Marriage-scenes on red-figure pots are our richest source of information about the Classical Athenian wedding. This subject is one we sometimes find on pots for use by women (such as a pyxis or a lekanis) and, more rarely, on a pot - such as a kylix or an oinochoe or a krater - that looks as though it must have been used for a wedding ceremony because of the way it is decorated. The majority of wedding scenes, though, were painted on a loutrophoros or lebes gamikos, vessels specially associated with the marriage ceremony.

What caught the vase-painters' interest here was ceremonies such as the adorning of the bride, the wedding-procession, or the bride's arrival at her new home. It is much easier to find pictures of these than of other stages of the wedding - the pledge, the sacrifices, the offerings to the gods, the bride bathing, the banquet, the dancing, the unveiling, or the epaulia.

The favourite scene is the adorning of the bride-to-be. Attic vase-painting shows every stage of this procedure - from tying her sandals to preparing her hair. She is surrounded by her bridesmaids - members of her family and women friends who are either helping her get ready or adorning themselves. From about 425 B.C. onwards, there are similar scenes with figures of women busy with their hair, or carrying household objects, or (more seldom) enjoying themselves - activities unconnected with adorning the bride. Sometimes one and the same scene shows different stages of the bridal preparations, in no particular order.

The procession to the bridegroom's house is an equally popular wedding scene in Attic vase-painting. Here the various stages are shown, starting with the departure of the bride and finishing with the end of the procession and the reception of the couple at the bridegroom's house. Very often Attic pots also show the bride's and the groom's mothers; the bride's mother carrying torches (so that the fire from the family hearth can light the girl's way and protect her), and the groom's mother usually waiting for them at the door of the house, again bearing torches (to pass on the flame to the bride's new home). Another subject that is common on pots is the procession to the bridal chamber.

Scenes of sacrifice are often depicted on Attic pots, but it is not always easy to see whether or not a wedding is being shown. Individual pictorial details (such as the crown, the presence of Eros, or the way the figures are dressed) help us identify scenes as sacrifices at weddings.