Diamond Engagement Rings Specialist

Share prices are tumbling. In the wake of the $700 billion bailout rejection in the US, everything in the financial markets the world over seems on the way down except – did you guess? – diamonds! And the news is that with a growing demand from markets in Russia, the Middle East and Asia, there is bound to be a big gap between demand and supply in the days to come.

In an interview yesterday, the CEO of the Harry Winston Diamond Corp said in New York that there was “…a lot more upside in diamond prices than the public market appreciates,” and he went on to say that diamonds weighing 3 carats have quadrupled in price in just 1 ½ years.

So Standard & Poor’s 500 Index could have tumbled down nearly 9% but diamonds prices continue to hold their head up. The Harry Winston Diamond Corp has a 40% stake in the Canadian Diavik mine. So they should know when they say that with having to dig deeper and deeper in existing mines, rough diamond supply is going to decrease unless some new exploration throws up a new find. Given things as they are, diamonds will be a very valued luxury item for quite a while yet. Diamonds are not just forever – it looks like they are going to be valuable forever!

Come October 15 and two large beautiful diamonds are going to be up for sale at Christie’s New York Sale. Called the Ponahalo Diamonds, they weigh 102.11 and 70.87 carats approximately and are among some of the finest diamonds in the world today.

The Ponahalo Diamond was found in a DeBeers mine and since it was a very special diamond, it was given a name, following a tradition of christening the ones that were the best. This one was 316.15 carats and the name meant ‘vision’ in the local dialect. This large rough diamond was cut up into four diamonds and these two that are on sale took 1 ½ years to shape.

Whatever is realised from the sale of these diamonds will go towards the Diamond Empowerment Fund.

The New York Sale also features a whole lot of jewellery that are outstanding like exquisitely designed diamond engagement rings, necklaces, brooches, etc. The estimated sale proceeds are in the region of around £18 million.

With the economy growing, one finds that it isn’t just the very rich who are buying diamonds and suddenly, this dazzling gem which has till now been seen as expensive, is now being viewed as being affordable by the Czechs. This is probably a result of growing consumer confidence as well and more and more of them are buying jewellery and expensive watches.

One Czech company that used to sell around 1000 diamond rings at the beginning of the century now sells that number in a month. What is being noticed is also the fact that young adults in their twenties are now walking in to buy a diamond engagement ring.

There was a time when the Czech Republic was known for its jewellery and its diamonds. With communism taking over the country, people moved into a more austere way of life and it isn’t till recently that attitudes began to change – and change fast. Not only are people buying more diamond engagement rings, they are buying jewellery as investment and there are so many media campaigns by leading jewellery houses to entice them along that path. Looks like the Czechs are on a diamond rediscovery road!

Well, actually, not all wedding rings. The plain gold band is still allowed but the ones with any kind of design, bevelled edges or engravings have been banned. The married nurses at Bradford Royal Infirmary are mad. The management has banned them from wearing these wedding rings to control the risk of infection being spread.

The nurses say that there is no evidence that there is any kind of disease being spread because of the kind of rings they wear. They take the usual stringent precautions and wear latex gloves most of the time. However, the hospital follows a national infection control of being ‘bare below the elbow’ and while they are willing to let plain gold bands stay, they will be very strict about any wedding bands with any kind of design on them. In a recent audit, it was found that there were a number of nurses wearing wedding rings with designs that could be a breeding ground for bacteria.

The nurses say that with all the precautions taken, this kind of fear is totally unjustified. The hospital however, is standing firm. One wonders how this impasse over wedding rings will end.

Americans are very particular about their wedding rings when it comes to politicians. So it seems a bit surprising when Delaware Senator is seen around town without his wedding ring. Especially as he has been named the prospective vice-president for the Democratic Party. Somehow, most politicians have been very conservative when it comes to wedding bands – why, even Bill Clinton always had his on.

The question being asked now is, did he ever wear a wedding ring? Considering that he has just recently been pitch forked into the limelight after Barack Obama named him running mate, suddenly everything he does, says, wears and doesn’t wear seem to have become very much in focus. Never mind that he refers to his wife as ‘drop dead gorgeous’. One wonders if this will affect his campaign and whether America will accept a vice president who is different and doesn’t toe the line of political etiquette. Maybe he just feels uncomfortable wearing a ring. Whatever the reason, right now, it is a very talked about topic.

A 5 carat diamond is enough for most of us to stare open-mouthed with our eyes popping out of their sockets. Now imagine a 500 carat diamond. The first thought that comes to mind perhaps is, who will be the lucky one who will have this on her diamond engagement ring?

On the 8th of September, a white, almost flawless diamond weighing around 500 carats was found in the Letseng Mines in the South African kingdom of Lesotho. Experts in Antwerp say that the stone has a clarity and colour that are outstanding – well, all that remains is the cut and we’re sure that will be outstanding as well.

There have been several large diamonds that have been almost perfect found over the centuries. The largest of course is the Cullinan which is said to have been over 3000 carats before it was made into 100 stones. This new diamond which has an absolutely flawless D colour makes even the Kohinoor look small.

The Letseng Mines have so far been where the three largest diamonds in recent years have been found. The news continues to keep Lesotho in the forefront of diamond mining and production and the place where the best and the largest diamonds are found. The mine is situated really high up – over 10,000 feet and the mining group that works these mines are the Gem Diamonds group.

Former English football star and Match of the Day presenter, Gary Lineker looks all set to wed his 29 year old fiancée at the end of the year. Should we expect a December wedding? The envious might say it would be quite a fitting month considering it is almost a December-Spring wedding. He is, after all, a good eighteen years older than her.

Danielle Bux however, seems to be in seventh heaven as she showed off her sparkling diamond engagement ring. The couple have been together for about a year, after having been introduced to each other by a mutual friend who set them up on a blind date.

Dani used to be an air hostess with Virgin Air and she has a daughter by Adam Willis who used to play for Coventry City. Gary and his former wife divorced two years ago – they have four sons. Michelle was his childhood sweetheart and they still maintain a very amicable relationship. Gary is probably one of the few football legends to have gone through his entire career without a yellow or a red card. He was always known to be a thorough gentleman in a sport where this was not the norm. Today, he is known more as a presenter on TV.

It looks like a Christmas wedding is on the cards so here’s wishing them a lot of festive cheer and celebrations!

Ashley Cole’s wife, Cheryl was spotted with her wedding ring back on her finger and the last time she was seen to have it on was at least eight months ago. Cheryl Cole, who is acts in the X Factor, was said to be devastated to have caught Ashley and her hairdresser together. Now that was way back in January.

The Chelsea football player didn’t probably deserve to be forgiven by his lovely wife but things look like they have been sorted out. She was spotted with her wedding ring on again and with a smile on her face at the London Fashion Show as well as on the Jonathan Ross chatshow.

Cheryl admits to wanting to put that ring back in his head but she seems calmer and more accepting now. She also realises just how much under public scrutiny the lives of celebrities are. Every move is pounced upon and reported – whether rightly or as a matter of conjecture. She wishes that the public would stop expecting so much from their idols but would accept them as regular human beings.

It’s true. There’s something about celebrities that make us want to know everything about them and an engagement is such a big part of people’s lives. We get a kind of vicarious pleasure when the media takes us into their personal lives – lives that maybe secretly we wish we had. And of course, the fact that their diamond rings are usually bigger and so much more expensive that we could ever hope to wear makes it just that much more enthralling.

Let’s take a look at some of the rings that probably made our eyes pop out of their sockets just looking at pictures! There was Paris Hilton’s 24 carat ring from her billionaire boyfriend though that did not lead to a wedding ring. And of course, Christina Aguilera’s 20 carat diamond engagement ring. More recently, there was Beyonce’s 18-carat ring. ( Gosh – how do they carry those rocks around?) Oh, let’s not forget the biggest one of them all – Elizabeth Taylor’s 30-carat diamond engagement ring – just one of her many!

Royalty has always been in the news for their jewellery. There was Princess Diana’s 18-carat ring and before that, Grace Kelly’s 12-carat ring.

It just goes to show that diamond engagement rings just have that certain something special to them. If we can’t have something that is huge, we’ll find someone who does and read all about it!

You could just have got your engagement ring free if you live in the US and you bought it from any Bremer store. Bremer Jewelry launched a ‘Pray for Rain’ promotion where there were seven engagement rings given away free. All that was needed was at least an inch of rain on their wedding day.

Here’s how it worked. Couples bought the diamond engagement rings, then prayed for rain on their wedding day. It did rain on the 13th of September – and there was three inches of rain, not one. So seven couples who got married that day got their rings free. Sure, they had to shift everything indoors where an outdoor celebration was planned but they were all ecstatic as the cost of their engagement rings was reimbursed up to $5000.

A diamond engagement ring forms a large part of the engagement and wedding expenses. To get all that money reimbursed must have made those couples so ecstatic!

It’s been almost a year since Jennifer Hudson and David Otunga have been seeing each other. Well, they feel they’ve had enough time together to be sure about what they want and the singer announced their engagement, or rather her representative announced it to the press. It happened last Friday in Los Angeles , according to reports.

David Otunga is a reality television star and he acts in ‘I Love New York 2’. He’s hardly ever called David by those close to him and most call him Punk. Apparently his proposal came with a Neil Lane diamond engagement ring on Jennifer’s 27th birthday.

Jennifer Hudson who was one of the finalists in the top rated US TV show, American Idol, also shot into fame as an actress in the movie, Dreamgirls. She won an Oscar for her role and her dream now is to win a Grammy – she’s hoping to do that with her debut album that will release later this year.