Weddingbee Blog

I confess that I have already bought a bracelet. I looked around on the internet and one day, while perusing the jewelry on the Macy’s website, I fell in love with a bracelet:

{image via Macy’s}

It’s a classic. It has real cultured pearls. It has teeny diamonds on the clasp. It looks fantastic!

And despite the hefty price tag that Macy’s displays as the “original price,” it is almost constantly available at a reduced price. Depending on the sale of the day or week the price varies a bit. So I kept my eye on it. And one day it was more than 50% off…

So I swooped in and scored it! I had it sent to Mr. Bracelet in Montana, and he assured me that it looks great and “very sparkly.” I trust his jewelry opinion. I finally got to see it myself when I visited him after Christmas:

{personal photo}

The clasp is just as pretty as in the photo on Macy’s. It’s delicate and has a sprinkling of tiny diamonds…but even better: beautiful scroll-work details on the sides of the clasp. <3 What did surprise me a bit, though, was the “unevenness” of the pearls and the stiffness of the strands. The photo on the webpage made the pearls look very round and the string balanced. But I guess that pearls come in all shapes and sizes and that they don’t have to be perfectly round…and as for the stiffness—I’m sure that will go away once I wear it a bit.

Watching the price fluctuations of this bracelet, I did start to wonder how inflated jewelry prices in general are. By sticking a steep price tag on something and putting it “on sale,” the stores seem to suggest that we’re “saving money.” I found it especially annoying that Macy’s actually told me in the checkout process that I had saved so-and-so many dollars with this purchase. It’s not like they’re giving me money back. If they manage to keep selling this bracelet on sale, the “original” price can’t be real.

What is your experience with jewelry prices and shopping?