hey richard..well here's the thing in the past ppl used to get married without even seeing each other but that changed a bit now..when a guy asks for a gurls hand frm her father he gets to c her when he meets her parents then after that they get to talk to each other through out their engagment and some families r ok with letting them go out for dinner n stuff n some aren't depends on how religious the family is and on how they think YET some families still stick with the old ways of the gurl gets to marry a guy she never spoke to or saw and vise versa..
dont have any personal experience to be honest i just said what i said from what i've seen happening around me so i hope i didn't leave anything important out or offended anyone..and i hope i made it a bit clear for u

take care