Weddingbee Blog

I’ve been having trouble deciding on whether I want to wear diamonds or pearls on my wedding day. I love me some pearls but I’m worried it won’t match the detail on my wedding dress or my raspberry spotted guinea flora hairpin.

Does anyone have suggestions on what kind of jewelry I should wear? How about no jewelry and just keep it real simple. But if you look at my hair trial, I have no jewelry on…hmmm…not feeling that either.

Here’s a cropped photo of my dress detail.

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I’m a regular reader of weddingbee, and it’s been a very helpful resource.

When I first got engaged, I didn’t know much about diamonds. So when I started reading up on it, I found out about blood or conflict diamonds and I kept asking my fiance about where he got my ring and if he knew anything about conflict diamonds. He eased my concerns by saying that he got it from a very reputable jeweler, and did some research and found out that Vera Wang gets diamonds through a specific distributor who actually has a foundation that gives back to the countries where their diamonds are found.

Now with all the posts of engagement rings, I was wondering if people asked questions about conflict free diamonds. I am still confused about it because there are sites with conflicting information. Some sites say there’s only 1% of diamonds that are not conflict free and that the Kimberley Process has really kept an eye on the diamond trade. Others say that DeBeers has a control over the entire industry and they’re the ones citing the 1%.

Is there really a guarantee on the diamond that is purchased that it is conflict free? Do people consider that when buying their engagement ring? Sites have said you should ask your jewelers about their policy — do people do that? And even if they do, how certain can we be of their truthfulness…is there a place you can confirm that information?

With Leonardo Dicaprio’s new movie coming out, I think it will raise alot of questions. But I really don’t know where to find reliable information. I was hoping that Weddingbee would be able to help!

Thanks!
-vi

While my parents were in town, we went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. They have a GREAT gift shop and my mom was in the market for some Christmas gifts.

I can’t resist visiting the gems and jewels exhibit when I visit that museum. I just can’t believe the size of some of the jewels. This is the Hope Diamond, which is the world’s most famous diamond.

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When my fiance first mentioned that he was going to purchase my e-ring off the internet, I almost fell out of my chair. I was horrified that he would even consider purchasing such an expensive and meaningful item online. I guess many people still have this preconceived notion that shopping online can be dangerous, so I was not about to let him buy my engagement ring sight unseen from some guy who ran a diamond site using Frontpage (web software program).

But it turns out my fiance did a hybrid purchase online and in person. He really did his research, mainly on Pricescope.com, educating himself on diamond quality and purchasing. It’s a great resource for newbies who don’t know the first thing about diamond selection. The forums are the best source of information for people who want to know what to look for in a diamond beyond the obvious 4 C’s (cut, clarity, carat, and color).

Pricescope has tools called the Ideal Scope and Holloway Cut Adviser you can use to appraise the dimensions of loose stones - they basically tell you how brilliant the diamond will be compared to others. The forums are full of diamond experts or at least people who are diamond fanatics. Pricescope also has many FAQs and various articles to educate people about potential diamond purchases (ie. who to buy from and common mistakes people make). Some of the people on the site are actually diamond appraisers.

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After Miss Orchid’s great post today about a newly-discovered diamond that weighs in at 603 carats, I just had to do some more research about the world’s other humongous diamonds. I’m sure we’ve all heard of the Hope diamond, and I actually thought it was the world’s biggest. But guess what? It’s not–not by a long shot!

According to this site, the world’s largest diamond is actually the Cullinan I, or “Star of Africa”, with a cut weight of over 530 carats! It was cut from a stone weighing over 3,100 carats, originally.

Here’s the bling:

Pretty, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit underwhelmed. Maybe I was picturing huge diamonds being, well, giant versions of the more normal-sized diamonds we have in our engagement rings.

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There is a rare, giant 603 karat white diamond that sold for $12 million at auction. Known as the ‘Lesotho Promise’ diamond, the estimated price of the diamond when cut is approximately over $20 million. Holy Bling Batman! I can’t even begin to imagine where you would wear that. The only image that comes to mind is from Ducktales where that really rich woman (duck) wore a huge diamond pendant and wheeled it around in a wheelbarrow. Hah!

My engagement ring is by no means a big big bling. But I love it nonetheless. This is not an actual picture of my ring, but it’s exactly the same setting.

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About.com had an interesting article about how to choose a diamond that looks bigger than it actually is.

1. Consider Fancy Diamond Shapes (marquis, oval, pear)
2. Choose a Pavƒ� Setting
3. Consider an Illusion Setting (The diamond in an illusion setting is mounted to a mirror-like plate before being set into the band, making it look larger, with more brilliance.)
4. Choose an Engagement Ring with Side Stones
5. Select a Bezel Set Diamond

I can attest to the side stones fact because Miss Butterfly has two pear shaped side stones on her engagement ring, and it looks bigger than rocks that have almost double the carats! We both have round stones that are the same size, but hers looks twice as big as mine. I’m blinded by its sparkliness.

I saw this article on MSN linked on Pricescope and was curious what you guys thought! The conclusion of a new study, commissioned by Oxygen, found that most women would choose new technology devices over diamonds or shoes.

I’m a little confused by the article though, since it seems to be discussing two fairly unrelated issues as far as I’m concerned. The first is whether women are as technologically savvy as men (pretty much!!), and the second is a series of choices between tech purchases or luxury items. Without a comparison of whether men would prefer a digital video camera or a fishing vacation (for example) to go alongside the stereotypically “female” ideal gifts, the study seems a bit pointless to me. Even the “comfort with technology” portion of the survey doesn’t have male numbers to compare it to! I just wonder how much this has to do with gender differences and how much it has to do with a basic practical vs. luxury conflict within a given person. The clear implication (to me at least) of the article is that men are more practical and women want more frivolous things - but they don’t give us anything to back that up!

That said, I’d totally take the diamonds.

What do you think of the article? How much truth do you think the practical men vs. frivolous women stereotype has behind it?

HousewifeNY posted an interesting link to Blue Nile’s Recently Purchased Diamonds feature today. Check out what rocks others are purchasing in the diamond world.