Engagemen Rings : A Diamond Is Forever
According to a recent DeBeers study, four out of five brides receive diamond engagement rings. National Jeweler’s 2003 survey found that more than 40 percent of customers planned on buying a diamond one carat or larger. And the 2002 American Wedding Study (sponsored by Condé Nast) revealed that the average engagement ring costs $3,576: more than 16 percent of the average wedding budget.
Once the ring is chosen it’s time to pick a diamond if one is not already set into the ring. There are four qualities that are important: cut, color, clarity and carat weight.
Cut: The cut of a diamond refers to the angles and proportions of a diamond. This is not the shape of the diamond, but it can determine whether a diamond has been cut too deep, too shallow or if it is an ideal cut. A diamond that is cut well will reflect light and project it through the top of the stone, and will shine more noticeably. Diamond shapes include round, emerald, pear, heart, oval, princess, trillion and marquise
Color: Even though white diamonds are still the most popular, yellow diamonds are slowly gaining popularity. Diamonds are graded on a color scale by the Gemological Institute of America and it ranges from D, which is colorless, to Z, which is a light yellow. Although yellow diamonds have been popping up into diamond stores, the colorless diamonds are considered the best, which would be listed by the GIA as a D.
Clarity: Diamonds are all unique, and naturally occurring marks and fractions can be present on a diamond while it was forming. The GIA also has a clarity grading scale, which labels diamonds from having very slight flaws to having many flaws to them. The more inclusions found on a diamond, the less brilliantly it shines.
Carat Weight: Carat is the diamond’s measured weight, but it is not the diamond’s size. Because large diamonds are harder to find in nature, a one carat diamond will be more expensive than a ring holding 2 1/2 carats of diamonds. The shape of the diamond and the mounting of the ring will also make a diamond appear larger.
After taking the four C’s into consideration, buyers should trust themselves in picking the right diamond for the ring.
Diamond jewelry of all kinds became more and more popular in subsequent decades, but the industry fell on hard times in the 1930s, due to the Depression and its accompanying plummeting marriage rate. Soon the DeBeers diamond cartel had a surplus. “So they tried to promote the diamond engagement ring,” she says. DeBeers put New York’s N.W. Ayer advertising agency on the case, and in 1948 they hit pay dirt with the slogan “A Diamond Is Forever.” This hypnotic mantra has seduced America ever since, calling out from magazine and television ads, billboards, and bus shelters.
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