Married To You?

Urgh Shopping

Right, I'll give you great advice...

DON'T GET MARRIED!!

The god-damn stress of shopping!

This is from me, I love shopping for crying out loud!

You have to make sure you have everything matching and this is only for one day; the engagement, not even the wedding. You also have to make sure you've got an outfit that your immediate family can all wear-the same outfit/same design etc.

This wasn't really a problem because they don't have the choice! It's my wedding and what I say goes! Oh and what Qasim says!!

He didn't really have a big input into the outfit part of it all. He did however, have an input in where the engagement was going to be held; in a hall. Originally my parents were meant to pay for the halls and catering because they're the bride's parents and it's yet another Pakistani tradition but apparently Qasim wanted to pay half for everything which I personally, found adorable. He had said the reason was "It's the first wedding in our family in a long time and I'm sure Khadijah has expensive tastes"

At first my dad was declining his offer but his friend, Uncle Karim had insisted saying I was like his daughter and he will pay half whatever my dad paid which I laughed at because they had such a cute and close friendship.

We even did the wedding shopping; a red lengha (Asian bridal clothing) for me and a black suit with a black shirt and a red tie for Qasim. My bridesmaids did want me to get my hair done but I stuck to wearing a hijab because that's the one thing I wanted to keep on no matter what.

My outfit was actually pretty nice compared to most bridal outfits I've seen... Some too tacky, some too plain, urgh the list goes on. The top part of the lengha was a dark green with gold and red embroidery, the skirt was red with dark green and gold embroidery, my scarf was heavy, very very heavy, with gold embroidery on its red background and my pashmina hijab would be plain dark green.

Qasim's suit was well a suit. I don't know how to describe a suit. It was sleek and black, it looked smart and I think it'll look good with my outfit.

My bridesmaids' outfits were dark green dresses with peach clothing arms with silver embroidery. My brother's outfit was a dark green sherwani, ergh his outfit wasn't very interesting. My mother's outfit was peach in colour with silver embroidery and her scarf was peach with a dark green border, my father's was the same as Naveed's except it was peach in colour.

My mothers and father's brothers and sisters were wearing the same as my mother and father except they wore dark green instead of peach. My cousins are going to be wearing the same as the bridesmaids and Naveed except the colours were in reverse; the ladies outfit had dark green arms with peach as the rest of the dress and the men had peach with a dark green duppata (scarf).

So much peach, green and red. I don't know what Qasim's family were wearing but I did know they were doing okay in colour because Humaira, mum, Aneesah and Haleena and Qasim's mum were together pretty much 24/7 organising the outfits as my family's outfits were done, they were ready in the garage with the accessories next to them.

Anyway...

I didn't get to see Qasim during this shopping frenzy, but I did get to meet Abid and Aneesah which was a great plus. They were hilarious! It was a chance meeting to be honest.

▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️

"Haleena, get out, come on for god's sake I need to go now!!!" I screamed, needing to get into town to get Umer's suit for the engagement.

Even though I was the bride, it was my duty to do most of the collections and driving- you could say it was joey work, oh well!!

She rushed down zipping my hoodie up which I just ignored because honestly, I didn't have the time!

Jumping into the car, I put my music on, slapping Haleena's hand away from the CDs, she was annoying but my only choice for company as everyone else was busy.

Anyway, once we were at the store we went straight to the customer service are and picked up the suit, we had already ordered it so our chore was quick and easy. While walking out I saw Abid looking through suits, I didn't really want to say hi to him because I didn't know him quite that well even though we do talk to each other on w******p in the group but it was very rare and small talk mostly.

I didn't get to decide on a choice though, because he had glanced around and I caught his eyes, he smirked at me, guess both brothers have this issue, "You weren't planning to walk away without saying hello, were you?"

"Who, me? No, of course not, you're my best friend, right!!" I replied sarcastically.

He laughed, “It's nice to meet you, baji!"

"Wish I could say the same back" I teased.

"Oh my god, I love her already! Ha-ha!" Someone said behind me.

Turning around, I saw it was Aneesah , wearing a black top with blue skinny jeans and her hair pulled up in a messy bun, she was actually beautiful in a serene angelic way.

I waved at her, but she jumped on me hugging me very tightly, I laughed and returned the gesture.

"Hah, she's not that nice!" Abid muttered bitterly.

I laughed, knowing he was joking.

Haleena finally came back from wherever she was strolling, she was trying to find some matching handkerchiefs for our baby nephew, she didn't notice the fact that I was standing with Abid and Aneesah as her eyes were focused on her phone, “Shall we go now Deeds?”

“Hi” Abid spoke first interrupting the trance she was in thanks to her phone

She looked up slightly shocked, “Hi sorry I didn't see you”

“Yes we noticed” Abid laughed nodding to her phone

Haleena turned around to meet Aneesah and to my shock the two hugged each other and began talking like they've known each for a while now to which I wouldn't be surprised knowing how much Haleena likes making new friends.

Turning to face Abid, "Are you two finished shopping?"

"Yeh, pretty much, why?"

"Let's go eat, my treat." I said.

"Yes food..." Haleena groaned.

Abid stared at her and laughed, "I agree with her reaction, come on, I'm going to pick the expensive items on the menu"

I laughed teasing them, "McDonald's, it is then"

We decided to meet at Tinsel Town, once we reached we quickly ordered due to the hunger we were all feeling, shopping drains you, you know! Once we had to pay I pulled my card out to pay but Abid yanked it out of my hand and handed it to Haleena, "Why on earth am I going to let you pay, when I'm right here and you're pretty much my sister?"

I gushed at how cute he was, "Awwwh!"

"Yeah yeah." he blushed.

"Aneesah, he's so cute!"

"Hah, sometimes not most of the times so take advantage!" she laughed, sticking her tongue out at him.

He laughed, ruffling her hair.

"I want desert too by the way!" demanded Haleena.

"Of course, my queen, anything else?" he replied jokingly, but I had the slightest doubt he meant it in another context also.

"Ha-ha, no peasant, you may eat for now." she replied.

"They're cute together aren't they?" Aneesah whispered in my ear.

I looked at her, "How did you even know I was thinking about them two?"

She laughed, shaking her head, "They're flirting so obviously in-front of you, why wouldn't you be?"

I laughed just ignoring her remark.

Seeing Abid and Haleena talking and laughing it hit me just how much I missed Qasim.

"Where is Qasim by the way?"

"I have no clue, we've been out since breakfast"

We ate with a few jokes here and there, we were all too busy devouring our delicious meals, and now we were onto our yummy deserts.

*RING RING *

My phone went off, it was mum, I looked at everyone sheepishly and picked it up.

"Salam"

"Walaikam- a - salam”

"What's up, Mum?"

"Your clothes are here and the girls"

I squealed, seriously, I did!

"Okay, I'll be there in a bit, Khuda - Hafiz"

"Khuda - Hafiz"

My company were staring at me like I did something stupid which I may have done, via the squealing but I was honestly excited.

MY CLOTHES WERE HERE!!

"Clothes are here" I simply said as if it cleared up any confusion.

It did clear some confusion because Haleena and Aneesah were squealing too, Abid joined in with some high-pitched squealing which resulted in me laughing out-loud.

We set off not long after, me and Haleena wanting to get back to see the long awaited for clothes and Aneesah and Abid had to rush home because Abid forgot he had to collect his cousin from somewhere.

In the car on the way back home my phone vibrated.

Hah, to ignore or not to ignore was really the question!

I glanced at the screen and saw it was just a game's notification, yes I play games.

Oh wow!

I just realised I didn't have Qasim's phone number. That's weird. I am supposedly getting married to the man and I don't even have his number. Oh well.

Rushing home, I stormed into the living room, hey I had a reason.

MY CLOTHES WERE HERE!!! Cue girl squealing repeatedly!!

My outfit was plain gorgeous. Pink and silver embroidery. Oh, it was just heavenly! The only thing was it was so heavy because of the embroidery.

I only got such extravagant clothing because my mother had broken down in front of me saying I'm restricting her on her older daughter's wedding. I obviously bowed down to my mother's choices even if I didn't agree, I couldn't really deny her the chance to celebrate the way she had wanted to ever since my brother's wedding.

He was the only son, but his wedding didn't happen the way he wanted it to. There were so many complications because of Zohrah's family, it wasn't their fault yet the problems had occurred because of their spiteful ways. They had the tendency to be blunt and back then we weren't very good on the money front and my father did want to wait for a bit before he got them married but the love between the two was so strong he couldn't help but try. Trying, obviously was a bad choice as the family couldn't stop putting my father down by being rude about the amount of money he had put in towards the wedding.

Zohrah even gave money but to my father and had said, "You're like my father; don't deny me the right to contribute."

The weeks leading to their wedding were painful in the least. My mother was breaking down, my father was broken and my brother hated himself. That was when I started earning, I got a job and my first wage went to Zohrah's father and I had specifically said, "You tried to disgrace my father but Alhamdulillah he has three daughters and a son to help him stand when he gets weak!" He was confused to say the least when I had mentioned three daughters instead of two, "Zohrah is his third daughter, and thank god she didn't turn out like you!"

When I got home that day, Zohrah was there and honestly I was worried about if she would even talk to me since I was slightly rude to her dad but when she saw me she hugged me and thanked me.

My father was proud of me, my mother had cried but obviously she would, she loves the tears, she does! My brother felt a little bit guilty but I just hugged him and said "Don't worry you'll find a way to sort it."

Some of my family members had thought I was rude and very rudely expressed their feelings to my parents which hurt to watch even though my father defended me relentlessly, that's why I hadn't wanted to get married into the family and that's also why I respected for Qasim for wanting to contribute to the wedding expenses.

It was depressing but on the wedding day her father apologised and my father being the god-damn nice man he is, hugged him and said let bygones be bygones.

Now my mother was currently murmuring things to Zohrah about my dress which was irritating me to say the least but honestly I was happy we have the money to do this. I was also happy my mother and everyone was happy because if my wedding was destined to go the way Naveed's did, I would have told the groom to "f*** himself and his wedding." I'm sorry but I'm never willingly letting my parents go through that ever again.

I assume Qasim knows about this, it was national news thanks to my backstabbing family! The only people that helped and were proud of me were my parents' brothers and sisters.

Anyway, enough of thinking about depressing things.

The girls (Haleena, Zohrah and Humaira's) clothes were also here, I had got Haleena to ring Humaira to come and try it out, she was on her way she had said to Haleena she just needed to get ice-cream and some girly treats for a night in because honestly we haven't had one in ages. I was wondering if I should extend an invitation to Aneesah for it but my brother had said there was no point as Qasim's father had rang him discussing some details about the wedding and had told him that they were going to be out of town for a couple of days visiting his brother who they were going to bring back for the wedding.

Hello... Naveed must have Qasim's number! Obviously, I wanted it but I couldn't take it from Naveed's phone, that's just weird so I'll just leave it for now.

It was now one o'clock in the night and me, Haleena and Humaira just finished gushing over Channing Tatum's abs with some Ferrero Rocher's to help us. Zohrah didn't want to join us as she "had other abs to drool over" which made me and Haleena cringe and nearly vomit.

"Can you three shut up and go sleep?" Naveed screamed from his bedroom making me wince at how loud we were being.

We all looked at each other sheepishly and laughed as silently as we could.

"Sorry!" I replied.

We tip-toed up the stairs, me and Humaira slept together while Haleena slept in her room. She was fond of kicking in her sleep so no-one willingly spent the night with her, I should know, I survived it when I was younger.

I jumped into bed, grateful I had a break from work.

Sleep, here I come!!