BRIDAL CONTEST

Chapter 34

A big revelation at the end.

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As the big day draws closer, many brides experience wedding jitters. It's natural to feel a little overwhelmed with the enormity of the event, the planning and the expectations. With so much to do, it can be hard to stay focused and feel confident.

I have always thought it is the happiest experience ever. Although I don't like being the center of attention but being pampered by everyone is a yes-yes for me.

Sitting on the make-up chair in my room that is now being converted into my dressing room, the make-up artist is busy applying the finishing touches. Peeping through the mirror I feel a wave of nerves washing over me that I have to breath in and out to steady my breathing. I can hear the guest arriving already and the music playing in the compound. I thought of the long months of preparations and of the day I have dreamt of for so long, I never saw it coming this early but love have a way of creeping in when you're not expecting it.

Now that I'm living this dream I feel so overwhelmed. I just wish for a few more minutes, hours or days, just a chance to compose myself and clear my head before I am being announced a wife. My hands shook as i reach for the gold ring that comes in a set with the earrings and necklace I am wearing.

I felt as if someone is watching me intently so I rose my head and saw a smile creeping up Amatullah's face, the only person allowed to be in the room apart from the make-up team. Zuby is hell bent on being the assistant bride so I am sure she is somewhere around the house getting glammed. Amatullah's smile is the assurance I needed that everything will be fine, but will it?

I gave the head artist an apologetic look so she doesn't feel like I don't like the make-up and she gave me a tight-lipped smile, from her eyes I could read that she was used to such emotions.

This beauty regimen I have been doing for two months has really paid off, it is a body polishing thing I do every night and I sleep with it on a bedsheet that is assigned just for it because it stains. If I take my morning bath, I have to wash the bathroom immediately. Most times it is what keeps my mind from going haywire when it starts going down the valley of what-ifs.

The events of the weeks before this day is what has been crawling my mind and dampening it. Everything started out with the pre-wedding pictures or.... Not.

I wasn't so keen on it and wasn't against it either it was suggested by the wedding planner and I didn't object it seeing as Mr. COO didn't too.

The session have four themes. English, Royal, Tradition and Casual. I criticized every piece of clothing that was provided for the English team. What does she take me for? How can I be wearing such for pictures that will go to places I have never been. My complain was beginning to irk Arshad but he has to deal with it because there is no way I am going to wear what I will not be comfortable in. I'm sure the designer was tired of my rants too so she showed me a descent evening gown I'm pairing with a tiara. It stole my heart at first glance but there's no way I'm letting my hair open, even the bridegroom have never seen my hair talkless of some random men that I will never know in my entire life so I told her I'm wearing a turban under the tiara.

"How about we fix a wig since you're not comfortable with opening your hair."

"That's worse than letting my hair out."

Everything about the Royal theme was perfect, from the costume to the setting. My only problem is with the first one but I judged too early. There was nothing Hausa Fulani about the traditional. The setting is Indian, I'm wearing Kanuri's Lafaya and Arshad is to wear a brocade thobe that's more Arabian than Hausa.