2. Bridal Package
Believe it or not, I've visited 8 bridal shops before signing up for a package. When I was in Doha, I have shortlisted 4 to visit before making a decision. It was based on friend's recommendation and reviews on the SingaporeBrides.com forum. I only bothered to make appointment for 2 bridal shops when I was in Doha.
The first one I visited was Jess Haute Couture. Teresa went with me. Jessica does not entertain walk-ins, that's why I made an appointment with her through email when I was in Doha. It is a small shop in North Bridge Road, near the Textiles Centre. Jessica is a nice lady, though not enthusiastic or friendly like a sales person. She is the designer and it's a nearly one-man show. On first impression, the albums she showed us were not impressive. They were simple photos and to give her credit for it, she also showed albums of couples who look average or below average. Well, it made her packages seem less impressive but nontheless down-to-earth, if you look at it another way. We are not pretty, so it would be impractical to show us high quality photos which will forge misleaded expectations. The gowns are not bad, can see some high quality ones with embroidery and laces.
The 2nd one we visited was Rico-A-Mona. This was a large contrast to JHC. The shopfront was large and expensive-looking. The sales person whom I talked to was enthusiastic and friendly. The price was also quite scary, nearly 40% more than JHC's quote. The gowns she let me tried were also quite nice. I do not know whether it's the shopfront or the sales person who gave me an impression that the gowns look more expensive. Anyway, the price really kind of puts me off.
The next day, I went on the shopping spree on my own. I went to My Bridal Room at Bugis as I read very good comments for it in the forums. I was disappointed that the shopfront and gowns could not match Rico and the price could not match JHC. What's the point? I left in a short while.
Then I proceeded to Tanjong Pagar area where there are many bridal shops (too many for their own good). I went to Z Wedding D'sign. i called that morning and made an appointment at 2pm. Due to the disappointment at My Bridal Room, I left that place too early and arrived at Z wedding D'sign an hour earlier. I was told the sales person went for lunch, so they assigned another person to talk to me, who was one of their designers. Her english seems to be not fluent (like the mandarin direct translated kind), I suspected she is a Malaysian (no offense to Malaysians who can speak perfect English). Z Wedding D'sign seems to pride themselves for their collaboration with Chris Ling Studio for pre-wedding photography. The albums she showed me were all elaborated and looked like magazine covers. Some looked like celebrity ???. Their gowns were also very nice, I tried a few which I wouldn't have mind wearing on my wedding day. The price was on the high side too.
That weekend, I managed to get my boyfriend to visit the bridal shops with me. Shopping without him has its plus point, I can evade the salesperson's pushiness by saying I can't make a decision without him. We decided to visit a "wedding fair" in Suntec City. When we reached there, we were quite shocked that the "wedding fair" only has 2 bridal shops' participation. How can you call that a fair? We were the first couple to reach and managed talk to a designer from French Bridal. He was a nice and animated person who started telling us a lot of gowns and wedding packages. He also bragged about how he was the designer for some wedding shows blah blah blah. On the spot, he already started telling me how he would design my gown and sketching out the concepts. Surprisingly the price for his package was low, and it seemed at that time to be really attractive for us. However, I was skeptical and told my boyfriend that we should consider it. To his dismay, we told him we'll go out for lunch and would return later to confirm. During the lunch, I used my Blackberry to read through the forums. I found a few forum talking about French Bridal which includes positive and negative experiences. Of course, I wouldn't expect the bridal shop to satisfy all its customers 100%. The deal break point was there was this forum thread which was fully deleted, with an explanation from the administrator that it was a request from French bridal's management who complained that the contents were not true. Then someone posted a note after the explanation about being curious what was the untruth which would have caused French Bridal to do such a thing. I fully agreed! What was so serious and defaming that French bridal took the trouble to delete? And the SingaporeBrides.com administrator actually deleted it. Shouldn't the forum be a realistic channel for the public to post their views? There were simply too many posts on the forum for the shops to ??. With that, I told my boyfriend I do not want to go back to French Bridal. I do not want to work with shops which I don't trust. My wedding day should be a happy affair, and I don't want it smeared with unhappy experiences with bridal shops.
The last one we visited was Thomson. The sales person was an auntie who claimed that it is one of the oldest bridal shop in Singapore. As usual, we browsed through the albums and I tried a few gowns. Nothing fantastic. I think by that time we were already numbed and couldn't differentiate one bridal shop from another.
After all these shopping, I decided that it's still worth bringing him back to see Jess Haute Couture. I could sense he doesn't like the commercialized feel of those bridal shops in Tanjong Pagar. Thus, I made an appointment with Jessica again. I guess Jessica was the right combination, she was not overly enthusiastic and displayed knowledge of the gowns she made. The price of the package was not the lowest but was also not sky high like some bridal shops. He liked the albums he saw which are simple and traditional. Since the prices are more affordable, we were able to pick the Made-to-Measure package. Though they already have quite nice gowns which I could have chosen, it's always a better feeling to know you are wearing a brand new gown which has been designed for you.
Finally, we made a decision. Just before making the payment, we found that if we have a UOB Lady's card, there's a 6% discount. Yes! I do have UOB Lady's card. This is a bonus.
The search for bridal package finally ended.
The first one I visited was Jess Haute Couture. Teresa went with me. Jessica does not entertain walk-ins, that's why I made an appointment with her through email when I was in Doha. It is a small shop in North Bridge Road, near the Textiles Centre. Jessica is a nice lady, though not enthusiastic or friendly like a sales person. She is the designer and it's a nearly one-man show. On first impression, the albums she showed us were not impressive. They were simple photos and to give her credit for it, she also showed albums of couples who look average or below average. Well, it made her packages seem less impressive but nontheless down-to-earth, if you look at it another way. We are not pretty, so it would be impractical to show us high quality photos which will forge misleaded expectations. The gowns are not bad, can see some high quality ones with embroidery and laces.
The 2nd one we visited was Rico-A-Mona. This was a large contrast to JHC. The shopfront was large and expensive-looking. The sales person whom I talked to was enthusiastic and friendly. The price was also quite scary, nearly 40% more than JHC's quote. The gowns she let me tried were also quite nice. I do not know whether it's the shopfront or the sales person who gave me an impression that the gowns look more expensive. Anyway, the price really kind of puts me off.
The next day, I went on the shopping spree on my own. I went to My Bridal Room at Bugis as I read very good comments for it in the forums. I was disappointed that the shopfront and gowns could not match Rico and the price could not match JHC. What's the point? I left in a short while.
Then I proceeded to Tanjong Pagar area where there are many bridal shops (too many for their own good). I went to Z Wedding D'sign. i called that morning and made an appointment at 2pm. Due to the disappointment at My Bridal Room, I left that place too early and arrived at Z wedding D'sign an hour earlier. I was told the sales person went for lunch, so they assigned another person to talk to me, who was one of their designers. Her english seems to be not fluent (like the mandarin direct translated kind), I suspected she is a Malaysian (no offense to Malaysians who can speak perfect English). Z Wedding D'sign seems to pride themselves for their collaboration with Chris Ling Studio for pre-wedding photography. The albums she showed me were all elaborated and looked like magazine covers. Some looked like celebrity ???. Their gowns were also very nice, I tried a few which I wouldn't have mind wearing on my wedding day. The price was on the high side too.
That weekend, I managed to get my boyfriend to visit the bridal shops with me. Shopping without him has its plus point, I can evade the salesperson's pushiness by saying I can't make a decision without him. We decided to visit a "wedding fair" in Suntec City. When we reached there, we were quite shocked that the "wedding fair" only has 2 bridal shops' participation. How can you call that a fair? We were the first couple to reach and managed talk to a designer from French Bridal. He was a nice and animated person who started telling us a lot of gowns and wedding packages. He also bragged about how he was the designer for some wedding shows blah blah blah. On the spot, he already started telling me how he would design my gown and sketching out the concepts. Surprisingly the price for his package was low, and it seemed at that time to be really attractive for us. However, I was skeptical and told my boyfriend that we should consider it. To his dismay, we told him we'll go out for lunch and would return later to confirm. During the lunch, I used my Blackberry to read through the forums. I found a few forum talking about French Bridal which includes positive and negative experiences. Of course, I wouldn't expect the bridal shop to satisfy all its customers 100%. The deal break point was there was this forum thread which was fully deleted, with an explanation from the administrator that it was a request from French bridal's management who complained that the contents were not true. Then someone posted a note after the explanation about being curious what was the untruth which would have caused French Bridal to do such a thing. I fully agreed! What was so serious and defaming that French bridal took the trouble to delete? And the SingaporeBrides.com administrator actually deleted it. Shouldn't the forum be a realistic channel for the public to post their views? There were simply too many posts on the forum for the shops to ??. With that, I told my boyfriend I do not want to go back to French Bridal. I do not want to work with shops which I don't trust. My wedding day should be a happy affair, and I don't want it smeared with unhappy experiences with bridal shops.
After that decision, we decided to go back to Tanjong Pagar to look at other bridal shops. I brought him back to Rico and Z Wedding D'sign. He disliked the sales person from Rico as she was too pushy. She told us that if we sign the package today, she can give it to us at $4388. If after today, it will be $4588. My boyfriend find that offensive, he said that sales person seems to be threatening him. I guess the sales person's tactic has backfired. But it could also be the high price which puts him off, haha.
He hasn't got much comments for Z Wedding D'sign, only that the designer seems to be not interested. Haha.. he's so hard to please. If the person is enthu, he said she's pushy. If the person is not enthu, he said she's not interested. Men are even harder to please than women.
We also visited Digio. Digio has got some nice gowns as well. I told him that I read from the forum that Digio and Rico have the same management. We asked the Digio salesperson and she said yes, but we're not allowed to pick gowns from Rico. My boyfriend said he feels something is wrong. If they are of the same management, why do they have 2 shops on the same street and yet not allow people the flexibility. i got a feeling he has something against Digio because it is related to Rico, haha.
The last one we visited was Thomson. The sales person was an auntie who claimed that it is one of the oldest bridal shop in Singapore. As usual, we browsed through the albums and I tried a few gowns. Nothing fantastic. I think by that time we were already numbed and couldn't differentiate one bridal shop from another.
After all these shopping, I decided that it's still worth bringing him back to see Jess Haute Couture. I could sense he doesn't like the commercialized feel of those bridal shops in Tanjong Pagar. Thus, I made an appointment with Jessica again. I guess Jessica was the right combination, she was not overly enthusiastic and displayed knowledge of the gowns she made. The price of the package was not the lowest but was also not sky high like some bridal shops. He liked the albums he saw which are simple and traditional. Since the prices are more affordable, we were able to pick the Made-to-Measure package. Though they already have quite nice gowns which I could have chosen, it's always a better feeling to know you are wearing a brand new gown which has been designed for you.
Finally, we made a decision. Just before making the payment, we found that if we have a UOB Lady's card, there's a 6% discount. Yes! I do have UOB Lady's card. This is a bonus.
posted by WSW at 11:22 PM
1 Comments:
Wow, sounds like a lot of foot work.
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