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October 1999 Image Dream Contest A jeweler's promotion becomes part of wedding– day memories It couldn't have worked out more perfectly: the coincidental outcome of an in– store contest earned one jeweler some local press and, quite possibly, customers for life. Carolyn Rewitzer, owner of the 11/2– year– old Hope Diamonds in New Ulm, MN, enjoyed such good sales in May 1999 that she wanted to show her appreciation to the 55 customers who shopped at her store that month. She sent them her store's trademark postcards, graced with nostalgic black– and– white photographs of Rewitzer's two young children. The cards invited recipients to visit the store June 25 to participate in a diamond drawing. "The day of the contest was the wedding day of a couple who had bought their wedding rings from me the previous month," says Rewitzer. When the bride– to– be, Anna Schuckert, stopped in to pick up her ring with her fiancé, she lamented she'd be unable to participate in the contest. "They were so sweet, so jokingly mad at me because I'd scheduled the contest on their special day," Rewitzer says. She encouraged Schuckert to send members of her bridal party if she was too busy to stop in herself. On the day of the drawing, Rewitzer filled a shot glass with about 155 cubic zirconia stones and one diamond, all quarter– carat. Customers came in to pick their stones with tweezers, then let Rewitzer check them with her diamond tester. About noon, two members of Schuckert's bridal party arrived to choose a stone for their friend. Schuckert's maid of honor picked the real diamond. With bridal party and diamond tester in tow, Rewitzer took the diamond to the salon where Schuckert was having her hair styled. Pretending she hadn't yet learned the outcome, Rewitzer tested the diamond in front of the bride– to– be. "She was so flustered – it didn't sink in right away," she says. They called the local newspaper, which sent a reporter and photographer to do a story that appeared the next day. For the 4 p.m. wedding, Rewitzer lent a diamond necklace to the bride to stand in for the unmounted diamond she won. "I was so happy for them," Rewitzer says. "It
was fun the way it all turned out." – by Stacey King
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