Haha, there's a shop in the UK that sells breath-taking, medieval style wedding-dresses. I was nuts about them, and also hoping to get married to the man I was with at the time. Not for the sake of being married, but cos I really wanted to be his wife. However, things went sour and the last thing he was interested in, was marriage.
I felt deeply hurt and rejected, and the painting is a reflection of my feelings at the time: The bride walking away, dark environment, on her way to ... a better life? New dawning?
No one knew about my pain, not even that I wanted to get married to him, hence you don't see this woman's face either. She's hiding her sorrow from the rest of the world.
Thank god that's all behind me.

I'm currently 'brooding' on a new bride painting, showing her from the other side, in daylight, a happy woman at that.

Well my opinion is as follows;

1) I won't consider a relationship with anyone who doesn't even believe sex can happen on the first date.
2) I think the whole 'must be friends first' is a false construct.
3) This approach is nothing more than a playing for time mechanism for women who don't know if they actually want to have sex with you.
4) The reality is studies show that a woman knows within 30 seconds of meeting a man if she will sleep with him or not.
5) Also the 'I'm not that kind of girl!' position? Yeah, you are that kind of girl. The level of your kink is directly proportional to the level of emotional security and trust you have with the guy you are with.
6) Truest adage regarding relationships is the following, "Men need sex for love, women leave love for sex."