It’s your wedding day. The flowers have arrived, the pages are wearing miniature waistcoats, and the cake has an exact, 3D-printed rendering of you and your partner-to-be on the top. But there’s just one thing missing.
An edible wedding dress, made from rice paper and icing.
That’s where Quintessentially, an international concierge service based in Dubai, comes in. For Dh170,000, you can become a Global Elite member, which will buy you a person at the end of a phone to make everything about your life easier.
There’s only one rule: ask, and it shall be provided.
“Tigers are especially popular in this region,” says Caroline Hargreaves, the managing director of Quintessentially Dubai.
One member wanted a piece of turf from Lord’s cricket ground in London. Another wanted penguins at their kid’s birthday party.
One man proposed to his fiancée in Paris – before asking Quintessentially to helicopter in a minister to marry them then and there.
Another broke down on a road in Hong Kong, left his car in the middle of the road, dropped off his keys in a nearby hotel, and asked Quintessentially to pick it up, repair it, refuel it, and deliver it back to his office.
And there was the man who left his car keys in the snow in Scotland and asked Quintessentially to find them.
Anything is possible. If you want to be James Bond for the day – as one member did – the team will make it happen complete with a tuxedo, car chase, and replica Walther PPK.
Naturally, any expenses incurred in the course of these projects are extra.
Quintessentially has 65 branches worldwide, which means its high net worth customers are able to call up any time, anywhere, with hedonistic, tongue-in-cheek or urgent requests.
Ms Hargreaves’ favourite request involved her team tracking down the long-lost father of a client’s friend. “All he gave us was a photo and an address from many years ago,” she said. “We worked through all the addresses until we found him.”
abouyamourn@thenational.ae