A passion for fashion brought them together, but it's a shared passion for life that makes their marriage work.

Patrick Gey is the quintessential French gentleman — elegant, gracious and with the utmost refined taste. He is known for always being perfectly dressed and groomed, and in his professional life, an impeccable suit is de rigueur. Marisa Zhao, who is Chinese, has the fine features, porcelain skin and easy, natural grace you expect in a model.

Gey spotted her at Ala Moana Center, where she would shop three or four days a week. He was working in the Dior boutique at the time.

When he became manager of the Boucheron store in Waikiki, Gey missed seeing Zhao. Then one day at the beach, he spotted her playing with her son, Seishu, 8, in the sand.

"We exchanged a few words, and from that short but pleasant conversation, I knew I wanted to see her again, so I asked her to come to Boucheron to visit sometime," Patrick said.

"I never went into that store because there was nothing I could afford there," Zhao said with a shrug. "But then a friend from Japan came to visit, and I took her there."

An exchange of phone numbers ensued.

Gey, who at 42 was a welladjusted bachelor, struggled with whether to call her. After 10 days, he invited her to lunch, a lunch that lasted many hours. "That day I realized we had similar thoughts, ideas and values," Gey explained.

"At our age, you can know someone well enough to know if you want a second date, and I did," Zhao added. She is 36 and was married once before. Much of their conversation centered around fashion, naturally.

They dated for about six months, but the dates were always for lunch because Zhao was busy in the evenings caring for Seishu. Also, Gey worked long hours, having taken a new job as regional manager for the Hawai'i Fendi stores.

"There was a certain excitement in not being able to see her as often as I wanted to, and that fueled my feelings for her," Gey said. When he finally was able to invite her for dinner, he wanted to make it romantic and special. He spent a week practicing preparing a pineapple.

"I thought it was really weird when he served me a pineapple — the whole thing," Zhao said, opening her arms wide.

When she took the top off, however, there was a surprise inside: a Tiffany box containing a heart-shaped flacon of his favorite perfume.

"That got me!" she said with a grin.

She reciprocated with a picnic on the North Shore, which he describes as "perfect in every detail. ... Every second was heavy with pleasure."

On her birthday, he invited her to wear something casual and come to his apartment. When she got there, he was nowhere to be found, but his computer was on and the screen had a message: "Please meet me where we had our first kiss."

There, on Kahala Beach, he had "a little table and a complete breakfast on beautiful dishes," Zhao said.

By this time, Seishu was referring to Gey as his stepfather and even confronted him with "When are you going to marry my mom?"

Zhao's impatience escalated and, to make matters worse, she was getting pressure from her mother, who warned, "Don't ever date a Frenchman. He will romance you and then three months later, he'll get rid of you."

Meanwhile, Gey was taking his time, planning the perfect moment. He had already found the perfect ring.

Until one night when "Marisa nearly exploded and suddenly I got scared that she was going to break up with me, so I got down on my knees and showed her the ring right then and there — and the storm turned to calm."

They were married Sept. 25 in a sophisticated setting under tents at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental. The bride wore Dior; the groom, impeccable tails. The fashionable guests spoke French, Chinese, Japanese and Italian.

But the language of love rang loud and clear as vows were shared, and one of Honolulu's most eligible bachelors learned that it can be "so pleasurable to be with Marisa and be myself without trying to be someone else. ... Everything is so effortless and comfortable."

Reach Paula Rath at prath@honoluluadvertiser.com.