the girls

We all sat on the carpeted bare floor, surrounded by boxes and material (I opened a box heehee) and opened several cartons of food. As we munched our way through chickpea curry from Omars, chicken and chips from Raja's, mango juice, salad & vegetable fried rice from the halal chinese down the road, we chatted about the days since we had all been together. They asked what I was doing when they were all sat outside in the car, in the rain.. I told them, 'the only thing I know to do when Im feeling down' they knew what I had been doing, alhamdulillah. We chatted away about my expectations for the next day, all of these friends were all married so they knew the things I was nervous about, they had experienced it themselves at some point. They all dished out advice, most of which I threw over my shoulder and made stupid faces at, we all laughed and clinked glasses (well plastic cups) full of fruity shloer making random toasts like 'to the city that never sleeps', 'to my parents for making us who we are', 'to school for filling me with rubbish that I will never use' It was fun :D My friends havent met my future husband yet, they will see him tomorrow at the ceremony insha'allah... I hope they warm to him quicker than I did.I sat there, remembering our few times together that we have had... once the propsal was done we didnt really see each other, but spoke often and at length on the phone, this was when I got to know the real person who I would be marrying. At first he seemed ok, nice looking but weird.. although maybe it was the whole situation that was freaking me out and not actually him. After some time I realised he had a wicked sense of humour, was kind, thoughtful (although slightly forgetful) always willing to do something for the sake of other people. We chatted about the future, our future, kids, education, even some politics (although i tried to steer away from the subject too) it was generally nice to have someone I could pick up the phone and talk to alhamdulillah... its different with my girls, Ive realised that now, for both sides of the gender scale Im grateful for.I brought myself back to life with a snap when Deena asked me to see my dress for tomorrow, I pointed her in the direction of my kitchen to the mass of material hanging on the back of the door. She pulled down the zipper to reveal a simple yet elegant long white satin gown, the gasp from the ladies told me they approved alhamdulillah. It was fitted near the chest but not too fitted, then shot out from an empire line to the floor, with the fabric touching the floor there was a row of pearls and hidden tiny weights to keep the dress down. My arms would be covered with opaque ivory georgette fabric with the pearls around the sleeves and the neck and also red pearls over the empire seam. On my head I would be wearing a red hijab (to match the pearls, my flowers and my kitten heeled shoes) under a white veil. so imagine... red triangle hijab pinned under chin as normal, then a see thru netted piece of fabric that would drap over my whole head and attached by a pearl covered headband that would also stop it from moving once it had been pushed away from my face. Very traditional and very halal :) alhamdulillah.