Borgenicht As Told to Harold Friedman. G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1942. pp.276-277