Wedding History

If you're looking for the antithesis of modern bridal beauty, ancient Sparta is probably your best bet. Although Spartan women enjoyed far more liberated lives than women in the rest of the Greek city-states, their marriage rituals were far from progressive.

To "get pretty" for her new husband, a Spartan girl was kidnapped from her home, then had her head shaved, was rubbed down with oil, and put in men's clothing. She would then wait for her groom in a darkened room with nothing but a bare mattress. Romantic, no?