"... She's got everything, she's got the power, she's got the support, she's got a father making money sitting on a chair ..."

So sang the shabbily dressed, sweating Florin Salam, a modern-day gypsy pop star, as he serenaded 200 guests at a roma (gypsy) wedding in the small village of Sintesti, 15 km (10 miles) from Bucharest, Romania. The wedding had begun the morning before and showed no sign of slowing down; the guests drank and danced like it was only beginning.

SINTESTI, ROMANIA: On Sept. 24, 2006, sparkling candles are lit on the wedding cake on the second evening of celebrations between Garoafa Mihai (left), aged 14, and Florin 'Ciprian' Lulu (center, foreground), aged 13, Roma (gypsies) from the village of Sintesti, near Bucharest, Romania. Their partnership was decided by their parents and not through love, and under Romanian law is illegal. The children will neither complete legal paperwork for the wedding, nor visit the local Romanian Orthodox church for a blessing. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

We were all in a large tent which encroached onto the village's main road; it had all the trappings of a typical wedding tent: there were balloons, streamers, bottles of wine and whisky and place settings for the meal. Only two things seemed unusual — the tent was made of camouflage-patterned material and the happy couple wasn't happy.

I first visited Sintesti in 1990 when I began a documentary project that was to become a 16-year labor of love, the latest installment of which was being here to photograph this wedding, to see Garoafa Mihai marry Ciprian Lulu. Both of them I've known and photographed for many years, for most of their lives. Garoafa was now a 14-year-old bride and Ciprian, her 13-year-old husband-to-be.

I'd been in the camp only a few weeks ago and had felt my time there was coming to an end. My access was slowly changing as the roma became richer and richer from their scrap metal business, leaving them less time for my photography, and my enthusiasm for being there and for the project itself was waning. But this wedding had held out the prospect of good images; images that without good access can be hard to get, and as the old maxim goes "access is everything," so I had persevered; I had returned once more.

SINTESTI, ROMANIA: Papusha Mihai falls asleep with her daughter Garoafa [now the bride] after breast feeding, during Romanian Orthodox Easter celebrations in Sintesti roma (gypsy) camp, Easter 1994. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

I'd arrived a day prior to try and find out what would be happening and when, but as usual with the roma no schedule held any real meaning because they don't think in real time. I would ask, "when will the bride leave her home?" Their answer, "now, in a few minutes" realistically meant "not sure, sometime today." Lacking any meaningful schedule all I could do was wait, wait with a glass of wine, wait and watch, wait and not stray too far. Experience in the camp had taught me that events can happen earlier than expected or not happen at all. If I wanted the photos I'd have to be there, waiting.

It was a two-day wedding and because it was illegal under Romanian law as the kids were too young, no paperwork exists, and no visit to the local Orthodox church took place. The bride's family had no enthusiasm for it, a family member was ill in hospital and they'd rather have postponed the wedding but the groom's family had arrogantly insisted. I asked Grafian, Garoafa's father and good friend to me over the years for his thoughts on his daughter marrying at such a tender age, he grimaced, drew on his cigarette and replied, "It's not the right time; it might be hard for her but for her future it will be good." With that he offered a shrug. Garoafa was marrying into a wealthier family and for him that was important, that was life.

Like so many things in the camp where in recent years incredible wealth has been obtained through scrap metal dealing, I was to see in these two days not so much a marriage of love but quite plainly a business transaction and a display of wealth. This soured my view of the shoot. I found it hard to enjoy the wedding and photography when I knew that the bride and her parents would rather it didn't happen. The 13-year-old Ciprian played with his friends rather than talk with his future wife and the amounts of money involved seemed to Toni, my translator, and I to be like Monopoly money.

As $30,000 worth of pigs were slaughtered in the drizzling rain — food for the evening meal — I shot with my Mamiya 7 camera. The blood mixed with rain on the wet concrete but the sight didn't move me; I'd seen it so many times in my years there. The sun came out along with $30,000 worth of gold Franz Josef coins that made up Garoafa's 'salbe,' her dowry necklace, and she danced in the street with the coins catching the light, shining yellow, while I crouched beside her shooting against the sky. But even then she rarely smiled, again leaving me saddened.

SINTESTI, ROMANIA: Garoafa Mihai, aged 14, dances in the street with her friends and family to be, wearing her 'salbe' (a necklace of gold coins) on the second day of celebrations for her wedding to Florin 'Ciprian' Lulu, aged 13. Both are Roma (gypsies) from the village of Sintesti, near Bucharest, Romania. Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert

My spirits lifted as I shot the rest of her dowry being displayed along the roadside. Distant smoke from metal furnaces rose into the sky linking these new shots with black-and-white images of smoky camp life from the 1990s, giving my project continuity. A double bed was constructed in the street, a goose wore a blue ribbon, knives, forks, a washing machine, 300 skirts and blouses, piles of soap and cleaning products and a widescreen TV appeared: everything the families believed a modern-day roma girl could want to begin her new life — everything except the chance of education and opportunity.

In the evening the singers arrived to belt out their loud 'manele,' music extolling the wealth and success of their patrons for the day, earning themselves $20,000 in wages for a few hours' work and another few thousand as male guests paid for requests and dedications: "From Simione, 200 dollars!!!... this song's for Ion!!" In the background Grafian and Papusha watched, almost forgotten now that their daughter-bride had been taken.

I'd had my fill of the music and photographing the dancing. The party was winding down and I kissed Garoafa. I wished her "casa de piatra!" or, to you a solid relationship, a house of stone! I packed my cameras and film and drove with Toni into the black night of the countryside.

(Please go to http://www.jeremysuttonhibbert.com to view more work from this project and to watch a video interview with Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert about the work.)