Did people in the past watch other people consumate their marriages?

I recently watched "Antoinette", a movie about Marie Antoinette. In the movie, a bunch of people watched the king and queen consumate their marriage on their wedding night. Then, they looked for blood to see if she was a virgin. It seems very bizarre to me. Is that true?

Did people in the past watch other people consumate their marriages?
I don't know about it in Marie Antoinette's case (although if memory serves she and Louis XVI did NOT consummate on their actual wedding night - I think she was considered too young), but in the High and Late Middle Ages a marriage was frequently accompanied by a ceremony known informally as "bedding". It was when a relatively large group of "witnesses" would escort the brifegroom to the bride's chamber for the wedding night. But they didn't go into the room and actually observe the sexual consummation. A few people would remain outside the door for the entire night, presumably to make sure neither party snuck out and shirked their marital responsibilities.





And checking the sheets for blood as "proof" of virginity is not so bizarre - it was a common practice in Colonial America and is still practiced in some cultures today.
Reply:The first part is certainly true. It was common practice for royalty to have their first conjugation witnessed by clergy and other nobility (see link below).





I've not heard of the second part before though.