There are many who believe that music store owners are unprecedented in the lengths to which they will go for good customer service. When 28-year-old longtime customer Carras Paton called Rebecca Apodaca of Laguna Hills CA-based A & D Music Inc. to discuss his wedding, she thought he needed to rent a PA. What he told her was that she, other than his parents, had been the most supportive person in his life. For the past 20 years, she had provided him with instruments and repairs, provided a private tutor, and attended his concerts from elementary through college. They had been in parades together and shared Christmas concerts; she even substituted for him on bass the night of his last high school concert so he could do a sax solo. She visited him in New York when he moved from California to perform in musicals.
Instead of the PA rental, he asked her to officiate at his wedding. “I was stunned, but said yes!” a surprised Apodaca said. She went through the necessary requirements to become a minister and to legally officiate. She even performed a song on ukulele for the processional and her grandson, Renin, was the ring bearer. “As music store owners, we help families, but this was more of an honor than I ever expected,” she said.
