Me, me as Makena, me I love love!

I’ll cry watching a random netizen’s proposal, I’ll cry watching a bride I don’t know, walk down the aisle holding her parents’ hands, I’ll ululate when the wedding officiant announces them as newly weds…aaah sign me up for any romantic event. We really were created to be in beautiful relationships, to enjoy being loved and to love. I genuinely wish you a beautiful love story. May your love journey, be the best you’ve ever read or heard of☺.

My aunt asked me to be on her bridal line-up🎉. Aaah please, this was a dream come true!!!

Since this is the first time I’ve been a bridesmaid, I had to document the whole journey. Enjoy!

WEDDING DRESS

We had our dresses’ measurements taken quite late. Slightly a month before the wedding, is late for me. My fingers are crossed, hoping that tailor won’t mess our day.

29/01/2022

I went to fit my dress today. Maina, that dress is nothing close to what I expected it to be. It is way above my expectations. As I type this, I’m a happy bridesmaid☺. I have to commend the tailor on his speed and impeccable nature. I’ll probably post a video of it on my IG feed or Facebook. Maurice +254 720 299894 is one Nairobi fundi you can rely on.

Fun fact – He made the whole bridal party’s outfits, including the groom’s and the bride’s gown!

JEWELRY

Finding complementary jewelry was the easiest task. I just needed to walk along Dubois street for like an hour. Dubois has such an array of jewelry at very fair prices. I realized I’ve been sleeping on it, a lot😂.

Shout-out to my aunt (not the bride) for keeping me company as I looked for the jewelry.

SHOES

Finding shoes was hectic. I don’t think there’s a shoe shop on IG, whose page I haven’t scrolled through😂. Auntie needed us to be in clear shoes, either heels or sandals.

On day 1 of the search, my sister and I went to town. There’s a particular shop on Moi Avenue where we were sure that we’d get those specific shoes. We found the shoes stocked out. To be honest, I started panicking. We spent the next almost 2 hours walking into shoe shops. That first day search was quite futile.

Btw acha niwaambie. A day or two before we were instructed to get the clear shoes, I’d seen an influencer share those exact shoes. She’d even tagged the shop she’d bought them from. I didn’t take my time to screenshot or even go through that shop’s page. So when we didn’t get the shoes on day 1, I was so frustrated. I was highly tempted to ask her where she got the shoes, but you know how they are big on not responding to something they’ve talked about earlier. I actually do get where they are coming from, but that’s a discussion for another day.

Day 2 had us scouring the internet; Instagram, to be specific. I do love how IG algorithm works. I only needed to manually search for two shops, and then the algorithm flooded my timeline with all the shoe shops in Nairobi. Some of my acquaintances suggested shops, because I did reach out for their help. That was a village search, you guy.

As I type this, I’m happy to tell y’all that I have my shoes, 3 weeks before the wedding. I love being that early when it comes to preparing for an event. Heh, the heels are a bit higher than what I’m used to. I’ll be spending the next 3 weeks doing cat-walks in my house, just to get used to that height🤣.

31/01/2022

I quickly realized that I can’t stay with the heels on, for long. I’m not those babes that will be on the dancing floor with 6” stilettos; bado sijafika hapo priss. That meant me buying a second pair of flat shoes; either sandals or doll shoes. The one pair that I loved, was a size smaller😭. I found a cute pair of doll shoes today.

As at this hour, with exactly 11 days to the wedding, I’m 90% set for the day. The 10% is for my hair and nails. I’m about to grab the ‘Best Bridesmaid 2022’ award, and run with it.

10/02/2022

Either yesterday or the day before that, a babe posted some clear mules. Yaani those shoes were nowhere to be found when I was looking for them, but now that I no longer need them, they are everywhere. Nkt!

MAKE-UP

10/02/2022

I have applied make-up just once. I’m not sure of how I feel about applying make-up almost 15 years later. My aunt went for a test beat yesterday though, and she has endorsed that artist. I am looking forward to how I’ll look after the beat.

16/02/2022

I loved the beat. Thankfully, my aunt wanted a nude beat for all of us, so it really complimented my subtly reserved personality. I can’t with dramatic make-up, please. I’m however low-key hoping someone invites me to a mask-themed event so that I show up with some dramatic art on my face instead of getting a mask.

HAIR

For the 4 years I’ve been a Nairobi resident, I have not come across a loctician that did my hair to my satisfaction. I have tried two locticians in this Nairobi, and I didn’t like their work.

I was referred to a new one, by a relative. I was a bit skeptical, but then that hair needed to be retouched. They did a neat job. I asked them to twist the locs in twos and I later untwisted them on the wedding’s eve. Heh, you should have seen the curls! Now I’m quite disappointed that the only close-up photo I took of the hair was with someone else so I even can’t share it here. My Meru loctician remains unbeaten. However, when my schedule doesn’t allow me to travel to Meru, I’ll visit Gifted Hands Parlour. I really loved how my hair turned out, chile!

NAILS

Delish Naibar’s Whitney and Joshua, are who they think they are. For someone who’s never installed tips before, I’m very comfortable in them, days later. The nail art was definitely a pinterest inspo, and I LOVE it!!! I can’t have enough of my nails. I’ve been staring at them everyday since Friday. I will start saving up to have my nails done, because this is the life I’m built for.

Generally, my wedding outfit, from my hair to my toes understood the assignment. Everything fell in place, just as I had imagined it would. That is a look I’ll definitely re-create later this year.

CONCLUSION

Walking this journey has had me knowing for sure that I want a white wedding for myself. For some reason, everyone is obsessed with civil weddings and I might have drowned in that hype. I want my maids to go through the hustle I’ve gone through, to make my day a dream come true, literally!(Lol, they really won’t hustle a lot because I’m about to start a wedding fund to cater for their expenses).

Also, the glam and pomp that comes with white weddings is really it for me. I cannot imagine myself getting married at 1100hrs and then going back to my work station at 1400hrs. Everyone has their cup of tea, and a civil wedding is definitely not mine.

Having your own community is such a plus while hitting huge life milestones. At her shower, my aunt’s friends really showed up for her. They put together a beautiful intimate event for her. Her crop of friends are huge believers of Christ. That is probably the main factor they were able to put together such a hang-out on a relatively short notice. I mean, two people cannot walk together unless they agree or can they?!?

The conversations we had were quite uplifting. Heh, let me tell you guys, marriages do work. You probably have already built an argument to oppose this, and that says a lot about the relationships around you. Listening to the ladies talk about their experiences as wives, I was mind-blown. I always knew marriages are beautiful, but I didn’t know they are that beautiful!