What Is a Mail Order Bride? Here’s Our Mail Order Bride Definition!
If you are looking for a mail order bride definition, this website is the right place for you. So, what is a mail order bride? Where to find these women and how to not lose your money on fake dating platforms? How to find brides using top dating services? What are the advantages of having a foreign bride or wife? What are the disadvantages, what problems should you expect, and how to solve them? Here, we’ll answer all your questions and tell you all the most useful and the most important facts about mail brides!
Mail order bride definition and short history
Let’s explain the mail bride meaning rather than give a rough definition of it. During the Westward expansion, thousands of American men who left their land to explore the American West were single and had 0 marriage prospects. To solve this problem, men posted lots of advertisements in newspapers and church bulletins in the eastern states. These ads were the matrimonial advertisements — men offered themselves as potential husbands and provided their mailing addresses to start exchanging letters.
They sent each other mails, arranged meetings, and often built very successful families — this was the beginning of the mail order bride’s history.
How do mail order brides work in the 21st century? Very similar to what we’ve just described. Men and women still post matrimonial advertisements, send each other letters, and get to know each other better by mail. The main difference is that now everything happens online — there are lots of dating platforms that are focused on women from certain countries and regions (we’ll explain what is a mail order brides website later). Know you know the mail bride meaning but let’s not stop.
What is a mail order bride platform and how to choose the best one?

What is a mail order bride website? It’s simple. Basically, it’s a dating website that works like Tinder, Bumble, or Match. You sign up, find a woman, chat with her, arrange a date — that’s how all the dating services work, and mail bride platforms are not an exception. But of course, there are some differences.
The thing is, mail bride websites are, as the name implies, focused on mail brides — foreign women who are searching for an American man (or for a man from any other Western country). This means that such websites must have some special features and offer special services — for example, most of them offer translation services (they are often free) in order to help the users cope with the language barrier problem. Such websites often have a mandatory ID verification for women, which is quite a rare feature when it comes to American dating sites.
What we can say here is that ID verification does really work well — the percentage of scam profiles and bots is much lower on mail bride websites.
Well, the latter is true when it comes to trusted mail order bride sites only, of course. We also have some top dating websites covered here.
How to find a decent service with a good reputation and without fake profiles? It’s not that hard, actually. Just read the following rules, answer the following questions, and you’ll find a great website easily!
- Check if the website is safe. If it has an ID verification for women, it most likely doesn’t have a lot of fake profiles. If it has a 128-bit SSL encryption, your financial information and personal data will never be stolen or intercepted. It’s very simple and it won’t take more than, say, 1-2 minutes — but you have to do it to understand if a certain website is worth your time or not.
- Reputation is extremely important, so don’t forget to check it, too. Does the website belong to a group of dating sites or a company? Does it have good customer ratings? What do real users say about this site?
- Take a look at the number of communication tools. Is there a video chat? What about a live chat? Can you at least read mails from women for free?
- Then, it’s time to look at the price. If a dating website is too expensive, it makes sense that you should avoid it. What’s less obvious is that if a website is too cheap, it isn’t worth your attention and time either. The medium price range is the right one to focus on.
- Read the reviews. Like, all of them — if you find 10 expert reviews of a website, read them all. The more reviews you read, the more you know about the site, which is extremely important.
- Test the dating site yourself. Some things are impossible to describe in reviews. Is the website interface easy to use? Do you like the interface of the live chat? Do female profiles look 100% real? The only way to find the answers to these questions is to sign up and test the mail bride service yourself.
Everything about mail order brides: Pros and cons

Now, when you know what is a mail bride, it’s time to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of having a foreign girlfriend. Are these women really that perfect? And what problems should you expect when dating a foreign lady?
Let’s begin with the advantages!
- These women are usually very beautiful. Beauty is basically the very first word that comes to mind to define mail order brides — it doesn’t matter which country you choose; it’s always the most beautiful girls of this country who become mail wives.
- In most cases, mail brides want to have strong and serious relationships. Most of them (especially the ones from Asia) are not interested in one-night stands at all — instead, they want to find a husband whom they’ll love forever and build a strong and happy family in the future.
- Most mail order brides make perfect wives and mothers. Whether it’s their culture, their religion, or their parents that make them who they are, the reasons don’t really matter. What matters is that girls from Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are loyal and family-oriented, they want to build a strong family, and they think that family is the most important thing in the world.
But what about the disadvantages?
- Price. The average cost of mail order brides is up to $15,000-$20,000 (including wedding), so you will have to spend a little more than with an American woman. The thing is, you’ll have to meet your mail bride in her country sooner or later, and it might cost quite a lot.
- Language and cultural barrier. Again, the country doesn’t matter — mail brides usually have another cultural background, and they don’t usually have fluent English. Well, most dating websites offer translation services, so this problem will likely be minimized.
- Dating a foreign girl is harder than dating a girl in your neighborhood. You won’t be able to hug her to calm her and kiss her to show her that you love her. You won’t be able to talk to her as though she was near you. Long-distance relationships are very hard to maintain, let’s be honest. But if you succeed, you will love the result.
FAQ
Mail order brides are foreign (usually Asian, East European, and South American) women who want to find a foreign husband, and yes, it’s a real thing. Unfortunately, there were lots of fake mail bride websites not that long ago, but now, most of the platforms are real and reputable. However, it’s still very important to find a safe and trusted mail bride platform.
Asia (especially Southeastern Asia), Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Russia), Latin America (Brazil, Colombia). The absolute majority of mail order brides are from these regions, but of course, there are also thousands of brides from the countries we missed.
Foreign ladies, usually in their 20s, 30s, and 40s, who use mail bride services to find a Western husband, are called mail order brides. Dating websites usually cost about $50-$100 per month, the average date in another country (including travel expenses) will cost up to $1,000-$2,000, and the wedding can cost up to $20,000, especially if you want to marry your bride in the United States.
The language barrier, the cultural barrier, high price. The first two problems are quite easy to solve — most foreign brides assimilate in 6-12 months after arrival. The price is a problem, too — if you want to pay less, you can choose cheaper dating websites, use the cheaper communication tools (e.g. live chat instead of a video call), and marry your bride in her country instead of the United States.