My God Is An Awesome God: Part II

NOTE: Read Part I of the story here before going on to the rest of this post.

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Now, where was I?

Oh yes.

My biggest, baddest, most-recent gown miracle

that just took place early this week. =p

So, I fell in love with an evening gown I recently tried at one of the newer bridal houses in Penang. Funny thing was, when I first visited, they were just setting up shop and I happened to be the FIRST customer to walk through their doors! Haha. So the General Manager – who also just happened to be in town to oversee the set-up – took a special interest in my case and gave me her word that if I were to get a gown from them she'd offer me a good price.


She put her resident designer in charge of my file but after asking him for a quote, the dude could only offer me 10% off on new purchases and 20% off on first-wear rentals. And that was a big-bad-wolf of a problem cos the one that I liked was just crazy expensive. Like, DOUBLE the price of what I'm paying for any of my other gowns!! -_-'''


Plus, the other problem was that the dress didn't really fit me properly cos it was made for giants and was totally hanging off my frame. HAHA. So that eventually brought up lots of talk about the probability of having to make-to-measure and hints of how that would inevitably cause the price to jump up even more because of the customisation. -_-'''

So I said "no". 

(A tough thing to do at the time.)

Then, he told me he'd speak to his GM and get back to me with one quote for buying off the rack, and another for a made-to-measure replica of that gown. I, on the other hand, promised I'd return to the shop to try on the gown once more just to be sure it's really what I want. Plus, the first time I tried on gowns there, the shop didn't even have mirrors! Haha. Just setting up ma. So it was really touch-and-go for me.

2 weeks passed and still no word. :-/

So I called to check on progress.

Turns out, the designer I was dealing with had already upped and left the shop! No wonder I didn't get a call back! Irresponsible fart. Pfft! But but but... silver lining is this: thankfully, the sales assistant remembered me! =D So she very kindly offered to get the necessary quotations out for me.

And hour later, the company's Purchaser

called me from their Kuala Lumpur HQ.

While talking, I expressed how I thought the price was a little too steep for what I'd be getting considering the work put into the gown (i.e. embellishments, specialised cuts, cloth type, etc) and she asked me to honestly tell her how much I thought the gown should cost or was worth. So I told her. Half expecting her to hang up on me after hearing what I had to say. Haha. Cos I gave her a price waaaay below the original price. Like, 60% below. @_@

Surprisingly, she stayed on the phone

and continued asking me questions.

After awhile, we started talking about her branch in KL and as fate would have it, I've been there before and have even worn one of their dresses for a pageant! They're actually the bridal house that annually sponsors my church with evening gowns during Emerge KL! Haha. What a small world this is.


Turns out she's a Christian (the only Christian amongst her colleagues) and because of that, she somehow started to behave really kam cheng with me. Told me about her current church, which church she attended when she worked in Penang, and then... she told me she'd really do her best to get me a good price for the gown I wanted. =)


Thing was due to my size, she said the dress I wanted could not be altered to fit. I have to get a made-to-measure piece. No choice. But, no matter. I believe that God's hand was on this situation all the while. Because on Monday, the bridal house called me over to get myself measured. (In order to ascertain the price, they'll need to ascertain my size.) Went over after work and another hour later, while I was karaoke-ing my heart out at RedBox, I got THE CALL.


It was the Customer Service Executive from the Penang branch. And she began by telling me about how they've contacted the original designer of the gown and that the designer was willing to customise a replica to my measurements. (They usually only make one-of-a-kind designs. Each gown is unique, bla bla bla...) Then, she started talking money. And that's when I knew that there's no way this would have been possible without The Big Guy Up There working behind the scenes on my behalf. Cos...

They offered me the price I asked for!

They actually gave me my 60% discount!!

@_@

Isn't that incredible?!?

That means that this ridiculously expensive evening gown has now miraculously become a few hundred ringgit cheaper than my other gowns! Even the designer one! And since it's now even below the budget I set for an evening gown, my actual wedding gown (the big, white one) has more to spare! Or I could invest in some accessories like earrings and necklaces if I so wish to with the leftover money from my budget lah, of course. But I'll decide on that later. For now, PTL! My God is an awesome God! =D


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Related Posts
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• Bridal Shop Hop [Saturday, August 28, 2010]
• So Blessed [Wednesday, March 09, 2011]
• Feeeeling... Nothing More Than Feeelingggg! [Monday, March 14, 2011]
• My God Is An Awesome God: Part I [Thursday, March 31, 2011]