In today's times, a bride and groom start seeing each other well before marriage plans. You've probably been dating each other for years and maybe even live in the same cramped one-bedroom apartment.

As you've read from the previous wedding origin stories like The Role of the Original Groomsmen, you'll know that back in the day women had less rights than a gay couple in Alabama. Besides stealing a wife, the best way to acquire a woman was to buy her, which helps explain part of this GroomStand wedding origin story.

The Origin of Why the Groom Can't See the Bride Before the Wedding

The root of the tradition revolves around the business transaction of selling a bride. For the father of the bride, the most profitable situation he can make is by selling off his livestock ... I mean daughter... to a wealthy landowner to increase fortune throughout the family. However, the worth of the bride was measured in her attractiveness, which means it was a deal breaker if the bride-to-be has a poor ranking on the crazy/hotness scale.

This scale take into account the amount of total hotness divided by total craziness. Professor Barnabus Stinson theorizes that women can only be exponentially as crazy as they are hot, but if the woman ranks too high on the crazy side, or if she just isn't that hot, it's time to bolt.

To prevent the groom from heading for the hills, the bride's family kept her out of sight until the wedding day.

Unveiling the Veil

You'd think that the primary use of the veil would be to cover up the bride's gigantic beak until the last possible second, but its use has popped in and out of popularity since the Greek and Roman times. Since evil spirits were always on the loose, which is the root for most of these crazy traditions anyway, the veil was the equivalent of Peter Vankman with a proton pack. Once people stopped believing that a piece of cloth could stop a ghastly demon, it fell out of fashion until the 18th century when George Washington's niece Nellie used a white lace veil in her wedding, setting the example for the country.

Truth be told, there is no "bad luck" with seeing the bride before the wedding - besides, it's unlucky to believe in those silly superstitions anyway. This tradition is still around today because it's a fun and cheap thrill to add onto the already hectic day. If you're thinking about not seeing the bride until you're on the other side of the aisle, do it because you want a bit of adventure, not because you saw every other wedding do this for no good reason.