One Sunday after Lowe’s Store 684 in Warren, MI closed for the day, its associates didn’t go about their usual closing duties.
“It just literally was boom, boom, boom. Tables were moved, chairs were set up, they were serving food,” said Katie Jo Gill, Lowe’s store manager.
Associates worked quickly to put together what would become a night filled with memories to last a lifetime, a wedding for one of their own. Yes, a wedding at Lowe’s.
Nahren Hido, a Customer Service Associate in Home Décor, came to the U.S. from Iraq on her own. Without family by her side, her fellow Lowe’s associates quickly became her family in America.
“Lowe’s is my family here. We spend so many hours here, so we are really a family,” said Nahren.
When Nahren told associate and close friend, Jose Trejo, she was engaged and getting married in a courthouse, Jose stepped in.
“She was like ‘I have no family here’ and I was like ‘Hold up girl, let me see what I can do,’” said Jose Trejo, Lowe’s store associate.
Once Jose got the green light from Katie Jo to throw a wedding for Nahren at the store, he called for backup. Flooring Specialist, April Bowman, started to brainstorm how they could make the day as special as possible. Soon, nearly the entire store rallied around them to make the day something out of a fairytale.
“I wanted her to be able to look back in 20 years and be proud she had it at Lowe’s,” said Bowman.
Still in shock, she would have a wedding surrounded by people she loved, all Nahren had to do was show up. Every detail was taken care of by her Lowe’s family, even a dress was donated by another associate for Nahren to wear.
When the day came, Katie Jo’s daughter served as the flower girl, another associate was Maid of Honor, and Jose walked Nahren down the aisle to her fiancé Howard, surrounded on either side by patio seats filled with her co-workers.
“Oh, it was like a dream come true,” said Nahren. “We all came together like a family. This is what family does.”
Now, Nahren and her husband Howard not only have a beautiful wedding day to look back on, but quite a unique story to tell.
