RebYidd23- I doubt the veils women used to wear on a regular basis were completely nontransparent. I’d assume the women were looking at where they were going and not bumping into everything.
At my wedding if I hadn’t had my mother and mother-in-law guiding me I would have bumped into everything. As it was I tripped over a step because they forgot to warn me it was there. I was pretty much completely blinded.
I didn’t see my chassan and if there is no way he saw me. If they would have switched me with another girl there is no way he would know. They could have switched out my chassan too technically but then the crowd would have noticed. I was completely disoriented by not seeing anything (due to the veil) and barely had a clue what was going on.
What really upset me was when I was looking through old black and white photos of my great-grandparents weddings back in Europe I saw that the veil was somewhat see-through. I wish I could have had one like that.