Significance of unveiling the bride

The Bridal or Wedding Veil covers some part or all of the head, hair and/or face but it is not necessarily just the bride who may wear a veil.

In some parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, it is the men who wear a sehra on their wedding day. This veil, made from flowers, beads, tinsel, dry leaves, or coconuts or fresh marigolds, covers the whole face and neck and the groom wears this throughout the day concealing his face, arrives at the ceremony on horseback and does not remove the veil until the end of the wedding ceremony.

The Bridal Veil has a mixed and long history through Europe, Asia, and the Africa continent and with exploration and migration, spread back and forth across the world.

In biblical times it was  the groom who placed a veil over his bride’s face before the ceremony as a gesture and promise that he was marrying her for her inner beauty but more widely, in Judaism, Christianity and in Islam, the purpose of the veil was generally to offer a ‘shield’ from evil including demons who were attracted to beauty, and the eyes of sinful men.

In ancient times when a village was short on brides, a groom might gather the ‘best man’ of the village (the best fighter) and sneak over to the next village to kidnap a bride who would be dragged back to the groom’s own village for marriage. The Bride and other maidens I waiting, were all dressed alike and wore veils to conceal the bride from her potential.

In the middle ages across Europe, when there were arranged marriages, a bride would wear a facial veil until the end of the ceremony, in part so that the bride would not be rejected by the Groom on the basis of her looks.

In the Cyclades, (Greek islands) it is believed that being a bride is one of the vulnerable
stages in the passage of life, the transient state between being a young girl to a married woman, and so she is dressed as beautifully as possible but as a beautiful young woman about to be married, she may be coveted by the evil eye and so she is therefore veiled and adorned with amuletic jewellery to protect her.

Following this tradition, the European bridal veil and headdresses may be pearled as the sheen of pearls reflects the evil eye and frightens it away, the reflection being anathema to it.

In the Nasaud area of Northern Romania bridal headdresses are still hand made of pearls and mirrors for this specific purpose.

By the 19th century, wedding veils came to symbolize a woman's piety, virginity and modesty and this included the covering of her hair.

The tradition of a veiled bride's face continues even today wherein, a virgin bride, especially in Christian or Jewish culture, enters the marriage ritual with a veiled face and head, and so remains fully veiled, both head and face, until the ceremony concludes.

The lifting of the facial veil may also be recognised as the crowning event of the wedding, when the beauty of the bride is finally revealed to the groom and to  the guests with the groom.

When the bride's father lifts the veil, it was a gesture of ‘giving’ the bride to the groom who then kisses her, or the new groom may lift  her facial veil to kiss her, symbolizing the groom's right to enter into conjugal relations with his bride.

Veiling continues to play a role in both religious and civil weddings, but the Bride is no longer regarded as property to be given and so the veil is now worn more as a design style, and it is often the lead bridesmaid who will lift the veil to reveal the Bride’s radiance while also ensuring the bride’s hair and makeup and not disturbed.

Depending on cultural and personal preferences, the optimal times to remove the veil are:

• upon arrival in the ceremonial area to face the groom so that the Bride's beauty and radiance are revealed firstly to the groom,
• at the end of the Ceremony, in readiness for the first kiss
• Upon arrival at the reception
• After the first dance while guests are eating.

Once the veil's off, stick it in your bridal suite or have it "decorate" your chair.

There are two common options for who lifts the veil

1. Your escort or lead bridesmaid lifts the veil when the bride is presented, "revealing" her radiance to the groom.
2. The groom/bride lifts the veil just before the kiss.

Depending on your hairstyles and how the veil is attached, the assistance of the Matron/Maid of Honour may be called for regardless of who lifts the veil

In western culture the bride and groom should not meet in the day of their wedding.
So, in order to also keep the surprise until the final last moment the bride is veiled until she reaches the groom.
There are lots of stories about a bride being veiled through the ceremony and after marriage revealing themselves as a different person