Color Me Married
Hint of glint: heart-shaped pink diamond platinum ring from Jacob & Co.
The trend toward colored engagement rings has intensified in recent years. Jim Haag knows. He's personally seen the trend blossom since he was with jeweler Harry Winston and sold Ben Affleck the 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring that accompanied the actor's proposal to Jennifer Lopez in 2002.
Of course, Bennifer's engagement fizzled, but colored rings still are hot, and colored jewelry is even showing up in weddings, too.
Diamonds still are the stone for weddings jewelry, but colored gems are now frequently used as accent colors, says Haag, now the managing director for Jacob and Co., the New York jeweler known for elaborate designs.
"You want a little hint of glint," Haag says. "Wear something to accent your look. It's all about enhancing you, not wearing something to distract from you."
Pink and blue make great accent colors for weddings, says Haag. Avoid yellow, he says; it doesn't pair well with white or with darker skin tones.
A great way to work in color is to pair a diamond solitaire engagement ring with a colored wedding band. Because colored diamonds run at a high price tag, sapphires can provide a nice, colored look at a less expensive price. An elegant, dainty bracelet on the right wrist - opposite the engagement ring - is another option.
"First, it's never an issue of matching," Haag says. "Second, [the engagement ring] is sort of an icon of love, it's a symbol of forever that doesn't have to be matched. The things that have to be matched are on your neck and your ears."
For ears, diamond studs or studs on a wire will work well for all brides, he says. For neckpieces, whether to go with pearls or a diamond on a chain depends on the bride's neck and her gown's style.
Haag reminds brides to look like themselves on their wedding day. "My rule for everybody is keep it simple, keep it timeless," he says. "The biggest mistake is to load up on jewelry."
A Green Option for a White Day
Here comes the bride, all dressed in ... green?
{Caption} Eco-friendly gown: Sustainable, biodegradable ... and twinkly. [Credit} Faernyn's Grove Corsetry
Think eco-friendly, not St. Paddy's Day. The "green" wedding gown is a is corset/dress combo by fashion designer Renè Geneva, owner of Faernyn's Grove Corsetry, Austin, Texas.
The off-white gown is made of 100 percent sustainable biodegradable hemp silk with a two-foot train made of Luminex, a fiber optic woven fabric that appears to twinkle when light strikes it.
The 60/40 hemp-silk blend fabric is shiny, soft and strong. But the traceability and sustainability of fabrics are just as important as their look, says Geneva, whose business works with a fair-trade, fair-wage, worker-owned cooperative in Nicaragua to produce some of her boutique orders.
"Money is going where it's needed most," she says. "The fabrics, 100 percent sustainable and biodegradable, are produced in sustainable fashion and not grown using pesticides."
A friend who works as a green architect, and who happened to wear the green gown for her April wedding turned Geneva onto SBP-rated materials.
The use of green materials - organic cotton and wool, hemp, formaldehyde-free silk, linen, Tencel (a wood-based fabric) - is increasing in popularity and being pushed by green organizations as eco-friendly alternatives to traditional wedding garb. When the fabrics are grown organically and presented in their natural color, or tinted or lightened with non-toxic dyes and without chlorine, the number of toxins released into the environment is greatly reduced. To eco-enthusiasts, nothing says helping the environment like saying "I do."
– Timothy R. Schulte
– (c) CTW Features
Wedding Day Fear Factor
To conquer fear, first you must name it. Brides and grooms did just that in a recent poll. Here are the nuptial calamities they feared most:
A "runaway" bride or groom: 39%
Guests and
relatives won't get along at the wedding: 30%
Running out of food, drink:23%
Having a
blemish: 5%
Wedding
crashers: 4%
Source: Kelton Research poll of 1,100 men and women ages 18 and up for the Weather Channel
How to Pop the Question with Style (Ix-nay on the Umbotron-jay)
The trouble begins when the vision of a Jumbotron leaps to the mind of a young man in love. In his eyes, there's nothing more romantic than the idea of popping the question, in lights, at the big game. In her eyes, says jeweler Emerson Robbins, such proposal is likely to be a big, jumbo-sized mistake.
"Public proposals are dangerous," says Robbins, owner of E.E. Robbins The Engagement Ring Store, Seattle. "A good 'don't' is don't do it publicly with friends and family unless there's no doubt in your mind she'll say yes."
There's no right or wrong way to propose as long as it's creative and romantic, Robbins says, but putting a woman on the spot could complicate matters. "Remember, this is a moment she will remember for the rest of her life; make it special."
As a third-generation jeweler, Robbins has seen about all there is to see in the engagement business. One customer who enjoyed mountain climbing with his future wife trained for weeks with a falconer, hoping to have one of the birds deliver a special "air mail" package during a climb. When the lovebird and the falcon couldn't perfect the routine, he went with a more traditional, intimate proposal over dinner. Another customer decided to bury the ring in the sand to keep it hidden, but when the couple made it to the beach the buried treasure was unable to be found. Hiding the ring at the beach or anywhere else probably isn't the best idea, says Robbins.
In years past, as a service to men gearing up for a proposal, Robbins' store handed out how-to books to help guys with the proposal. After a while, though, he realized the ideas and stories he heard from his own customers were better than the ones in the books. So last year he started a contest looking for the best wedding proposal story. Seven months and more than 1,000 responses later he had a winner.
The top prize - a $10,000 diamond - went to students Joe Springer and Allison Porter: On a kayaking trip during a rare weekend getaway, Joe had a lantern-lit raft set up a half-mile offshore, complete with snacks and wine. Joe presented her with his grandmother's wedding ring as he read aloud a journal entry from three years earlier, when he wrote that he'd just met his future wife: a girl named Allison.
The happy couple and engagement ring expert offer their advice for popping the question:
• Talk about marriage and be sure it's something you both want.
• Make it a surprise. "Our thing is that we feel that the ring is important, but the proposal is just as important, if not more important," Robbins says.
• Remember it's for the both of you. If you can incorporate something you both love and share together, do.
• Make sure your plan works and that you have thought it out carefully. Burying the ring in the sand may not be such a good idea.
• Think more about romance and personal significance rather than something sensational.
• Put time and effort into it and show that you thought about it.
• Don't act like it's no big deal. Asking in the car or in bed certainly won't make any books.
• Don't rush it, says Robbins. Guys have the tendency to just get things done and over with.
•Don't get distracted by having to ask the question. "Asking was a piece of cake," Springer says.
• Don't fret if things don't go as planned, says Porter. The attempt is what's meaningful.
Robbins has put his knowledge - and some stories from his customers - between the covers of "Popping the Question, Seattle Style," a book of 99 real-life proposal stories gathered from the contest that will be published this fall.
 |
