Russian Bride (Wikimedia Commons)

If you are looking for love and romance, and you are serious about commitment to start a family but you cannot find a suitable partner wherever you live, your future bride might be waiting in Russia for you.  However, if you subscribe to the idea that Russian mail order brides exist, you might be prime for a surprising discovery.

First, when you look abroad for a life partner, you are definitely open to engage in an interracial relationship, that is, having relationships with people outside of your race (in essence, culture or ethnicity).  In this case with Russian brides, you will be intimately involved first with online dating as you explore possible mates.  Once you found your potential match, you could develop your online relationship and take yourselves towards engagement and eventually, have an interracial marriage. 

Perhaps, it is not material to you that your potential life partner would be coming from another country, having lived a culture with unique expectations, beliefs and norms very unlike what you have been socialized your entire life.  Love and the promise of romantic life tend to make you forget those practical issues of daily living.  Your own set of cultural values may be different from one another.  Language and cultural practice may also give you enough challenges to overcome.  How familiar are you with Russian culture and language?  This cultural gap is where you will experience a deep personal growth regarding cultural understanding, that is, if you are open to accepting ideologies and social mores different from yours.  If you have no idea how intercultural communication and cross-cultural understanding work, you might also decide to get smart on them before venturing further down this path.

Let us explore the concept of mail order brides.  It is considered a demeaning phrase to use towards women of any culture.  When people meet on online dating sites and develop a relationship that leads them to marriage, and the woman comes from Germany, Australia or Kansas, does that make her a mail order bride even though she posted a profile on the Internet for the purpose of finding a husband?  When she comes from Russia, she is given that title, a left over phrase from World War II.

Expect that none of these Russian women will just appear in your mailbox or be delivered by other shipping means to your door just because you went online shopping, as if you could just look at profiles and check off a box, pay shipping charges and expect delivery with tracking number.  It is not  as easy as that sounds to find a Russian bride, as online dating is similarly laid out from site to site and it is more intricate than going online shopping for material goods and services. The Russian woman has the right and privilege to accept or reject a marriage offer, much like any other woman.  They do have the ultimate decision and they will not enter a marital union blindly.  Besides the online dating approach, you can also expect the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Russian government to take part in your preliminary nuptial arrangements with their own sets of criteria for immigration.  But most of all, understand that Russian women are also looking for love, security and family just like the next person. 

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Romance 101: 10 Memorable ideas for a marriage proposal (Part 1 of 2)

Romance 101: 10 Memorable ideas for a marriage proposal (Part 2 of 2)

Romance 101: How to attract love and romance in your life? (Part 1/2)

Romance 101: How to attract love and romance in your life? (Part 2/2)

By Gina Alzate, World Tours and Cruises

** Gina Alzate is also the National Holistic Travel Examiner and the Philadelphia Romance Examiner.   Examiner.com delivers the next edition of this series right to your Inbox.  To subscribe, please visit here.