Pandora has apologized to a bride and groom who were left humiliated by one of its store workers when they made fun of a set of $130 wedding rings as the couple was buying them.
Speaking to SunnyVibes on Wednesday, Ariel McRae confirmed the company had been in touch to offer its apologies after her Facebook post about its staff’s treatment of her went viral.
‘Pandora has reached out to me and offered me their sincerest apologies and I accepted,’ the 22-year-old student said.
Pandora apologized to a bride after a store employee scoffed at her engagement and wedding ring because they cost $130 (above)
It came after an incident in a Tennessee store while Ariel and her husband Quinn were shopping for a cubic zirconium and sterling silver ring ahead of their wedding.
As the bride tried them on, a store assistant scoffed: ‘Can you believe that some men get these as engagement rings? How pathetic.’
Mrs McRae, who is studying to be a K-6 teacher, penned a heartfelt Facebook post about the experience in which she described telling the woman afterwards that it wasn’t a ring’s size or cost that mattered but ‘the love that went into buying it’.
In its apology, Pandora asked Mrs McRae to pass on the name of the employee and store location but she declined, insisting it was never her intention to spread negativity.
‘They asked if I would divulge the name and place where I bought the rings and I declined. My intention with this post was never to get anyone fired.
‘If that were my intention, I would have complained while at the store. I believe this post going viral is wake up call enough for her,’ she said.
The company has offered to send Mrs McRae a bracelet to make up for the unpleasant experience.
Ariel and Quinn McRae visited the store to buy her rings before their wedding but could only afford the silver and cubic zirconium pieces
The woman took to Facebook to share her experience with friends, describing how her husband’s ‘face fell’ when the employee made the harsh comment
She insisted that it was never the cause of her post but that she and her new husband had been left overjoyed by the positive response they have received.
‘My favorite part about this whole experience is having people share their stories with me. Quinn and I couldn’t be happier!’ she added.
So far there have not been any offers of a free honeymoon which the Mrs McRae, who has never been to the beach or on vacation, said they were glad of.
‘That would be an incredible offer, that I would be hesitant to take. I’m not good at accepting presents from people!’ she said.
Instead, the happy couple is now focused on money for a down payment. ‘Trips can come later. I would rather have my house,’ she said.
Mrs McRae is a full-time student at the University of Tennessee in Martin.
Quinn is a car service adviser. Together they ‘scrape by’ every month and didn’t have enough money put away for an extravagant wedding when they became engaged in November.
For their wedding, the bride wore a $30 dress from Torrid that her husband picked out from the clearance rack, she said.
Thirty minutes after the courthouse ceremony, Mr McRae had to go to work. His new bride celebrated with pancakes with her two best friends who had been there to take photographs.
The McRaes met online and were dating for two years before getting married in November (up). The bride wore a $30 dress from Torrid and they had their reception at a pancake restaurant. Sadly the groom, who went back to work, wasn’t present
In her well-read Facebook post, Mrs McRae described how her husband’s face ‘fell’ after the employee’s rude remark.
‘He already felt like a failure, asking me again and again “Are you sure you’ll be happy with these? Are you sure this is okay?”
‘He was so upset at the idea of not making me happy enough and of me not wanting to marry him because my rings didn’t cost enough money or weren’t flashy enough.’
She went on: ‘When did our nation fall so far to think the only way a man can truly love a woman is if he buys her $3,000+ jewelry and makes a public decree of his affection with said flashy ring?’
‘Sure they are nice, sure the sentiment is wonderful and I’m not trying to cut down any of your experiences, but when did it come to all that? Why do material possessions equate love??’
It was picked up and shared tens of thousands of times by inspired social media users who agreed with her anti-materialistic message.
A Pandora employee had said it was ‘pathetic’ men would spend so little on rings
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