Diary Of A Dubai Real Bride: Introducing Amy Cowin

Last week, we introduced you to Michelle, one of our ‘real Dubai brides’, who will be updating you each month on her wedding planning journey. Today, we get to meet Amy Cowin, who will also be sharing the highs and lows of planning a wedding in the UAE with you, our readers.

Amy is a teacher and has been with her fiancé, Nik, for almost six years. Last December, Nik proposed and Amy said yes! Read on and find out more about how it all unfolded…

A Dubai Proposal

Do you remember the film 27 dresses? The one where Katherine Heigl plays the character of a perennial bridesmaid?! Well, that was (and still is) me….. I have and always will be the go-to girl for anyone who is getting married, planning a party, hen do, big birthday, night out, baby shower, etc. My friends who are still single often say, “Amy, when I get married, you are so planning my wedding!” Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy planning and organising. I am the girl with a hundred Pinterest boards after all, and I do absolutely love weddings! But having been with Nik, my boyfriend (now fiancé) for five years (we met in London in the summer of 2011) and still strutting to Beyonce’s ‘All the single ladies’ on nights out with the girls, I couldn’t help but question whether I, the eternal bridesmaid, would ever become a bride…

Fast forward to December 10th 2016, on a school night (the pain of a school teacher’s 5.30am start), it actually happened. Nik got down on one knee and proposed!

Nik had told me we were going for our ‘Christmas roast dinner’ as he was leaving for London the next morning and it was my last week of term before returning to Manchester to be with my family. It just so happened to be the coldest and windiest day in Dubai to date and I had no idea what to wear. ‘Wrap up warm’ Nik had said. So I got my UK Christmas Day outfit out of my suitcase (as who has winter clothes in Dubai?!) and watched as the palm trees outside our apartment blew horizontally and listened to the wind howling against the windows.  

When we arrived at Al Qasr I was expecting to be taken to The Hide for a nice steak or even Arboretum for a turkey buffet. What I didn’t expect was a private dining table on the beach, with two butlers at our service (all wrapped up in their winter woollies)! The view of the Burj Al Arab and having the whole beach to ourselves was incredible! 

Nik exclaimed, ‘Happy Christmas!’ and we tucked into our ‘Christmas dinner’ and champagne. It was so windy, the champagne flutes had to be held down onto the table! I didn’t think anything else of it until I heard some rustling behind me and I turned around to see the butlers with a cake and a dozen red roses and then next to me Nik, who had now bent down on one knee, with THE most beautiful ring!

Happy Christmas indeed! I had always had a mental list of who to call if the moment ever happened, including Mum and Dad, my sister and best friends in the U.K. and Dubai. It was literally the happiest moment of my life so far and I couldn’t wait to share it! We even managed to get a few pictures to capture the evening (Valentino shoes do not travel well in the sand!). I also have never been so glad that I had recently been to have my nails done #newlyengagedproblems.

The next week passed by in a blur of excitement and adrenaline, meet ups with the girls to show off the bling, gorgeous cards and gifts and a surprise engagement celebration from my wonderful work colleagues. The best card I received was from a four-year-old girl in my class who had written, ‘My Mummy told me that you’re going to marry your prince and I think you’ll be a beautiful princess.’  I couldn’t have written it more perfectly myself!

So now it begins. It’s time to get out the ‘wedding file’, start pinning on my Pinterest boards and follow everything bridal on Instagram, as this time it is my wedding I’m about to plan and I could not be happier…

xX Amy Xx

Don’t forget to log on next month to see Amy’s latest bridal diary post!