French boy meets Bozeman girl in Paris. They fall in love.
Girl comes home to Bozeman for a visit, and strolls into Alara.
ENTER:
dream ring "Oh, I love it!" she exclaims.
****************************
one month later.
[telephone rings]
**ring, ring, ring!!!** (That's how the phone sounds at every jewelry store, BTW)
Between and betwixt that obvious-overseas-delay, and embellished with a very charming but very heavily French-accented voice, Babs figures out that this is Bozeman's girl beloved Parisian sweetie.
"Do you know wheech ring she loved? Do you know her size? How much wiss a larger center diamond?"
"Yes and yes and about 30% more."
"I weel be coming to Bozeman for Chreestmas. I weel not be able to come see you wizzout her. Weel you have a way to have everysing ready, so I can ummm.."
"Propose?"
"Yes! Propose! On Chreestmas Eve." [I gulp on the inside, trying to figure out how to do that...]
"And where will you be proposing?"
"At zee Alara. Your store. Do you have a way to make it special?"
The mission: make a ring that would normally take 6 weeks to make, in 3, and during the busiest time of the year; and figure out how to carve out a place in the store that will be both private and romantic for this transatlantic couple.
How we did it: several little-sleep nights to get the ring just right, just in time. A bottle of Veuve Cliquot and two flutes. An arrangement of flowers from Fresh Designs. Light jazz music. And, our amazing, movable, flexible Softwall arranged like a cocoon around our glass table, and backlit (not quite as dramatically as the photo, but you get the idea).
There was shock. There were giggles. There were soft words uttered behind the Softwall, in the French language. And when they were ready to have the cocoon opened, we caught a couple great shots.
This is what proposing is about. Not a dry eye in the house, including the other customers that came in.
