You're reading: Marie Claire: My life as a mail-order bride

As told to Kira Zalan:

The night I met my husband, in the port city of Odessa, Ukraine, in late 2000, I stood against the wall in a restaurant at the Black Sea Hotel along with 200 other young women. They were decked out in their fanciest dresses, their faces caked with makeup. Dressed conservatively in my dark-gray pantsuit, I felt invisible in the sea of ball gowns. The two dozen men seated before us—all from America, mostly in their 50s or 60s—had come to find wives. Read the story here.