My Lovely Wedding Day – Amy's Story.

If you’ve been following my story here on My Lovely Wedding then you’ll know that I got married in Dubai in December of last year – yay! – and I thought it was about time that I told you all about it. Plus I just got the pictures back and I love them so much that I couldn’t wait to share!
The Morning
The morning of my wedding was perfect. It was fully of girly giggles, bubbles and pampering, just like every girl dreams of. I started the day sharing a skinny latte with my Mum swiftly followed by being whisked off to Be Bar Blow Dry Salon with my mum and my sisters for our hair dos.  Be Bar’s co-founder Andrea Lindeyer is a family friend and has been doing our hair for years so I felt super comfortable and excited because I knew my hair would have the famous Andrea “WOW’ factor.
Back to my Mum’s house to get ready where bridesmaid Joelle met us with my fabulous make-up artist Monica of Blush Beauty Inc and a flower delivery from Vintage Bloom! Ooh it’s all starting to feel real now! The next two hours were a whirr of chats, champagne and everyone taking turns to steam a dress, take hair pins out, make toast or get their make-up done. Monica was fabulous and fitted right in with all the girlish excitement as she made us look beautiful.

The day really does go so fast and by the time I was ready to put on my dress it was pretty much time to leave for the church so it was maybe a blessing that I didn’t have too much time to think about it or stress out – thankfully my dress wasn’t complicated to put on! There was just enough time for a few pictures with my Mum and my bridesmaids and for my sister to give me the most beautiful Rose Quartz bracelet (this holds special meaning because my sister and I both share a love of crystals and she wore a rose quartz on her wedding day).

The Ceremony
We got married at Christchurch Jebel Ali and we couldn’t have had a better experience  – from the very beginning Weddings Secretary Anjali made everything so easy for us which made such a difference with having to plan a wedding in Dubai from Bangalore, India. I could only meet our Reverend Marjun a week before the wedding so I was a little bit nervous but I had no reason to be because she was so lovely and I ended up chit chatting with her for hours in the office!
Anyway back to the wedding day…we are on our way to the church and I can feel tingles of excitement and nerves.  We pull up and Reverend Marjun comes to meet me outside, giving me advice to take it slowly and enjoy every minute – at this point I think I was just trying to focus on breathing!  My brother-in-law Mark, and wedding photographer, comes outside to snap a few photos of us before we walk in and my bridesmaids get themselves in position (after asking my sister to fix my hair for the millionth time of course).

This brings me to another one of my favourite wedding day moments. My Mum was walking me down the aisle and I was so grateful to share this moment with her. I am very close to my Mum and always have been – for most of my teenage years my Mum and I lived in a beautiful apartment in Dubai Marina together and she is my best roommate, best friend and confidante to this day. The song I was walking down the aisle to (Hey Pretty Girl by Kip Moore) starts playing and my eyes start to flood with tears – happy tears of course! Thankfully my Mum fanned my face so I didn’t ruin my gorgeous make up and held my hand as we got ready to walk in.

As I walked down the aisle I smiled and waved at everyone and it was so special to be surrounded by the happy faces of our friends and family. Funny story, I actually avoided looking at Patrick until the very last moment because I was scared that if I made eye contact then it wouldn’t be able to hold back those happy tears I was talking about! I will never forget the look on Patrick’s face as my Mum handed me over to him as he said “Hello Beautiful” – I’m getting goosebumps now just writing about it. It was the look of true love and I didn’t think it was possible to love anyone as much I did in that moment.
The ceremony itself was beautiful and Reverend Marjun made us feel super comfortable. I surprisingly managed to hold it together apart from my voice cracking as I said “I take you as my husband.” (I mean saying “my husband” for the first time is a pretty big deal!).  Patrick and I both commented afterwards that it was the longest we’ve ever held eye contact and it was kind of weird but amazing because it feels like you’re the only two people in the whole world.

The Reception
Wedding bells chime and off we go! We’re married! Yay! After lots of big hugs and photos with our loved ones we were sent off in our car and told to “go for a little drive” before heading back to the reception at my Mum’s house. We walked into a big hurrah and a glass of champagne and it was the best feeling! I don’t think I stopped smiling for a second.

We had a beautiful intimate reception in my Mum’s garden and it was exactly what I wanted – a relaxed setting surrounded by the people that I love. It really is a super emotional whirlwind of a day and for me this was the perfect way to celebrate. The only thing that was missing was Patrick’s family from the US and my family from Scotland but that’s just more reason to have another wedding 🙂 My Mum put out an amazing selection of delicious snacks, fizz and even homemade juices and played hostess extraordinaire – thank you Mama! We even did a little cake-cutting (where my husband proceeded to put a whole piece of chocolate cake in my face) and of course, no celebration would be complete without a little bit of Lovely Styling 😉

In the evening we made our way over to Maya by Richard Sandoval at the Royal Meridien which has been one of our favourite restaurants in Dubai as a couple since we started dating. We were also surprised with a stunning cake by Gourmelicious that was arranged by Joelle – find out more about the details in my next blog!

As amazing as every single second of the day was I loved the dinner in the evening because everyone was able to relax into the night – on a wedding day everyone always has a job or a task and by this time everything is done so all there is to do is order some delicious food and enjoy some margaritas – highly recommended 🙂

So that’s what my wedding day looked like…can I do it again please?! I hope you enjoyed my story and maybe got a little bit of inspiration if you are planning your wedding in Dubai! Tune in to my next blog for more details on the vendors I worked with to help you plan your own special day. A special thank you goes out to amazing brother-in-law who kindly took all these beautiful photos for us so we can relive our wedding 🙂
With much from love from your bride-to-be,
Amy
P.S We are working on getting me my very own ‘Amy’ signature.