Diamond Engagement Rings Specialist

It looks like the holidays make a man romantic going by the way the sales of both wedding rings and engagement rings shoot up during that time. Maybe at other times, a man is too preoccupied with work and when it’s holiday time, he can relax and turn his mind to other things – things like popping the question or deciding on a wedding date.
Jewellers all over the world see a surge of rings during the holiday season and even if, like an engagement, a wedding is usually planned in advance, a wedding date will, very often, be chosen during the holidays so it makes it easier for everyone to plan and attend. When it comes to an engagement ring, a man will probably walk into a store during a holiday and pop the question during a holiday too. And he will very often ask the store people for advice about the ring and the usual choice is the classic solitaire or vintage style diamond engagement rings. That goes for wedding rings as well. Even if a wedding is planned in advance, the couple will walk in for their wedding ring sets during the holidays. A store in the US has 40% of its sales of wedding ring sets during the holidays.
There have been a number of celebrity engagements and weddings during the Christmas and New Year break and it’s happened all over the world. Guess that just goes to show that the holiday spirit affects the rich and famous too. There was Marvin Humes and Rochelle Wiseman, Matthew McConaughey and Camila Alves, Britney Spears and Jason Trawick, Aretha Franklin and Willie Wilkerson, Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto, Steven Tyler and Erin Brady and John Legend and Chrissy Teigen.

With wedding ceremonies taking place in the most way out and exotic locales, why not nearer home, at the zoo? The Paignton Zoo and the Torquay Zoo in Devon offer you a wonderful option as a place to get married in. These two wildlife charities have now been given wedding licences so you can arrange to have your ceremony there or have a wedding party later.

The zoos are equipped to cater for parties for weddings, engagements, naming ceremonies and any celebrations. Now that the zoos have been granted licences to conduct weddings, it means you can get married there as well – and you can choose what kind of a ceremony you would like to have while you exchange your wedding rings. The money collected goes towards their plant and animal conservation charities so that’s a great way to start off your married life.

You can also choose where you would like to have your wedding and your reception. There are unique locales in both the zoos – so you can choose to have it in a room with a panoramic view of the bay, or you can have it in a lion or tiger viewing platform or at any of their restaurants. You could also have your pictures taken with some of the zoo inmates – pictures with the penguins seem to be the favourite. Or, you could choose other animals to feature in your wedding album. The unique idea has many takers and there are a lot of bookings already.

It was a wonderful homecoming for seventy five soldiers from Davenport in Iowa – they had been deployed in Iraq for a year in order to fly, refuel and maintain the American army’s Chinook helicopters. As they finished their term and came back, there was such a sense of joy among them and their waiting families. Some of them had done their very first deployment service and this was their first stint in the army. They had all been deployed in the Army National Guard and as they stepped out onto the Aviation Support Facility, there were tears of joy awaiting them.

What was also a source of joy for many of the men was the fact that they could wear their wedding rings again. They had to take them off while they were on duty but now, they could wear those rings again and that was a great feeling for them and their wives. There were such happy moments of men meeting their wives again and having their wedding rings slipped back on, of children meeting their fathers, parents meeting their sons and siblings and friends meeting their loved ones.

Some of the men have been there since 2003 and they were among the first soldiers to be deployed in the Gulf region. And they seem to be among the last to come back. All the wives and families of all the soldiers there want their men and women to come back because the feeling is that they have been away too long.

There are pictures of the two singers and they both seem to be wearing what look like wedding rings in them. So are they married is the big, big question. Though there are no reports forthcoming from their publicists, the rumours are that they have been married for sometime now – whether this is true or not is anybody’s guess. The pictures were taken some time in September and it looks like the wedding rings are matching rings.

Robert Plant was the singer in the band Led Zeppelin and he has been doing a lot of touring recently. Some time ago, he toured with Patty as back-up singer. Patty is an American singer and songwriter who is also a Grammy award winner. She is known for her pop and her country music in the USA and she is known as the ‘Meadowlark of Hyde Park’. Nearly six months ago, there was speculation about whether they were dating and now there is talk about them already being married.

In the UK, Robert Plant is known for his philanthropic largesse. Together with Roger Daltrey of The Who, he has launched a cancer charity for teenagers and young adults. Pete Townsend is also a part of the venture. Thus far, teens were not focussed on when it came to cancer – well, now, this centre does and it opens up a whole new world for these young people who suffer from this condition.

Most sportsmen remove their wedding rings when they are playing a sport – especially in a competitive or a professional level. This is usually the norm all over the world – you hardly see any sportsman who is married having his wedding ring on during a game. However, there are some today from all over the world who prefer to keep their wedding rings on during a game.
Ben Roethlisberger who got married a few months ago is one of them. This American footballer who plays as a quarterback has had quite a reputation off the field for some time now. He plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers who are a part of the National Football League. However, after he got married, he seems to have become a model married man. He wears his wedding ring all the time and when he is playing, he covers it with a piece of tape. So everyone watching him knows he has his wedding ring on and he says his wife loves that. When a celebrity football player of his stature does something, everyone notices.
Other sportsmen have also been seen wearing their wedding rings – with or without tapes. Some of them feel that the ring could be a deterrent in a game and prefer to keep it off for the length of the game. Very much like surgeons who prefer to keep their rings off while they are performing a surgery. On or off really is a personal preference unless it interferes with what you are doing.

A couple from Cotull, Lancashire, who are wildlife enthusiasts, had an unusual wedding. Their wedding ring bearer was an owl – a barn owl - and it succeeded in stunning all the guests at the wedding. When they got married a few days ago, they distributed white tailed sea eagle pins as wedding favours. This was done to encourage their guests to give donations towards preserving the sea eagle population in Mull instead of giving them gifts.
Their wedding was very different, to say the least. Their wedding rings were made of black zirconium and they were dressed in black too. They got married in Wigan and came to Mull for their honeymoon. They felt it was great to know they had done something worthwhile instead of all the gifts they would have received from their guests. They feel that every time they go back to Mull, they will remember that in some small way, they have made a difference.
The couple has been dating for a decade and apparently they had always said that when they did get married, they would ask their guests to make donations rather than buy gifts. Well, they had their wish come true and they feel proud that they have been able to donate to a worthy cause. The sea eagle had become extinct in Britain for over seven decades and it is only with a programme where the birds had been reintroduced at Mull that the population is growing. It is the largest bird of prey in the country and this is truly an amazing success story.

Men didn’t have too much of a choice in wedding rings till a few years, maybe a decade ago. It was always the plain wedding band made of gold and the only unique thing about it could be the engraving and the date inside. Outwardly, all men’s wedding rings looked the same – some were slimmer, some were thicker. Then came a choice over the past few years of white gold and platinum wedding rings for men. Today, however, there is a vast choice for men to choose from.

The other metals that are finding favour with men are tungsten, palladium and titanium. Suddenly, a steely masculine colour became a lot more popular. Not just manly looking, these metals are a lot stronger than traditional gold and a lot more resistant to scratches. Today, there are even more options. Now, men seem to like a whiter look when it comes to wedding rings and what seems to be competing with white gold and platinum is silver. Suddenly, silver seems to have been elevated into this category and designers are mixing it with a small bit of other metals to keep them looking bright and making them more durable. Unlike traditional sterling silver, this will not tarnish and this makes it so much more popular.

Men’s fashions seem to have come a long way in the last few decades and men too, are looking beyond what is necessary to what looks good and is fashionable. This just means they want more choices in everything they buy – whether it is clothes or personal products to their wedding rings which they now see as a statement of style as well.

Will they? Won’t they? That’s what seems to be on most Hollywood watchers’ minds. The whole drama – or rather, melodrama – has been played out in front of a very receptive media and the latest is a video rant that Ashton Kutcher made and released online. It has gone viral and what most people seem to be taking away from it is the fact that he is not wearing his ring. However, another one soon surfaced and in this, he does have his wedding ring on.

Demi Moore has not taken her wedding ring off. Both of them still wear their Neil Lane designer wedding ringsbut they have been hardly seen in each other’s company and when they are, they seem very uncomfortable. However, the divorce papers have not been filed yet but most people in the know feel that it is only a matter of time before that happens. She appeared on the red carpet recently looking frail and gaunt and it looks like this has taken its toll as she’s lost a lot of weight.

Meanwhile, there is more dirt being unearthed about Ashton. Apparently he has a son with a former girlfriend who he met recently and rumours say that both he and Demi tried hard to make the girl get rid of it. However, in a situation like this, there is bound to be a lot of rumours surfacing and it’s just part of their celebrity lives which are lived out so much in the public eye. Will Demi decide to forgive him and will all be well in their world again? One never knows – it’s been known to happen before.

It looks like wedding ceremonies are changing and they are becoming more unique, more individual. For years, we’ve all fitted in when it came to engagements and weddings. The guy proposed with an engagement ring and if the lady accepted, they got married. However, a lot of young people are questioning the old ways. Why can’t women do the proposing, for instance and why can’t men wear an engagement ring too? With so many weddings taking place every year, wedding planners too are scrambling to make each wedding unique and suited to individual tastes rather than following tradition blindly.

Suddenly, the whole ‘must do’ and ‘have to’ seem to be flying out the window. Some couples walk up the aisle together, hand in hand, without having the bride’s father walk her up and then give her away. It looks like the whole man-woman equality is being played out quite strongly now. With so many couples living together and even having children before they get married, if and when they do, they want their children to be a part of the big day too so they weave in a part for them. The same goes for the wedding vows. Couples want to vow their love and loyalty for each other in their own words and not in the standard ways.

Then the rings. Engagement rings, especially when it comes to celebrities have moved far beyond the simple, classic solitaire diamond engagement ring. Today, ornate and huge seems to be the way to go. The same with the wedding ceremonies. Everyone wants heaps of wedding pictures and something on YouTube for the world to see. Today’s weddings are all going viral in a big way and the younger generation is not afraid of showing the world that they are up for change in every area of their life.

On the 9th of October, Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell got married. It was the third time for the ex-Beatle and the he and the American heiress were married in the same place where he married Linda, his first wife – the Old Marylebone Town Hall. Finally, everyone knew who the wedding rings were designed by – they both had wedding rings designed by Neil Lane, the famous jeweller to the stars and celebrities.

The wedding ceremony was a quiet, private affair and Nancy wore a white long sleeved dress for the wedding while Paul was in a dark suit. The bridesmaid was his daughter, Beatrice and Ringo and his wife as well as George Harrison’s widow were there. Though it was a quiet affair, there were many people gathered outside the Town Hall, waiting to see the couple as they came out and hoping to wish them. The couple willingly posed for photographs and he even shook hands with a number of fans who had waited patiently outside.

While the wedding was reminiscent of his first wedding, it was a far cry from his second one which was lavish and attended by many. The two have been together for four years now and they both looked happy. The couple will no doubt have a celebratory event in the USA where they both own homes. She is wealthy in her own right too and it was touching that Sir Paul paid tribute to his first wife Linda who he lost so tragically to cancer in the late nineties. Though his second marriage ended in a rather unpleasant fashion, it looks like he is third time lucky and they look wonderful together.

There are going to be sixteen lucky couples who are going to be exchanging wedding rings at the same time on sixteen different islands on the Bahamas next May and the great news is, you could be one of them if you are lucky. This is a contest being run by Bahamas Tourism and it is being done as a tourist event to bring in traffic to the islands and spread awareness about these sixteen beautiful ones.
Here’s what the couples have to do. They have to send in a video recording or photograph telling the event sponsors why they would like to be married in Bahamas. Then they have to choose one of the sixteen islands and talk about why they made that choice. They need to go to the website and go through all the sixteen islands and look through each proposal. While all the weddings on the islands will take place at the same time – that is, 4 o’clock on the 12th of May, 2012, each wedding will be different and unique. One might be a barefoot wedding, another in an ancient cloister, one at a lighthouse and another underwater.
The weddings will be all paid for – from a wedding dress of the bride’s choice from Benjamin Roberts’ Tia range to free wedding rings, to the wedding ceremony, a videographer, the toast and the cake and of course, flights and transport for the couple as well as a week’s stay. Their two guests will get a 6-day stay. It’s a dream wedding for most couples and obviously this is a push to promote these islands as wedding destinations. And this contest will make sixteen couples’ dreams come true.