Retailer Spotlight: Lauray’s The Diamond Center

Never
underestimate the power of suggestion. Last Thursday, sales associate Kim
Kelso at Lauray’s The Diamond Center in Hot Springs, Ark., was
helping a customer with a wedding ring purchase. When the
transaction was
done, an elderly woman asked the bride-to-be the date and place of her
wedding.
When she learned it was a civil ceremony at the court house, the elderly
woman queried, “Why don’t you get married in this lovely jewelry store?”
And
with that, Kelso, store owner Mark Fleischner, and his wife, Patti, sprang
in to
action.


Store owner Mark Fleischner and sales associate
Kim Kelso pose for a
wedding
snap with Noreen and Bryan. (Photo courtesy of Lauray’s The Diamond
Center)

Fleischner, his
wife, and their staff were able to pull together an in-store wedding ceremony in fewer than five days. What’s even more amazing is that this was
done
over the Easter weekend. Fleischner and his wife have a
long-standing friendship and working relationship with Todd Marchese,
who owns
The Wedding Chapel in Hot Springs. He not only can wed the couple but
lend a
hand in recording the event. Flowers to
decorate the store were easily sourced; when family members from the
bride’s
hometown in New Jersey learned about the wedding, they sent several
bunches
and bouquets of fresh-cut flowers. Fleischner sprung for a two-tier
wedding
cake. Patti brought in white linens from their home to complete
the
decorations; she also brought her grandmother’s gold-trimmed
champagne flutes so the couple could have some elegant stemware for toasting. And Marchese and
sales manager Michael Gutman shot digital video and images

All
in a
day’s work for a jeweler and his staff who didn’t let a golden
opportunity slip
by. Some local lifestyle magazine writers and photographers also showed up
for the
event—garnering the store some media attention, which is always a plus.

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