The Wedding Diaries

With Michelle Graff’s recent wedding blogging (see her 7/13 and 7/16 posts), I decided it was time for me to chip in. Last week, I joyfully tied the knot. And as I went through the planning process over the better half of the past 12 months, I often thought that the way I came about my wedding jewelry might seem a bit add for someone who writes about the industry, including this confession: My engagement ring hails from cyberspace.

My husband, a programmer who writes code for an Internet start-up, purchases anything and everything online. So while the proposal did come as a surprise, his means of securing the ring was no shock. As a young couple, price was of the utmost concern. And being that he is someone who lives and breathes online, I know the hubby felt confident in his decision.

I adore my ring, and while I love to support local retailers, I also can’t help but love that he chose a path that is so typically him.

I’ve sat in on seminars where sales experts have explained there is always going to be a set of consumers who will buy online, and for the jeweler, it isn’t worth chasing them. The hubby definitely falls into that category. What he missed by going online was a personal connection, but after years of living with a jewelry editor, he’s become very familiar with my own thoughts on heirlooms and the way I feel about memories being intertwined with jewelry.

When it came time to look for a wedding band, guess where the hubby turned? For my own, however, I went a different route. Friends asked me why, with access to a bounty of designers, I didn’t ask someone to make something for me (I did for the earrings and cocktail ring I wore on the big day), yet I wanted to have that experience of going to a jewelry store and working with a retailer. 

Typical of me and my powers of procrastination, just two weeks before the wedding, I picked up a New York Weddings magazine, thumbed through the jewelry listings and highlighted smaller independents that I thought would specialize in what I was looking for—something priced at an entry-level range and clearly handcrafted. I found exactly what I was looking for at the store of a West Village jeweler. Not only did I find the ring, but I found a store I would return to in a heartbeat—for future purchases, repairs, etc.

Thankfully for the retailer’s quick work and a fabulous friend who hand-carried the ring from New York to our West Coast wedding, the band was in my hands the day before the ceremony.

Unconventional? Sure, but aren’t the stories what jewelry is all about?

Comments

[Bridal jewelry, Wedding jewelry sets, Bridesmaid jewelry, Wedding jewelry sets, Bridesmaids Jewelry gifts]

Hi ,

I just wanted to say that I love your blog.

As a bride-to-be on a tight budget, I recently discovered an online bridal jewelry store called GlamForLess.com.
Though their website is plain and simple, I found some great deals on jewelry sets for me and my bridesmaids.

I think other readers on a tight budget may also find GlamForLess.com to be helpful.
You may want to check them out at http://www.glamforless.com/ and inform other readers about it.

Keep up the good work.

Best regards,
Lisa Bloom