A Free Crystal Pendant for the Bride-to-be

My friend Gay and I went wedding shoe shopping last Sunday and I had a really grand time.

One of the VPs in our office loves to use that word – grand – and I didn’t realize that it had slipped into my vocabulary. But I don’t mind. It’s grand!

Sorry, where was I? Oh right – wedding shoe shopping.

We decided to meet up at Orchard because it’s the shopping hub. Gay fell in love with a pair of silver pumps adorned with beautiful crystal flowers in the first shop we went into, Pretty Fit, but unfortunately they did not have any pairs available in her size.

I consoled her and said that maybe we would find something else in another shop or go to the other Pretty Fit branches to see if they had those there.

But though we saw a lot of pretty shoes, they were all too high for Gay. See, Gay does not wear high heels and doesn’t want to risk doing so on her wedding lest she have an accident while she walked down the aisle, so we were looking for dressy wedges or kitten heels or less than 2 inch heels. And if you’re a girl who has ever shopped for shoes, you know that only 10% of the shoes fit in this category.

This was the weekend before Chinese New Year, so all the shops were ridiculously crowded with Chinese women looking for the perfect new shoes to wear for CNY. I finally gave up and told Gay that we should take the MRT to City Hall, where there was a Pretty Fit branch and where there would hopefully be less shoppers.

I was right. It was crazy just how empty the City Hall shops were.

Unfortunately Gay’s dream shoes were not available in the Pretty Fit branch there at all.

Fortunately, she found a pair of low-heeled silver strappy sandals adorned with crystal beads in Pazzion.

After taking a lot of time fitting them and looking at them and turning them over and over and comparing them to bridal sandals on Google, we finally decided that they would make grand wedding sandals for her.

Or if not, she could just wear them to the reception.

So she bought them and we waltzed out and she asked if I wanted to eat. I saw Sakae Sushi, and I knew how much she loved sushi, so I suggested the place. She said she was happy to be eating there because her fiancé does not like raw food and she did not get to eat them often nowadays. Ha. Girlfriends are still good for something!

We ordered sashimi salad and a salmon rice bowl for sharing, then grabbed a couple plates of sushi off the conveyer belt and washed them all down with decadent smoothies.

As we ate, we talked about all sorts of things, like how even though they had almost a year to plan her wedding, there were still a bunch of stuff they had not crossed out, and other random things that happened to cross our mind.

Then suddenly she mentioned earrings and wondered where she could possibly buy clip-ons because her ear holes got shut from an allergic reaction, and I said, “I once saw some in a store in Plaza Singapura! Why don’t we go there now?”
So we asked for the bill which she insisted on paying and we made our way to the MRT. Again.

As we walked, I said I could not remember what the name of the shop was but sort of recalled that it was somewhere near Starbucks. I think. Just then, we came across a shop that sold jewelry so I said, “Why don’t we walk in here, just in case?”

So we did and I asked, “Do you have clip-on earrings?” and was so surprised when the saleslady said yes. She led us to the far right side of the shop and pointed them out on a display case.

Gay tried on a few and I said they looked really pretty and she could totally wear the dangling one with Swarovski crystals for her wedding and the other one for her prenup shoot.

Upon hearing that, the saleslady asked some questions about the wedding, like where it would be held, how much it would cost, etc? Gay happily answered her questions and when she rang up Gay’s purchases, she said, “Since you’re getting married, I’d like to give you a wedding present,” and presented Gay with a pendant that matched one of the earrings she bought, a pendant that normally retails for $80, completely free of charge. Wow!

This moment reminded me of that Friends episode when Chandler and Monica kept losing out on freebies to the couple ahead of them, who were also on a honeymoon like them. People really do like to give gifts to newlyweds, or in this case, soon-to-be-newlywed. Noted for the future.

Right outside the shop was a display with this faux Eiffel Tower, so I obviously had to have a picture with it. Gay, too.

That’s two items off the bride’s list. Or maybe 4, if you’ll count the earrings and necklace she can now wear for her prenup shoot. I’d say the bride and bridesmaid-to-be had a productive and fun afternoon. 🙂

Related read: Gay’s inspiring love story