It is always good to be a “junior” bride, with experienced wife to guide and advice me =). The important persons for this Suzhou mission are Clara and Ann. This was in fact not the first Suzhou trip for us 3 (Welcome Jin!). Clara went through the same process last year and I was her bride’s maid. Ann is always the professional to advise us in terms of design, quality and price!
Ann also offered us to stay at her cozy home. With her super warm hospitality, we quickly restored our energy from all travels and became “genki genki” throughout the trip. (A big THANK YOU to Ann!)
Pre-trip preparation:
- Confirm schedule with my important “local” guides and better the train tickets. Yeah, thanks again to Clara & Ann for making their time.
- Basic research on Suzhou’s “wedding dress village”, Tiger Hill (虎丘)– Yes, the whole district is full of wedding dress shops. We cannot afford the time to check every single shop, therefore, needed to know the grading, style, price range & general customer comments in order to highlight just a few. Thanks Kate for getting me the “Shopping strategy guide of Suzhou wedding dress”. It was indeed very helpful.
- Get to know my “dream dress”. It is crucial that we know what kind of dress that we want because we will see hundreds of them…too much uncertainty is time-consuming and side-track our decision-making process. I am lucky that I have already gone through the “look-see-and-match” process in HK. I have already formed an idea of what dress suits me. Besides, Jin bought me some wedding dress magazines from Japan (wao, they are mostly high-end super dress). My idea of a “dream dress” was formed accordingly.
- Budget – not too much a worry. Making one in Suzhou is always cheaper than renting one in Hong Kong…But we really need to spend the time to select and check the details. And, most tiring of all – bargain, bargain and…bargain.
With all the experience and preparation, we believed a one-day trip will do. We departed early for a 9:15 train from Shanghai to Suzhou. Well…we barely… missed it. This marked the beginning of our “run & rush” day…haha. I cannot recall when was the last time I ran like crazy in a city! We explored a lot different means (which is in fact a good learning experience re: transportation in Shanghai!) and finally arrived Suzhou via private car around noon time.
1st stop – Chinese dress making at 石路
Making a Chinese Cheongsam is a must-do item on my list. I wished to make a gorgeous one for the wedding banquet and a few elegant ones for special social occasions.
Thanks to Clara’s experience, we immediately rush into our target, 瑞富祥, a department store that specializes in silk product.
2nd stop – Wedding dress making at 虎丘
Time was running out and I prepared everybody that Jin and I might need to come again the other day to continue the shopping. I never expected “Love at first sight” would happen!
Again, we did our “focus shopping” – quickly rush into the shop that Clara got her wedding dress last year.
While we were disappointed at the limited availability of the dresses and about to leave…the salesperson held us and presented us a dress of treasure, hid at the roof top of hte store which was wrapped in an ugly plastic bag…the salesperson started the story: they are so proud of their refinery of dresses that they made and transformed to the exporting business. By serving European and Japanese customers, they were earning a good fortune now. That was why they stopped from making fair dresses (for local needs).
My eyes…blink blink when I saw THE dress!!! It was a gorgeous one full of detail, handmade for sure. The long tail also fits perfectly for my march-in at the chapel of our wedding banquet in Japan. I quickly tried that on and fell into it. Offer at CNY 2,800. (Salesperson said they usually ask for CNY 4,500, but offer a great discount to us as old customers, blablabla). Jin didn’t say a word until that point as he could feel that I was getting emotional…he didn’t want to make it an impulsive purchase. He said “in order not to regret, let’s check other shops and come back afterwards”. We left the shop with the lady chased after us “what is your budget? We can try to match….” We said max. CNY 1,800 and she agreed. “hmm…too easy as if it’s not a good bargain…”
Anyway, since we agreed to keep looking, we then followed the “strategic guide” and checked isle by isle, however, nothing comparable. In 15 mins, we know we should return. Our strategy advisor, Ann, said it’s a signal of failure if we just rushed back so shortly. We therefore kept wandering around, checked also evening dresses, and planned our WAR, or in order words, DRAMA.
We wanted to set up a scene as:
Although Jin acted so well that I even thought he really did’t like the dress, this stupid drama couldn’t get us any further discount (><. We finally made the deal at CNY 1,800...with some modification requested. We must say all were super good deals in terms of both HK & JP standards – HURRAY~~ our successful shopping trip!!!I liked the dress so so much (to justify our return) but Jin doesn’t like it (not so perfect that it doesn’t deserve the price). We made our faces really bad and Ann as a mediator brought us back to stop our “quarrel”.
P.S.: the amazement didn’t stop. The cheongsam tailor wanted me to go back for a fit with the draft dresses, in merely 48 hours. Jin and I went to Suzhou again the other day and couldn’t help clapping our hands at the marvelous art did by the tailor. The handmade cheongsams were 80% done!!! The match of color, the detailness, everything were done so nicely. While I tried them on, other customers also amazed and ordered the same design as mine…Look forward to the final products (>w<
P.S. 2: This time we were able to take the train...which was 99% similar to JP's 新幹線 @_@
2 comments:
So, my part of reactions on this trip, ;-)
＠Impression of Suzhou
To me, the first view of Suzhou was a great shock (although I remained stoic). In Japan, Suzhou is known for its great view n nice tranquil place to spend your weekend. However, what I felt when arriving the city was "dusty, crowded (no control), and smelly". This was a great gap of what I had in mind and what I saw as a reality...
＠Cheongsam shopping
This store was also a big shock to me too. Silk is something very precious and I have always had a stereotype of "Hong Kong is cheap in silk". However, what I saw from the prices they have indicated, was toooooooo, cheap compared to the quality!!!!! My jaws dropped from surprise and wished Carol to get a number (better get now than having a regret later, by when it may be more difficult to get). I mean, the price is as cheap as my getting a cheap cotton T-shirts!!! It is just uncomparablily incredibly C-H-E-A-P!!!!!!!!!!! \(^O^)/
＠Carol's "Love at first sight" of the wedding dress
I was fine with Carol's decision. In fact, I did have my own "perfect look of Carol's wedding dress", but I know that won't come into reality. My focus was that Carol has all knowledge that she needs in selecting her one-and-only dress, which I was confident by the time we arrived Suzhou that she already had one.
However much, I just couldn't simply say "yeah, go for it" when her eyes... blink blink when she saw the dress in an ugly garbage bag from 船橋市. I mean, the bag had a label saying 船橋市資源回収用ゴミ袋 (which in English means it's a recycle purpose garbage bag certified for Funabashi city). True, these are chargeable garbage bag (yes, in some parts of Japan - especially in the city side - you need to "buy" garbage bags) and they are "thick n strong", but who would imagine putting an item of the complete opposite nature in - a WeDdInG dReSs.... (>____<; It was too cruel for me to just look at the reality of what the mainland Chinese are thinking and doing.
But indeed, the dress was gorgeous. I thought the design may be a bit too noisy from too much artwork (I like the smooth n puffy n cute cute dresses), but it does, ..... fit well when Carol tried it.
Well, she liked it and there was not much I can say but to follow her decision. She did enough research and if she's happy with it, I am too, happy. And most over anything, it was ridiculously C-H-E-A-P!!!!! (>___<;
＠The play
I must say, I enjoyed it. I truly thought from the dress store staff's reactions (or, maybe they are too gullable) that without much talking in the native tongue - Chinese - I think I acted well to make the emotion of an unhappy "Malay" groom.....
＠Next day Cheongsam fitting
I was also impressed by how much the master could do it in just 2 days. It was amazing of the details (oh, did Carol say that?) but it is worth repeating! I was almost ready to snatch it and take it back home... But more importantly, Carol in these dresses, all looked just too too tooo tooooooooo lovely n I couldn't stop taking pictures of her (//▽//)
＠Behind the scenes
One thing I must not forget to mention. I guess we have not much of a luck in Suzhou from the beginning until the end... We returned to Suzhou two days for the initial fitting; and after a good fitting of the Cheongsam, we took a taxi back tot the station to heading back to Shanghai . Well, it was a one way ticket to an incredible nightmare...
The taxi driver stopped the car after just 5min in front of a crowded traffic. The driver explained that "it may take a longer time, but he will try a detour (since he didn't want to get into the busy traffic and get stuck". We inevitably accepted it since the driver doesn't seem to want to give any other options...
Then, the taxi head its way to a wide wide road, which seems like it's a highway. But the wierd thing, ... is that there are not much cars running (or coming from ahead), ...... and ................... the road is not completed!!!!!!! (@Д@;;;
The driver quickly saw a big construction heavy machinery and stopped the car, and started explaining that the station is just a walk ahead........ Well, the first thought we both had was, ....... "We're not gonna believe you!!!" However, the driver explained that he will have to go all the way around in order to get to the station, and since we did not have that much time to spare, we decided to believe his words and got off the taxi, .... in the middle of the road construction. I must say, this was the first time I walked RIGHT BY the hot asphalt... And more dangerously, Carol was wearing a thin thin sandal!!!! I really couldn't open my eyes!!! (>____<;; I really felt bad to have to make Carol walk in this environment!!! I almost had cursed the driver for treating us like this!!!!!
＠CRH (Chinese 新幹線)
I really felt this was the "culture" of China - copy copy copy copy copy!!! I had been aware of brand products and CD's andDVD's, but when it comes to heavy industry, they need to be quite confident (and copy well). I must say, the CRH was of quite an impressive finish. The detail had been very meticulously made, as if a Japanese had made. I just can't believe that they had the temerity to just use the color scheme of the train as the Japanese JR 東海道･山陽新幹線 uses. And they claim this is THEIR OWN technology. Even if it is, if they "copy" from the other's like this, they're even making themselves more suspicious... However, what they don't know is how to set the price. The train charge of CRH is just, too, ..... ridiculously C-H-E-A-P!!!!! (@o@;
＠Overall impression
I must say, the Suzhou trip was a cultural education (kind of like an excursion for me). As much as I enjoyed the trip, I now understand more why Chinese behave as they do. I just feel I want to return to 蘇州 as a slow sightseeing trip, not having to "rush" or "have any incredible experience" with my beloved wife.....
Hello!
First of, congratulations!
I was just surfing the web for information on Suzhou wedding gowns when I came upon your blog.
Do you think you could share the address of the shops you went to? I'm Singaporean and rather unfamiliar with mainland.
In advance, thanks!
Post a Comment