Rainy Day Promotion Builds Excitement Around Bridal Buys

Maryland’s Saxon’s Diamond Centers refunded two couples in two weeks

The funny thing about running a weather-based retail promotion is that it can cost you nothing or drain your coffers dry—depending on the skies. 

It’s a risk worth taking, says Shari DiMeo, the good-natured manager of Aberdeen, Md.–based Saxon’s Diamond Centers.

Saxon’s has been running a weather-based promotion, Let It Rain, for more than three years now but just recently made its first payouts (two in a two-week period) to customers.

Courtesy Saxon’s Diamond Centers

Lucky couple Carrie and John Kolivas were the second pair to get refunded in Saxon’s Let It Rain promotion.

Here’s how the promotion works: When a shopper buys an engagement ring from Saxon’s, he or she fills out a form that includes his or her wedding date. Then, if it rains an inch or more between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. at Baltimore-Washington International Airport on the day of the wedding, Saxon’s refunds up to $3,000 of their engagement ring purchase. “It doesn’t matter where the buyer gets married,” DiMeo says. “You could get married in Jamaica and still get the refund.” 

The bride or groom brings in their wedding license (to verify the date of the event), “and we present them with their refund,” says the retailer.  

It’s as simple as that. But, is it good business? “I don’t know about that,” DiMeo says, laughing. “But people absolutely love it. It creates a lot of excitement.”

And the promotion ameliorates any anxiety of rainfall on a couple’s wedding day. “They’re like, ‘Bring it on!’ ” she says. “‘Let it rain, let it rain!'”

The first couple to win the promotion was Greg Hunter and Megan Gernand, who had 1.95 inches of rain on their wedding day, June 6. The most recent couple to receive a payout, John and Carrie Kolivas, lucked out with 2.85 inches of rain recorded at BWI on their big day.

“It just goes to show you that lightning can strike twice,” says Kevin Ferrell, co-owner of the two-store retail business. “What a story these couples will have to tell. Rain on their wedding day was good luck after all.”

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