Latest / The Preferred List: A Wedding Vendor Podcast / Episode 55 Jewelry That Outlasts the Generations: Colonial Jewelers

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Episode 55 Jewelry That Outlasts the Generations: Colonial Jewelers · The Preferred List: A Wedding Vendor Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to The Preferred List, a podcast about the people behind the best wedding days.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm James, a wedding filmmaker.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I've spent years in the industry working alongside incredible vendors, and this show is all about real conversations with the ones who make it happen.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you're a vendor or a couple, you'll get honest insight, good stories, and maybe a little inspiration along the way.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's meet today's wedding vendor.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Sarah, how's it going?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, good.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: How are you?
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Good.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad to have you on.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah's got a unique spot in the market.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be so fun.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk all things jewelry as you run colonial jewelry.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's just so fun.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna like pull back the layers.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, there's some helpful stuff for couples as they're maybe picking out engagement rings and what do we wear?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: How do we put ourselves into our jewelry, the accessories that we have?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: But before we get into all things jewelry, I want to talk a little bit about the venue for today's episode.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: The Visitation Hotel in Frederick, Maryland is one of those places where you can feel the character of the space the second you walk in.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: The property dates back nearly 200 years and originally served as a monastery and school, but today it blends preserved architecture with a modern boutique hotel experience.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite parts of the property is how many different spaces you can move throughout your wedding day.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: You have the ballroom, the garden, and this really beautiful garden tent that give you plenty of options to use throughout your wedding day.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: As a couple here at the visitation, you can also keep so much of your wedding weekend right here with guest rooms, beautiful getting ready spaces, and dining at the Y Oak Tavern led by Brian and Michael Voltagio.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And being right in downtown Frederick means your guests have so much to experience outside of the wedding as well.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Huge thank you to the Visitation Hotel team for having us here.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's get back to today's episode.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, Sarah, thank you so much for being on.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm honored.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is really exciting.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: We have not had a jewelry on yet.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna just like peel back the layers and hear more about maybe what couples can be looking for.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm even interested to pick your brain a little bit on some of the flat lay stuff.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's like the highlight for the jewelry as opposed to it being on the couples.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: But tell me a little bit about how you got started in jewelry.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, me personally, it's a family business for me.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm the fourth generation of my family to um run colonial jewelers.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we started in Westminster, Maryland.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: My great-grandfather emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, started a jewelry store there.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: His son, who's my grandfather, saw Frederick, Maryland and said, This is a cool little town, or I see the potential here.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that was little Frederick was not what it was today, what it is today.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so he and my grandmother started a store 77 years ago in Frederick.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then my dad ran it with my mom, and um, now I'm the owner today.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's our transition.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: We've been um at the square corner of Market and Patrick Streets for 27 years.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_01: We moved on our 50th anniversary in 1998, and so we've had some store remodels and some changes, but we've been there at that location for 27 years, and I've been there for pretty much all of that.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's so cool.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for you to kind of continue on that family legacy part of your business?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the greatest honor of my life, other than my children, because it's just so neat to have that family connection and the legacy.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: We have people who come in all the time who say, Well, my I got my grandmother got their ring from your grandmother or grandfather, and like there's very few industries that are like that.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's just very cool.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: We've been trusted by people in this area for so many years, and we don't take that lightly at all, that trust, and that we we've always wanna just keep up those standards because we know we have generations of people counting on us, not just the current people.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: So, and jewelry is another thing that's it's not a disposable thing.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: Most things in our most things we buy now are meant to be disposable, they're only meant to last a year, and then you have to buy a new one or go in the landfill or plastic.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: But jewelry is meant to be heirloom quality, and it's meant to be something that you you keep or you pass down, and so that's just such a cool thing to be involved with.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I I have to assume like it's probably so fun to hear the stories of like what was the business like when they first started and like how has it transformed?
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is there any insight that you can give us on like what was that journey like and getting started and and then you know, how has it changed since you've kind of taken over here?
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in the beginning, they sold a little of everything.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: They sold TVs and they sold China and they sold um radios and jewelry and all kinds of jewelry, and they used to do the dollar a week payment plan.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: People still taught.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have a bunch of old ads.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're probably still paying for it.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, I know.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: But like they, you know, they have a dollar a week plan, and they would um, you know, people would come in religiously every week from their after they got paid and make their payment on their rings and their so that that's really cool.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, we we now just sell jewelry, we don't sell TVs and radios, no more TVs.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's like let Costco handle the TVs.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: We we moved out of our uh our location.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: We were at nine West Patrick Street before in '98 when we moved over here and when we were cleaning up from you know 50 years of there.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: When we I remember seeing my parents like pulling out of the attic, pulling boxes of China and TVs and all this random stuff that they sold at some point over the years.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Frederick is what, like I was saying, is not always been the amazing place it is now.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's really, you know, there was a time period when there was a, I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Frederick history, but there was a big flood that happened in the, I believe, 70s, 60s or 70s, and Carroll Creek, which is the main creek that runs through town, that's now a planned uh flood control situation.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But in the time they flooded, and it flooded all of downtown.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And almost all of downtown was underwater for days and days and days, and businesses were ruined, buildings were ruined.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_01: And at right after that just coincided when the people were going to the malls.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: The the strip malls and shopping malls were becoming a thing in like the late 70s, 80s.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: So most of the retail left downtown and they kind of just mass exodus.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone got out of here after the flood and all the damage.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: But my grandparents stayed and they stayed through all of that when downtown was not the vibrant place it is today.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's something I always say.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really proud of them for making that hard decision that they were gonna stick stay the course and stick it out, and now we're the oldest business in down in all of downtown, yeah, because they stayed all those years ago.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I'm very excited about that.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you have like that little like spot in history of like oh we stuck it out, and then now that's what I was like now.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Look at what it is.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Frederick is amazing if only they knew like what the spot was gonna turn into.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: All these people just left and left and left because you know it was it was in a great place with all especially after the flood, but it it was a combination of different things.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the everyone thought the the mall concept, or even like lifestyle center, mall, strip center, but that was like the thing that was which is so funny now because nobody wants to know the mall.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody wants to the mall.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a creepy, weird place that has like stores half open.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: We have two here, one of them's not even open and the other one's half open.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And and but you know, they stuck it out even through that, and we we were in the same location for 48 years and two years up the street, so 50 years in downtown, and everyone knew our old location.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a big deal when my parents bought the building we're in now and moved over there in '98.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd have to imagine, and and just like let me know like what this is like.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like you're sort of in some way, you love it, it's your family's thing, but you kind of didn't really have like another option, right?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I actually did.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: To be honest, it was my parents never pushed me to do it.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that I have two siblings who was curious about two siblings who have no interest and never have had an interest, and my parents would have absolutely been fine had I had no interest.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: There was, I think that's why I love it so much because there was never an expectation.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there was never the Sarah, you're gonna grow up and do this one day.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: When I was little, I was always playing store and I was would look look at my dad's gemology stuff and his charts, and I loved that aspect, like the scientific side of it, and also the business side of it.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that was it's really great because I never felt I've never felt any pressure a single day of my life to take it, to be the one to do it or any of that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: No, there's a tremendous amount of responsibility of taking over a business and wanting to make sure you keep it alive and succeeding and you're and want to be the one that ran it.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to be the one, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I mean, but there's already an inherent level of that with running a business because not only do you have yourself and your family, you have all of your we have 17 employees and all of them and their families and their livelihood.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, you have a lot of pressure on your shoulders.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that's more pressure than ever taking it with the phone.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel lucky all the time that we have such an awesome business because we could be a widget factory and that would be cool too.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, we have a jewelry store in our family and we get to help people really in love and yeah, pretty much it's amazing.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the best.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get yeah.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna I want to dive into the like stuff for couples.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I just uh there's I just have so many questions because it's just like it's so like fresh and new.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: What is it about the jewelry that you love?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is it is it the the the rings, is it the necklaces, is it just like the combinations of things, like the endless opportunity of like putting all these different combos together?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what is it about it that you're just like drawn to?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, like I mentioned before, the fact that it's not disposable, that means a lot to me.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and it it means more to me as I get older and see how much more the disposed the world has become disposable.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: So to have something that's you know you're gonna be, you're not looking at like investment, like I'm gonna turn around and sell it and get my get my money back.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's not that type of investment, it's an investment in like an heirloom quality thing that you're gonna pass down to someone.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: And people, you know, people talk about my grandmother's ring, my mom's earrings, those type of things.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so that as a part of the whole picture, um, I also just love the fact of uh gemstones, the color and the vibrancy that happens naturally in nature, and you know, people you know create dyes and all kinds of things to make clothing in these colors, but gem gemstones just naturally come in that.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: So the gemology side's always fascinated me.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: I was one after I went to business school, I got my gemology degree to be a gemologist to be able to grade stones, identify diamonds and gemstones, and so that's that's the scientific side's fun.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_01: But um, from a I guess my favorite types of jewelry.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I love rings, I love commitment rings, I love that we get to people buy them for engagement rings, wedding bands, anniversaries, babies' births, all kinds of things.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's just really neat.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: So what does it look like?
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I guess maybe even just the 3,000-foot view of like someone's wanting to get engaged, they're wanting to pick out a ring, and they just want to make a good choice.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where do they start?
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: How do they kind of like process all the different options?
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I hope they come see us.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, one of the things that's so important to us now and has always been is the professionalism.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like our staff, unlike maybe if you went to the mall, we were talking about the mall, uh not to knock any mall stores, but if you if you work at our team, it's gonna be months and months before you're ever showing someone and helping them with an engaged ring because there's so much knowledge that we our people have to know before they can do that, because people count on us to be the expert in the area because we've been here for so long.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: So we have this like high threshold of professionalism we have to have.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So someone comes in, most likely they've done some research.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: They probably looked online.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um the I always say the modern way people get engaged is a lot of times couples come shopping together.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they maybe even pick out and make the purchase together, but like oftentimes one of the people, whoever's getting proposed to doesn't know that they're getting like they don't know when the proposal's actual proposal.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: They don't know.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so the proposal becomes the big surprise.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas in in past generations, you know, the man came in and bought the ring and then they proposed to the girl and she was, you know, had no say in it, or you know, hopefully.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: They really didn't used to have much of a yeah, they could just say yes or no, but they didn't get to have any say in what the ring was like.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: And now that's very there's a lot of input from the fiance, the bride for that, especially for I'm talking about more of like an engagement ring in that states.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Because either they come either people come in when they'll have a picture and they'll like, or they'll have a sister with them, or they'll have someone who says this is this is what they want.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is what they want.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is what they want.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Or a lot of times, like I said, they'll come together.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then how do you manage like there's obviously like a size of the diamond in a an engagement ring, a typical engagement ring?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: How are we managing like the differences in like lab grown versus natural?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, what makes sense?
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: Is it like a hand size?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Is it are you kind of like walking through that process or what's that look like to kind of make those decisions?
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sure.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: So some of that's preference.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Some people have a like come in with a preference of I I really want this size, or I really want this quality, or I really want this shape.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some of it comes down to the budget, of course.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, no one has an unlimited budget, so there's that.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: And we offer interest-free financing, so there's a lot of ways to be flexible without within that.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, some people really want a lab-grown diamond, some people want a natural diamond.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Lab grown diamonds have been around for a little while now.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: They are different from natural in that natural diamonds are created in the earth naturally millions of years ago.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's an infinite number of them, so their value is based on the supply, where everything's based on supply and demand.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: As more factories are built, there's more lab-grown diamonds, so their price is coming down.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: But we're fairly bottomed out on the pricing of lab-grown diamonds.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: I was wondering.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so there was a time period, um, and we didn't sell them in the beginning just for that reason, honestly, is we knew that they were gonna hit a bottom, and we didn't, we've always sold things that are airline quality, and so we didn't want to sell something knowing that it was gonna at some point worth less.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like next week worth less, you know.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So um, not that there's anything wrong with lab ground, but that was our intentional and initial decision, just seeing what was happening in the market.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we offer lab ground as an option.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people choose it for different reasons.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people choose natural for different reasons.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And are you seeing sort of like a general style that people are going towards, or is there one that like fits No, you know, what's old is new again.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: So people are into marquee shapes and yellow gold and everything that was big in the 80s and 90s, that then for a while people just wanted white gold or platinum and they didn't want anything yellow gold, and they didn't want anything with points.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: They wanted uh and for well, for a while, princess cuts were all the rage, and now nobody wants a princess cut.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just, you know, all the different shapes come in and out of style.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: Rounds are always the most appealing, they're always the most popular beyond the other shapes.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then there's also like ovals are always pretty popular, radiance square ones.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like you just have to go and see all the things because I feel like there's so many options.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um do you find that couples are kind of overwhelmed with the number of options?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: We try not to make it too much, like you can't give people too many things on the on the supermarket shelf, or they'll never make a decision.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, a lot of times people do come in, like I said, with a little bit of an idea.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Or they, if they have no idea, then we'll kind of explain it to them, break it down.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, some people come in knowing exactly what they want.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_01: Some people come in not knowing much of anything that they want.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so we start asking questions.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of it's dependent on their fiance.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what kind of work does she do?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: What does she like to do with her hands?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are we gonna need something durable?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Are we gonna need something more delicate?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: Those type of questions are really important because even if they come in with an idea, we still should ask those questions because it's our job to make sure that whatever they're buying is gonna be not every ring is suitable for someone to wear every single day doing more rigorous things.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: You'll find this hilarious.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: My wife takes her rings off at work because she's a nurse.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And she carries them around.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's a little peac up, but it's got like the screw top lid, and she like puts her rings in there and they stay safe and she sometimes also leaves them at work.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I will I'll I'll I'll get you.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna mail you a little.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: We have these little pouches for her that she can clip onto her on her thing for for that reason.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know what's even funnier?
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: She I I had literally just proposed to her.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: It must have been like a few days later, and she lost the ring in a patient's bed.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Because she took it off.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: No, because she had it on and it slipped off like while she was working.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so that's the thing is some some people don't ever want to take their rings off, but there's definitely times to take their rings off and you know, just have to accept.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Although in the beginning, some people when they first get engaged, they don't want to take it off.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: And then after they've been married for I don't know, for five, six years, they're like, okay.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was like scared to tell you, and I was like, I'm not mad, I just want you to find it.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in the beginning, and now she's putting in a peacup.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: So you've progressed, you've been married long enough.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have we have for the peacup, yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um so when you have um couples that are are kind of in that process, they're they're finding rings.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um how much of that process is tied in with like what their wedding band is gonna be?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you find that process just kind of in the for the engagement ring?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are they thinking about like what the what the wedding band is?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: So some people want to see a complementary wedding band at the same time.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: The biggest thing I think that's a deciding factor is people want to know if they can wear a straight wedding band with it or if it needs to have a contour, a curve, which is something you might not think if you didn't think to think about it.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: But depending on the shape of the ring, if it if the stone protrudes and it it doesn't sit up high enough, you have to have a curve to sit up against it flush.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or you have to just be okay with a little gap.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: So some people are very adamant about not wanting a gap, not wanting a curve.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So in that case, you have to get them an engagement ring that sets up high enough that a flat band can flip sit under it.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha, gotcha.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So that's you know, and some people want to talk wedding bands there.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: I have to say, sometimes when it's you got a guy coming in by himself, he does not even want to start thinking about the wedding bands like that.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, exactly.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: But when couples come in together, they usually want to start looking at both.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: So tell me, what is your favorite right now?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: What's your favorite like style, layout, shape, all that stuff?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: So emerald cuts have always been my favorite because I feel like it's really like looking into a glass of water.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: Emerald cuts are what's called a step cut.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of a round brilliant or a brilliant cuts are things like the round or the oval where they have pointed triangular facets.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: When you look at them, they look like a prism where the the points come together.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: But a step cut, uh, emerald cuts the most common.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Asher's a square ammo, but um, it has long straight facets.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: So, but when you look into it, it's just uh it almost looks like you can look at it forever.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's just my personal preference.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: I've always liked emerald cuts, but I like all of the shapes.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: I just love diamonds, it's just so good.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: They're just like it's like so good I get to look at diamonds every day.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's like kind of a fair.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I assume that was gonna be like uh yeah, kind of everything though.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, really.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um when you're in the process, um, I'm not sure.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you talk to photographers much just in general?
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, are you kind of in in contact with stuff?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: We are, yeah, we are.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: When we do um, you know, I feel like for a while there after COVID, there were a lot of styled shoots.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I I don't know if I just am not seeing at quite as many as there used to be.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that's yeah really a thing or not.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just kind of curious to see like what kind of interaction you might have had with them being like the main shining moment, pun intended, of like the ring being that flat lay.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what do you love that you're seeing with the flat lays and then like what could they do better in terms of like the jewelry and showing off the jewelry?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: The jewelry is one of the hardest things to photograph.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it the way that the light refracts, especially from a diamond, there's it's very hard to get anything to focus on it.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not something that can be really well achieved with an autofocus.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_01: It really needs to be a manual focus.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Because the autofocus is gonna really get confused.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you think about it, the whole point of it, like a diamond, for example, the light goes in, it refracts across, and then it comes back to your eye.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's why you see so much sparkle in a diamond as opposed to another clear gemstone.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Gotcha.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that tricks the camera.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: So the camera thinks, do I look here?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do I look here?
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_01: Do I look here?
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it's very hard.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's just jewelry's a hard thing.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very uh specialized thing.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that's probably the opposite of what most wedding photographers, they're looking at people and flowers and big things, not micro things, more macro things.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: So um, but I think the flat lay, like you said, does get an up an opportunity to really focus.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jewelry also, when you're looking at it on maybe a bride or a groom, it's it's a very tiny in tiny piece of a person.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: So it oftentimes get gets lost until you do the flat lay.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's one of those things where I hear in the industry there's kind of this like sort of anti-flat lay, not in a sense that they don't get the details, but it's just like less produced.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And sort of a more produced.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have like a take on on what you're seeing your jewelry kind of coming back in in those pictures?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I think it personally, I think it looks best when the jewelry's, you know, focused in a primary part of the composition, as opposed to like sometimes I'll see a flat lay where it's a small piece of a lot of different little components.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, the rings are very important.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: They're the thing you're gonna have forever.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're the thing that you will wear, especially, you know, you're engaging your wedding ring, you're gonna wear them for decades.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: So they're a very important part of the ceremony.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I am glad that the flat lay trend or however you want to say is become a thing because people actually are taking a point to look at it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Get a nice, yes, like clear image of hopefully clear, right?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: How are you um directing your couples or clients to, you know, kind of outfit a full set of jewelry?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Is it kind of based off of the engagement ring?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: Is it just based off of maybe the style of the dress, or like how are they kind of incorporating themselves into that part of it?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I would say after the engage ring, the next step is the wedding bands.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: So then that becomes, you know, the wedding band becomes something to complement the engagement and something sometimes people don't always wear their engagement ring, but they always wear their wedding band.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So those are things to consider.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we have men, a lot of variety of choices in men's band.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it's kind of cool because men right now are um actually like getting more interesting and customized band.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: We do a lot of custom design in our store.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: So that's from engagement rings to wedding bands and everything.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: So whereas it used to be traditional to just get a plain band, there's a lot of customization.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then jewelry-wise, people will pick out their jewelry based on their dress.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times people will borrow things um from family or they'll get a nice special piece.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it's a wedding gift.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times they'll get something for a wedding gift.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have couples come in and they'll say, I really want a bracelet for a wedding gift.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I want, you know, something like this.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then their uh husband or wife to be can come and pick it out.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was so fun.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: We had a couple uh friends of my wife actually.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, and she got a bracelet and she opened it and like her face in opening it, she was like, and it had these like it had these lights in the thing.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: It was like so fun.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's awesome.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: She was like showing us, she was so excited.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: So people will get a special piece to have for their wedding, they'll borrow things.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say the primary part of jewelry that we're helping cuss uh couples for for their wedding is their rigs.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha, yeah.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any other like tips that you have for them and they're when they're kind of planning like what they include?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm assuming not every bride's gonna want to have a bracelet and a necklace and a this and a that.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, is there kind of some some tips you have on that?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, people a lot of times will do less is more, you know, maybe you'll do a big earring and uh either an empty neckline or a nice big necklace, uh showpiece necklace, but then a small earring.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um I feel like I guess every person's different because everyone's style is different, but a lot of times people want to be more subdued or more over the top with their jewelry.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I would say the biggest piece of jewelry advice I would have is don't put your wedding bands off to the last minute for a number of reasons.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times people will come in and they'll be like, I realize I need my wedding bands.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have any wedding budget left.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've spent it on all the other stuff.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: And this is not like self-serving to get me to the money to spend my it's just you're gonna wear your wedding bands literally for decades.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: You don't wanna be making uh like you don't like your choice because you're just going for what you can fit into.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's really good.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_01: Also the time frame, you know, if you're doing something custom, it's gonna take a little longer.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's more ideal, most ideal to order your wedding band in your finger size as opposed to sizing it.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Most rings can be sized, but it's every time you alter a ring, it's not good for it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you want to like it'd be great if you came in as soon as you picked, as soon as you set your date, get your wedding bands, in my opinion.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because then you can just have it knocked off the list, you get what you want, and you know you're gonna have something.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: You can oftentimes with our interest free, you can take months to pay for it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to pay for it all up front.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then you also can have time to order it in your size, you don't have to be trying to rush and size something down, you can have all the choices.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's so funny because my wife always makes fun of me because my wedding band costs more than hers.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And she always makes a point to point out that mine costs more, um, which is funny.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to remember if we picked them out when we got her engagement because we shopped together.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: We did the shop together option.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times when couples shop together, they'll pick it out like once the engagement ring, like as soon as the engagement's presented, then it's like in your fingers.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I know hers like hers had a thing that went with it.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: A thing.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: I I'm a dude calling it a thing.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: A dude, it's a thing.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I was saying.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: You don't want to talk.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: If you were by yourself, you won't even want to think about it.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um when you're you mentioned customizing, doing some so some sort of like design process.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: What's that process look like?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's actually a really cool thing we've been doing recently.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: We do all of our custom design in-house now.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: My husband actually does all of our CAD design, so he's in the family business too, which is really really great to work together.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_01: A couple would work with a sales associate, they would get some ideas together.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes people come in and they say, I absolutely want something custom.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they come in and have an idea what they want, and it's just not something that's a that we see available, so we have to make it custom.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it just evolves into that.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: I like the the top part of this ring, I like the side view of this ring.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: Let's put it together.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: So the first step is Chris, my husband would make a design.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: He does it in CAD right there in the store.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: He'd consult with the jeweler and they would make a ring that not only looks beautiful but will last.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking about heirloom quality, and then he'll make a 3D model, and then the um customer would come back in and they would try on the 3D model, and they would we'd print it there, it's 3D printed.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, and they would try it on and they see how it feels, so what they think, they can make any adjustments and tweaks, and then from there it's cast and the stones are set and it's polished and finished and made everything.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that's so cool.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's very cool.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's a but that's something that's we've done custom design for a while there, but to completely bring all of those steps, especially the CAD part into the house.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And the print of the 3D printing, I didn't even think about that.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can actually see it like on your hands, the fit of it and everything.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's a huge huge.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: When did you guys add that?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we added that about five years ago in-house.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we were working with, we would do outsource certain aspects of it.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like early in the 3D printing world.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it it was.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty early.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: As I'm just thinking, like three when I think about 3D printing, I think like a couple years ago.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: People started kind of like, oh, I can do this at home.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: I can do this, you know, with not as much money, maybe.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's really cool.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so that's been a really cool addition that we've our generation, my husband and I have included in our business, and it's been able, we've been able to offer so much more to our customers.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, it's done, it's just really neat to have people love that it's done right there in-house.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: They can see we have a glassed in mezzanine, we can see him working on the cat, and we can see our jewelers setting the stones.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And oh, cool.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's neat.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's so fun for couples to like have that option.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's not for everyone, just like this, it's the same with everything else.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: So not everybody wants to go through that, but if they want that, we're able to do it.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_01: And also having our full jewelry shop there is great because jewelry can actually be rejuvenated and brought back to life.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can have scratches all over your ring and you can polish it.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not calling you out, you could probably see it from over there.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: But no, I can't.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: But um, but just in general, like again, talking about that not disposable aspect, it's like, you know, you can I mean at some point, jewelry will need some stuff.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we we offer restoration and that's really cool too.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: People will come in.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of times, people use a grandmother's ring for an engagement ring.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we offer those full restoration services, whereas it's like grandma was 90 and she was wearing it and she wasn't leaving the nursing home.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: But if you're gonna be uh 20-something or 30-something and going to work, we need to make this sturdy, we need to check those prongs, we need to make the shank and everything, we need to make it fit you.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: So having that that full jeweler shop on site is also a big service.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then after people forget too, like a car, after you buy a ring, you're gonna have that ring for life.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna need maintenance.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's not you're gonna, you're literally wearing it every day.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna need to be polished, it's gonna need to have the stones tightened and checked.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna, we have a lifetime warranty on all of our engagement rings, which is a great thing, but you still will need to come in and have stuff done to it.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: Have it checked, have it cleaned, have it inspected.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that goes to we were talking about like a local.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: The benefit of buying local is that you have an actual person and place to walk in and ask your questions.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: And to have your ring cleaned and to have that repair work done.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to ship it across the country.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like a great to see you back.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: We'll fix it up.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Sarah, I've this conversation has been not that I thought it was gonna be bad, but I did say it off camera.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, how long can we talk about jewelry with it still being entertaining?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that if you're still here, you're entertained and learning something new, because I definitely am.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but one of the questions I love to ask toward the end of my episodes now is just kind of around this like the heart behind the business.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you hoping that couples are experiencing when they walk into colonial jewelry or when they're working with you or or someone from your team?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's an easy one.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: I hope that they understand how excited we are for them because we genuinely are so excited for all of our couples and to see their love and to get to be a part of it.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: We've we literally feel so honored to be a part of that.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I hope people understand that.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I hope they come to us and understand why we've been here for 77 years that we can live up to that reputation.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Gotta make it to 100.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, we will.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Make it to the 100.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we will.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Throw a big party.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: We had one a couple years ago for the 75th anniversary, which is really cool.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: I love the history behind it.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a big day of history being here.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much history in this building and the building that's connected to it.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking right at it because it's that way.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's just so cool to hear the history of you know, many generations before you getting this thing off the ground, going from selling TVs to custom to 3D printing, right?
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's cool.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: And they wouldn't have believed it.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's so cool.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Sarah, thank you so much for being on.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you guys have been listening and you're still here, I appreciate you listening all the way through.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that'd be really, really helpful um is if you could share this with someone who might benefit from hearing Sarah's story, maybe her journey in business, or maybe just her knowledge and jewelry.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you're on YouTube, if you could subscribe, drop a comment if you have a question for me or Sarah.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um like this uh video, it's super helpful for the channel.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then if you're listening where podcasts are, what's up?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: How's it going?
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for sticking through this long.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that would be really, really helpful is if you could leave us a review on how you're liking the show.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it would help the show, and if you could share it with someone again that would just find value in hearing Sarah's story.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: But that's all for this episode.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: Sarah, thank you again.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: Catch you guys next time on the preferred list.