Asokoro, Abuja, Nigeria.
Saturday 31st March, 2018.

The Muhammad Umar mansion was bustling with activities. People who were able to make it from Abuja and beyond were all present getting prepared for the first event of the wedding of the only daughter of Hon. Muhammad Umar Jalingo, the classical Muslimah herself. People who knew they wouldn't be able to attend her other events had already gotten their invitations as it was based invite only.

Eesh was glowing, her chocolate skin shimmering due to the torturous daily beauty sessions. Her teeth that were rice colored were shimmering in the overly bright lighting of her room as they had turned pearl white. No, it wasn't whitening. It was just part of the body treatment session. Even her brown hair had turned two shades darker and looked like it had been slightly tinted with black, and it was softer and silkier than before. It even looked fuller and was now a little bit past her shoulders.

Her lashes looked longer and her once carved eyebrows were looking a bit bushy. She looked so beautiful that one look at her and one would know she was the bride.

"The event planner said the place has been organized, people should start arriving in two hours but the food is not there yet. There's hold up in Mararaba. What should we do?" Ikram said after she had muted the call, her phone still in her hand with a pinched expression on her face.

"Isn't she the event planner? She's supposed to know everything that she's supposed to do." Ruqayyah said as she called the two makeup artists and they said they were trying to get past the security.

"Where's Ibrahim? He needs to go and fetch the makeup crew from the gate. The security is refusing to let them in because they don't recognize them among the list they were given. Why didn't Abba include the makeup crew again?" Ruqayya asked no one in particular before she walked out frustratedly. Their male cousins weren't doing their jobs and there was no time.

"Eesh, someone wants to talk to you." Airah passed the phone and Eesh collected the phone.

"Erm, Eesh I don't know where to go from Asokoro mall." Someone said from the other side and Eesh squealed. The other occupants of the room all turned and looked at her skeptically.

"I didn't think you'd make it." Eesh said and Aqeela made a questioning look to Uwani who in turn shrugged. She wasn't inside Eesh's brain so how could they expect her to know everything that went on in that weird head of hers?

"Well I'm going to make it. I took Hidaya to Ammi's and so Habeebee is bringing me. He's been grumbling since because I can't remember the way to your house. He hates not knowing the way, something about security. But that's not the reason though, he said you were stealing me from him on the one Saturday the Vila had given him off." Eesh heard someone grumble that he'd leave her there if she didn't hurry up. She heard another feminine voice say shut up.

"I'll send a cousin of mine to come and direct you. Expect a black Peugeot 206 in the next few minutes." The person said an okay and Eesh asked which car they were in.

"It's a cyan G-wagon and we're right in front of the mall." Eesh said an okay and cut the call.

"Amrah, ask sani to take you to Asokoro mall. My guests are there and they don't know where to go next." Amrah groaned.

"Why Sani? Why not Ibrahim or Deen?" Eesh narrowed her eyes at Amrah.

"Will you go or should I make Sani your chauffeur for the rest of the week?" Amrah stomped her feet on the floor and turned, her silk gown twirling in the process.

"Airah, please call Sani." Few minutes later the said Sani, a dark skinned slim and tall guy peeped his head through the door.

"Please take Amrah with you. You'll see a cyan G-wagon in front of Asokoro mall, lead it here." Sani narrowed his eyes at Amrah and she hissed then took her phone from the top of the vanity table. She walked out, not before intentionally bumping her shoulder with his.

"The girls in your family have a problem." Sani said to Eesh shaking his head and the latter laughed. The rest of the girls in the room shouted their protests. Sani walked to his car and entered then revved the car to life. He drove out of the house and came back with the cyan G-wagon trailing behind him.

Amrah led the two beautiful women to Eesh's room.

"Look at how you're glowing. Seems like the beautician really knows her job." Eesh laughed.

"This my cousin, best friend and sister in law, Fatima Abba Sulayman." Said Fatima waved a hey to Eesh and Eesh introduced the occupants of the room.

"You all, this is Halima Audu Kalshingi. She's a chef and also a makeup artist."

The makeup artists had finished setting up their equipments so the bridesmaids; Airah, Ruqayya, Amrah, Mami, Halima, Fatima, Ikram, Neeha, Ummi, Naja'atu, Meenal and Aqeela took turns to get their makeup done by the second makeup artist, tolabanks and her four trainees.

Eesh on the other hand got her makeup done by the first makeup artist, Aisha AbdulKarim, whose page she happened to stumble across the previous year. While Uwani got hers done by Aisha AbdulKarim's trainee as she was the head bridesmaid and she needed to look different.

In two hours, the house was almost empty as the hired driving crew had started taking the guests to the venue of the dinner. They had started with the guest house that was across the street then the ones in the hotel before the ones in the house and as at then, the house was almost empty.

Some people from the photography crew, Hawthorn Studios came and started taking pictures of the bridesmaids. They were dressed in slate black silk gowns all sewn into simple prom gowns with raspberry illusion neckline and regular long sleeves of the same color as the neckline. Their slate black head gears had regular pleats. Their makeup was subtle. They looked so beautiful.

The head bridesmaid, Uwani was wearing a slate gray silk straight gown with a side drape that also serves as a trail with cranberry lace used to make an illusion-keyhole neckline and bishop sleeves by Hudayya. Her head gear was made into the v-pleated style with cranberry and slate gray silk materials used interchangeably. Her makeup made her fair skin glow.

Eesh on the other hand was wearing a platinum lace sewn by Elitestitches Fashion into a fitted gown with keyhole neckline and three quarter length sleeves. There was a cape like attachment on the waist area made from the same platinum lace, it was crinolined in waves, making the gown look starched, resembling a princess gown but not quiet it.

Her head gear was made in the rose style by Aisha AbdulKarim, hiding her hair and thereby casting a shadow on her forehead. Her makeup was full blown, like a bride's own is expected to be. She had platinum jewelry set consisting of a necklace with the infinity loop sign on it, earrings, a ring and a bracelet all with the same loop design from I_dress collections.

Her bridesmaids said it was perfect for the dinner as the infinity sign showed that they were going to be together till infinity, in other words, till death did them apart. There was another ring, which had two As entangled in one another. Alhaji Muhammad had gotten it specifically made for that event. Her shoes, platinum stilettos were gotten from Kubrah collections.

Eesh's look in one word was stunning. She looked breathtakingly gorgeous.

"Dayum!!!" Halima said her eyes taking in Eesh's dressing.

"Damn!!!" Airah whistled. All of them were stunned by how beautiful Eesh looked. She had always been beautiful but with the look she was featuring, she looked drool worthy.

"I just called Habeeb, he said they're on their way. They need to come so we can get going. This is already 9pm." Ruqayya said immediately they got on the phone.

The bridesmaids took pictures with the bride and chief bridesmaid. Few minutes later, the groomsmen came in.

Abulkhair was wearing a crema atlantico tuxedo from Giorgio Armani with porcelain Aegean crisp shirt tucked into the trousers. Gucci Italian men's shoe was clasped around his feet. His low-cut hair that was waved glimmered as he rose his hand to rub the back of his neck, making his Patek Philippe platinum wristwatch to reflect the light in the room.

The only thing missing that could differentiate him from Nigerians' definition of Adonis was the black silky hair. Even without the hair, he looked drop dead handsome.

The groomsmen, consisting of a few of Eesh's cousins and the rest, Abulkhair's friends were wearing slate black suits, matching dress pants and frost shirts underneath. The head groomsmen, Habeeb was wearing slate gray suit with matching dress pants and crisp white shirt underneath. They all looked handsome.

After clicking a few pictures, fifteen cars each driven by one of the groomsmen took off to Abuja conference center, the place chosen by The_Haajarah who was the event planner.

When Eesh stepped her feet from the car, with Abulkhair holding unto one of her hands while the other, holds an end of her gown, cameras started clicking the same time the breaths of the two people got knocked out of them. They held each other's gazes, each had different thoughts swirling through their heads, it was as though one couldn't believe that the other looked that breathtaking.

When series of awws and coos flied into the air, Abulkhair felt blood rush to his cheeks so he averted his gaze and helped Eesh out. The latter dropped her gaze to the floor, not believing she had stupidly looked at him for that long.

The bride and groom stood beside each other, holding unto each other's hands as if they would never let go. They looked so much in love when in reality it was far from that. The groomsmen split themselves in two, each choosing a partner among the bridesmaids. The chief bridesmaid and chief groomsman automatically paired up and stood in front of the bride and groom. Half of them stood in front of the bride and groom in a straight queue —one for the bridesmaids and another from groomsmen —while the other half stood behind.

And when Soco Soco, by Wizkid started playing to announce the bride and groom's arrival, the groomsmen and the bridesmaids started to dance their way inside, cameras were clicking, the photography crew were taking videos of every piece and bit of the dinner.

The whole place was decorated in different shades of gray with bits of some shades of red here and there.

The dinner went on for three more hours before the groom and bride left.

°°°

Umariri Songhai, Maiduguri, Nigeria.
Sunday 1st April, 2018.

Eesh was well rested and was getting dressed for the Fulani day which was set to happen inside their house in less than an hour. She wasn't Fulani, rather a full fledged Shuwa Arab, but Abulkhair was, hence, the reason for the Fulani day.

Her makeup was done perfectly by Aisha AbdulKarim, the same makeup artist that handled her dinner makeup the previous day. She was wearing the traditional Fulani bridal attire which consisted of a blue cotton wrapper with silver and red lines at intervals and a top sewn from the wrapper. Her head gear was done in different knots using the same cotton wrapper making it look very traditional yet beautiful. The same wrapper was draped on her head and pinned to the headgear and the shoulders of the cloth leaving it to dangle on her sides.

The Fulani jewelries, made from red, yellow, green and blue sand beads adorned her forehead, ears, neck and wrists. The one on the forehead had buttons dangling from it thereby casting a faint shadow above her eyes. The ones on the neck were two; one served as a choker while the other rested a little above her bosom. The wristband adorning her left hand was oxblood in color with four cowries sewn to it, resembling a wristwatch. The one on the right was exactly the same as the one serving as a choker.

Her legs were clasped in simple blue wedged shoes as it was a traditional event and there was no need for too much modernization.

Her bridesmaids —excluding Fatima and Halima who couldn't make it to Maiduguri as they had families to take care of— on the other hand were wearing the same type of Fulani attire but theirs, white with rice stripes where the silver was on hers. It had blue, red and green wools sewn into it. They had the traditional Fulani makeup on. Red huge dots were on their foreheads and cheekbones while white tiny dots connected them. Their lips were lined with black liners then wet with transparent lipgloss.

The bride was supposed to wear the same makeup as her bridesmaids but Eesh looked ridiculous with that makeup so they opted for the modern one.

The groom on the other hand was wearing a Trouser and thigh-length sleeveless shirt made from the same material the bride was wearing. His eyes were heavily lined with Kohl, giving him the required traditional Fulani look.

His groomsmen were wearing the exact same thing as him, just that theirs was white colored. Their shoes though, were exactly the same; the traditional fade roba which were white rubber shoes with holes on it.