I never thought I’d see Zibin make somebody other than me want to laugh and cry at the same time. But that’s what he did tonight… to Caroline, the designer at Silhouette. *grin*
We were trying to get Caroline to bring down the pricing. I’ve always known Zibin to be good at bargaining, but I have never seen him in such action before. He was all smiles and charm and corny humour, but he certainly drove a hard bargain. Everytime Caroline looked like she was going to cry in frustration, he’d say something that made her laugh in exasperation… including this line after having made a rather daringly low quotation, “Sorry, sorry… I don’t know much about the market for bridal gowns. This is my first time getting married.” That got incredulous laughter from everyone and a thwack from me.
Among other things, he offered Caroline an invitation to our church wedding and luncheon to see her gowns in their glory without having to give any ang pow if she met his quotation. That earned him a pained look from her and an exclamation, “I want to stab him (with her pen)!” Meanwhile, my mom, John, Cathy and I looked on in amusement.
At another point, Zibin told her about his two other friends whose brides-to-be were thinking of getting their gowns together as well. He chose the unfortunate words of “the brides are thinking of doing it together” which made us burst out in laughter and had Caroline telling John, “Your brother-in-law very kinky ah?” :P (Ironically funny considering how Zibin’s always complaining about my language being insufficiently ‘heterosexual’, no?)
For most of it, John was watching and grinning along with the rest of us, admiring Zibin in action. But he came into his own when Caroline asked for the 50% deposit. She had said to both grooms, “So tonight you give me 50-50 ok? (meaning 50% each)” John looked at her with a straight face, said “Sure”, then turned to Zibin and said in a serious tone, “Kor, I give her $50 and you give her $50 ok?” The expression on Caroline’s face made us all burst out laughing anew.
Haiz… who would have thought getting a wedding gown could be such fun? But with Zibin and John as grooms-to-be, I suppose I couldn’t have expected anything less. :P
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Caroline was a sweetheart, and we left her sane and happy at the end of the evening. The service at Silhouette is really outstanding. We were served tea/coffee/bottled water and biscuits; and she let Cathy and I try on the gowns with veils and even tiaras, and went to get fresh flowers too. In the end, we did end up getting a price that we thought was value for money. After all that laughter and merriment, we all went home happy. :) And that’s one item to cross off my checklist. Wedding gown DONE!
Journey of the Heart 