Caution about Bank Vaults

As many of you may already know, the Midwest has been hit by some of the worst flooding in decades, with many lakes and rivers cresting well above flood stage, and many homes, businesses, streets and property left underwater, some for weeks. Our heart goes out to all who have had these problems, but this article goes a little beyond, to add a warning for the future to think about so that there is not a greater harm done to those that have been unfortunate enough to have property and homes ruined by these floods. Most people believe that if you put belongings in a bank vault, you're safe, protected, and insured by the bank, but this is mostly UNTRUE! If you believe that your belongings are insured, I suggest that you go ask your bank about this. Bank vaults are designed to be secure, and this is mostly true, but not necessarily in the event of a disaster, such as the horrific flooding that we have had in the Midwest. There is an article in the Chicago Tribune, dated April 26, 2013, written by Lisa Black that brings a very powerful point home. She reports that a bank in Northfield, Illinois, among others, had the unfortunate mishap that their safety deposit box room ended up under water. Think about what we keep in a bank vault that needs to be water free! Many of us keep our important papers in a bank vault, some keep money and jewelry, others keep mementos and keepsakes, but what happens when these are ruined by a natural disaster, such as the rank smelling water that ended up in the vault of this bank? Yup, you guessed it, you're not insured. The banks do not carry insurance, and most people, believing that that are covered and completely safe, do not carry supplemental insurance as a rider on their homeowners or renters policy. This is a disaster waiting to happen; the contents of a safety deposit box as a general rule are not insured by the bank. It is highly recommended that you take out insurance on whatever is in a safety deposit box. Of course this coverage is not very expensive because the perception is that it is in a secure and safe area, and will not be handled very often, that's the good news. Now think about the jewelry that you keep in your safety deposit box. Can anything be ruined by the flooding or other natural disaster? You bet! Most jewelry is probably fine if it gets wet, but not all. Soft stones and natural materials may be ruined by chemicals in the water, such as the ink that may run from the papers in the vault, ruining pearls and such. This brings me to another thought. Not too many people are told this, but never leave pearls or other materials that need moisture in a bank vault. Not only are they susceptible to damage from a flooding disaster because of running ink and chemicals, but normally, without the disaster, bank vaults are highly de-humidified to keep papers and other valuables in good shape, but what does this do to jewelry that needs moisture? You got it, it dries them out, and pearls and opals, just to mention a couple of popular types of jewelry need moisture, so a bank vault will ruin them without the disaster!!

Wishing You All a Wonderful Holiday

All of us at Windy City Diamonds join together to say thank you for kindness and to send you our very best wishes for the coming year

World Record at Diamond Auction

Recently, a new world record was set for a famous diamond. The well known Archduke Joseph Diamond fetched a fantastic price at Christie’s Geneva Auction held on Nov. 12th. The price? A cool $21.5 million, a world auction record for a colorless diamond.

This diamond weighs 76.02 carats, Antique Cushion cut, is D color, the rarest top white color, flawless clarity and was originally expected to sell for $15.0 million. The stone’s mystique stems partly from its origins in the Golconda mine in India, the source of other legendary gems such as the Koh-i-noor, the Hope, and the Regent.

The Archduke Joseph is the largest and most perfect Golconda stone to ever appear at auction, and it is named after one of its former owners, the Archduke Joseph August of Austria.

Stolen Wedding Dress made it to the wedding on time!

Imagine finding out that your wedding dress is gone because someone stole your fiancé’s car and your wedding dress was in it at the moment it happened! It sounds like a nightmare or something taken out of a movie doesn’t it? Well this happened in real life to a couple here in Chicago. A couple from Iowa drove into Chicago preparing for their upcoming wedding, which was going to be held in Chicago. They arrived late Friday night and stayed with friends for the night, parking their car on the street. Rather than bringing everything for the wedding into their friends home, they left their suitcase and the wedding gown in the trunk, and unfortunately for them, the next morning they discovered their car had been stolen! Fortunately for this couple, the Chicago police noticed a broken window on a car as it passed them by, ran the plates and found out that it was a “fresh steal”! When they pulled the driver over, the police discovered the luggage and the wedding gown in the trunk and contacted the owner that day. “Is the dress still in the car?” asked the groom? “It’s my fiancés wedding dress; we’re supposed to get married in the morning.” The dress, described as a white, full-length, strapless gown, which “boots out at the bottom” and has pearls along the top, along with the veil were all found and returned to their owner in time for the wedding.

We here at Windy City Diamonds are sure that tears of joy were cried after receiving the news that the car and all of it’s contents were found and returned in time for the wedding. Preparing yourself for a wedding can be a lot of fun but it can also be a little stressful, so just the thought of a bride losing her dress is not even conceivable. It was a miracle that the police not only caught the perpetrators but were also able to “deliver” the dress back to the bride, literally hours prior to her wedding. Situations like this still prove that no matter what happens in life everything will be just fine.

This is truly the Largest Diamond EVER!!!

There has been a recent discovery by a French and American team of astronomers that in the diamond world is fantastic!! A massive planet, Called 55 Cancri e, has been discovered, and this planet is basically one Giant Diamond! This heavenly body has a radius that is about twice the size of our planet, and is roughly eight times more dense, which means that it will weigh substantially more than the planet earth, but whose weighing a planet anyway? Rotation is so rapid that a year as we know it lasts only 18 hours. Hmmm, I wonder, would we get dizzy on this planet from the sparkle of the diamond, or the constant spinning that we will feel?!! Oh, by the way, Diamond hunters please take note of just a few drawbacks to your diamond mining plans: Surface temperature on 55 Cancri e is approximately 3,900 degrees Fahrenheit, and the big rock is some 230 trillion miles from Windy City Diamonds store! Angelina and Jennifer eat your heart out!

Summer Brides

Summer is here and that also means that wedding season is in full bloom. AS Most weddings are set for the summer time and this is the time where future brides and grooms start looking for the perfect piece of jewelry, here at Windy City Diamonds, we are always prepared to help you to choose just that piece for your very special day.

It’s wonderful that we live in a time where brides and grooms have so many options. Most brides tend to pick pieces that will compliment their dress but at the same time it’s most desirable to have one that may be worn for future occasions as well. Chandelier, tear drop and pearls earrings, are items that are extremely popular for brides, and as gifts for their brides maids! Something extremely classic that a bride may wear on her day is a beautiful pair of stud diamond earrings or a single solitaire pendant, which are also items that can be worn everyday whether you are in casual or dress up attire. Windy City Diamonds is here to offer you a fine selection of diamond stud earrings for you to choose from, and we have them to fit most any budget.

Your bridal party is also important on your special day and most brides and grooms tend to give gifts to their bridal party. Gifts can range from a pair of earrings to necklaces. You can choose items that compliment the color of the dresses or something that matches the bride’s jewelry as well. Grooms on the other hand tend to give cuff links or perhaps even a nice money clip. Once again there are many options to choose from and you’ll be surprised at how affordable these options may be! We’re sure that the friendly staff at Windy City Diamonds will help you to think of interesting and colorful ideas for you and your bridal parties so don’t be afraid to play, you’ll find that you can have a lot of fun, and that’s what it’s all about!!

Hypoallergenic Gold!!

As too many of us have learned, some people seem to be allergic to gold, or are they? The reality is, we are not allergic to gold, rather, some of us are allergic to the alloy in white gold, which is often nickel. Nickel does bother some people, but let me digress for a moment and give you some background.

Put on your miners cap and let’s go digging in our gold mine. As you may expect, in nature, gold is a bright yellow metal, it is never found in a "White" gold version. We need to make it white for jewelry, which is where the alloy comes in. Alloying is simply a mixing of metals for some purpose, which in the case of gold is to make it white appearing and to give it greater hardness as gold is quite soft naturally. Bring on the nickel. For many years, nickel has been the standard alloy used to turn yellow gold into white gold. Nickel is a pure white metal naturally, and adds hardness to the mix, but as I mentioned, some people do have an allergic reaction to this alloy, such as a rash or redness, sometimes itchy or just an uncomfortable felleing, but we now have a brilliant answer to this age old problem, without moving to the expense of platinum. Are you ready for this?? Technology is great, and we've figured out another metal, palladium, along with a few other trace metals, but not nickel, to alloy the gold with. Voila!! We have a white appearing gold, that is harder than the original metal as found in the ground, and remarkably, it appears whiter, and as an added benefit, without the need to constantly "dip" (re-rhodium plate) your jewelry!!

At Windy City Diamonds, we call this new metal "bright White" gold and we've been experimenting with it for over 2 years now with tremendous success. Hypo-Allergenic Gold! So for all of you out there that have some discomfort from your white gold jewelry, bring it in to Windy City Diamonds and let us re-manufacture your jewelry with this newer, technologically advanced, gold and alloy that will alleviate your problems, and without a huge expense!

Jewelry Trends for 2012
Summer is almost here and new trends in fashion as well as jewelry will be displayed everywhere. Major clothing designers and jewelry designer’s have worked together to create new and innovative pieces that will be worn by us this year. As a leader in Chicago's jewelry market, we at Windy City Diamonds love to share the latest trends and ideas in jewelry, and then we help our friends and clients to incorporate these ideas into their fashion.

Major Designer’s such as Versace, Gucci, Prada and Dolce & Gabbana just to mention a few, have created new jewelry trends for their runway shows for 2012. They definitely influence the trends that we will be wearing very soon. Most designers have gravitated towards rose and yellow gold in their jewelry pieces and in their collections. Also, the combination of those two metals will be quite prevalent in the jewelry that we will be seeing this year.

Rose gold and yellow gold are making a huge come back this year, and what is so great is that you can mix and match pieces which allows you to have more flexibility when wearing them.
Large bangles and cuff bracelets are also two items that will be really hot this year, even Tiffany’s has a created a collection to celebrate their 175th anniversary within the collection there is a large cuff bracelet in a pink tone and the rest of the pieces are in pink and white metals.

Many jewelry designers are using bold colors in their designs especially in bangles and earrings. They are exploring with different gemstones to add dimension and contrast to create edgy new pieces. This year will definitely be about color and size. The bigger and the more colorful will definitely be in, so be ready to step out of your comfort zone and add more color to your jewelry collection.

Make my day in Diamonds!!

How would you like to spend your day off roaming around a diamond mine, and make the find of a life time!

Recently a couple that was enjoying a day at Diamond State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas came upon just such an exceptional find. The Crater of Diamonds State Park is the only park in the world that lets the general public look for diamonds, and keep what they find.

A diamond, that has been named the “Silver Moon” was originally found weighing 2.44 carats and has been cut into a beautiful pear shaped diamond, that has been graded F in color (top white) and VVS2 clarity (exceptionally fine clarity). This diamond has been appraised by a local jeweler in Fayetteville, Arkansas for $21,000!! “It was beautiful in the rough and even more beautiful after it was cut” said the local jeweler.

Now this is that right way to go diamond hunting!

NEWS FLASH!! Largest cut emerald has questionable authenticity!!

NEWS FLASH!!!
Can you believe it? Just after we have all of the buzz about the world’s largest cut emerald being put up for auction, the question arises, IS IT REALLY EMERALD??

The gemologist that studied this giant 25 pound, yes you read right, 25 pound cut emerald cannot guarantee that the entire stone is emerald. He believes that it contains some emerald, but the stone has been dyed. How much dye you may ask? Well, no one knows for sure, which would mean that some or all of this giant stone may be what we call white beryl. Emerald is a green version of Beryl, much prized for it’s beautiful color as it is for the mineral that it’s made from. White Beryl on the other hand, has only a fraction of the value of green beryl.

The gemologist that looked at the watermelon size stone says “any enhancement by dye certainly lessens its value when compared to one that is naturally colored by Mother Nature”.

The owner acknowledges that the 57,500 carat oval cut stone has been dyed to some extent, but “the size of it is what makes it special”. He never submitted this stone to the GIA for inspection as the fear is that they would not call it emerald.

If it sells at the January 28th auction, it may fetch greater than $1.15 million dollars, but what can you do with a stone this large? It’s been suggested that it will make a great end table, or a wonderful conversation piece. The way I see it, it seems like expensive bragging rights for a stone that we are not even sure is what it is purported to be!

Largest Cut Emerald in the World being Auctioned!

Next week there is going to be an auction held by Wester Star Auctions in Kelowna, Canada of an Oval Cut Emerald that is being described as the “world’s largest cut emerald”. Care to take a guess how large this really is?? An amazing 57,500 carats!! I couldn't even image an Emerald this large. It weighs nearly 25 pounds and is the size of a watermelon!!

This Giant emerald has been named "Teodora", which means "God's Gift", and truly, an emerald this size must be God's gift.

This beautiful emerald has been graded by a gemologist who said the the forest green stone is definitely natural beryl (the technical name for this type of stone) and it has been only slightly treated. Enhancing treatments are quite common world wide for emeralds, but this one has only been very mildly treated.

Discovered in Brazil and cut in India, I'm amazed that they were able to cut it and maintain such a large size. Cutting a stone this large and heavy was a feat in itself, and I would have to say, quite impressive!

For any of you out there that are interested, this emerald has been appraised at $1.15 million, but the expectations for the largest cut emerald in the world at auction is actually quite a bit higher. Any bidders?

Liz Taylor is going to have a Wopper of an Auction!!

Sometimes, We at Windy City Diamonds find interesting information on jewelry that we like to share with our friends. On December 3rd, there will be an auction of Elizabeth Taylors jewelry, including the Famous Taylor-Burton Diamond ring.

This gorgeous 33.19 carat emerald cut diamond is D color, the rarest white color available for a diamond and is VS1 clarity. This ring given to Liz Taylor by Richard Burton is estimated to sell for between $2,500,000-$3,500,000! So how many would you like??!! I know, you can stop drooling now, and check out a few more of her beautiful pieces of jewelry that is going up for auction.

Elizabeth Taylor's "The Mike Todd Tiara," is estimated at a mere $60,000-$80,000. How would you like to wear this Tiara for your wedding??

Elizabeth Taylor's "The Prince of Wales Brooch," is estimated to sell for between $400,000 - $600,000. Once upon a time everyone that was anyone had a brooch on when they went out Fancy. Today, we find that people are beginning to enjoy a nice brooch (pin) again, just for fun.

Liz Taylor's "La Peregrina" is an early 16th century pearl, ruby and diamond necklace made by Cartier. This necklace was a gift from Richard Burton and is estimated to fetch between $2,000,000 - $3,000,000!
Please check out other blogs from Windy City Diamonds for more fun and useful information!!

November's Beautiful Birthstone

Have you ever seen Imperial Topaz, the birthstone for November?

This is not the color that most of us think about with the November birthstone, rather, we all think about the alternate which has become much more popular in that last few years, Citrine, which is sometimes referred to as Golden Topaz, and is the Ayurvedic Birthstone for November.

Ok, here's the traditional stuff that some of us find interesting.Topaz is rated 8 out of 10 on the hardness scale, so it's really quite a nice colored stone to put into jewelry.

Golden topaz is given on the 4th, 19th or 23rd anniversary and is associated with the values of strength, wisdom, and courage.
Topaz golden color was believed by the Egyptians to be the glow cast by the sun god Ra.An amulet made out of Topaz was worn by the Egyptians to protect them from injuries.The Greeks believed it brought strength and made the wearer invisible, while the Romans thought Topaz had powers to improve eyesight. The name Citrine comes from an old French word, “citrin”, meaning lemon. Citrine, like all forms of quartz, was believed to have magical powers and was worn as a talisman against evil thoughts and snake venom. Citrine was considered to have medicinal properties and was commonly used as a cure for kidney and urinary ailments.

Topaz crystals can reach incredible size of several hundred pounds.
A 1680 carat, colorless topaz known as the “Braganza Diamond” is set in the Portuguese Crown Jewels and was originally thought to be a diamond.

Here at Windy City Diamonds we look for the unusual pieces to make into interesting jewelry as is this fine example that is currently exhibited in our specialty jewelry showcase.

This is a very unusual, 25.33 carat Heart Shaped Citrine that we set into a 14k White Gold pendant surrounded by 61 matched brilliant cut diamonds to create the brilliant contrast that is seen in this magnificent piece of jewelry.

Tales from the Hood

Windy City Diamonds is known as an engagement ring store. At Windy City Diamonds we are also known for our ability to custom manufacture most any type of jewelry, yet sometimes we are surprized with the requests that we recieve in our store. Last week we had a man come in to our store, looking around, not for an engagement ring or a wedding band, but for something a bit more unusual. After a few minutes of searching, and not seeing what he was looking for, he approached one of the women on our sales staff and asked "Do you sell Hand cuffs?" She looked at him and said, excuse me? "Do you sell hand cuffs" he replied. I'm sorry sir, we generally carry engagement rings and wedding bands, but we don't carry hand cuffs here. Well, after hearing this conversation, some of the other staff began to smirk a little. I must say, I thought that our sales lady acted very professionally, but she too thought that this was a very odd request in a jewelry store. This client then asked to speak with the manager and was directed in the direction of another male sales associate in the store. He walked over and asked again if we sell hand cuffs?

After a bit of discussion between our salesman and our client, we realized that he wanted minature hand cuffs, designed to hold his pony tail, just like the one that Snoop Dogg has!! This conversation turned out to be quite funny, and we're now making hand cuffs for his hair!

We do have fun here, and we try to help with each and every request!!

Opal and Tourmaline, Octobers Birthstones

October has two traditional birthstones, the Opal, and Pink Tourmaline.
October’s traditional birthstone, the Opal, is thought to create hope, faith and confidence in its wearer. This beautifully radiant stone has been treasured and worn for centuries. In Elizabethan England, the opal was treasured both for their beauty and their presumed protective powers. The opal has been set into the crowns and necklaces worn by monarchs to ward off the evil spirits, to protect the eyesight, and even ground up and ingested to ward off nightmares!

Opals are famous for the “play of colors” that are seen in most opals. Many of these stones will flash different colors of the rainbow when moved. Red, Blue, White, Black, Yellow, Green, there is no end to the beauty of this spectacular stone.

Most opals are found in Australia, but there are deposits found in Brazil, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and even in Nevada. Opals may be worn in wide variety of jewelry including rings, pendants, bracelets and earrings. Opals reached their peak in popularity in the deco period of the 1920’s but their popularity has been waning in recent years and there has been a surge in purchasing the alternative birthstone for October, the beautiful Pink Tourmaline.

In Recent years, we at Windy City Diamonds have seen Pink Tourmaline gaining tremendously in popularity. Tourmaline has been prized for its association with balance, endurance and safety, and some people call it the “peace stone,” believing it to dispel fear and to make its wearer calm.

This beautiful example of Rubilite, a fine pink Tourmaline was custom designed by us at Windy City Diamonds, made in 18k White and 18k Rose gold to accent and enhance this gorgeous ring.

Tourmaline is found in a broad spectrum of colors and in the past has even been misidentified as Rubies, Emeralds and even Sapphires. In fact, there is a famous tourmaline, the size of a pigeon’s egg that belonged to the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, which was long thought to be a Ruby!

Windy City Diamonds has been making pink tourmaline jewelry for many years now and with the surge in pastel colors being worn today, this color blends beautifully to complete any outfit. As Tourmalines are a relatively hard gemstone, they will endure many years of enjoyment in your jewelry.

Sapphires - Septembers Birthstone

Sapphire is the birthstone for the month of September, and they are associated with the 5th, 23rd, and the 45th wedding anniversaries. I know this won't mean much to you, but they are 9.0 on the Mohs scale of hardness, 1 step below diamonds, making them the second hardest natural mineral.

Once upon a time, sapphires were believed to have great healing powers that would help the wearer with rheumatism, colic and even mental illness. Sapphires have also been associated with great wealth and many Hollywood royalty have been seen sporting Sapphire jewelry.

Joan Crawford received a 70 carat star sapphire ring from her second husband. When Richard Burton proposed to Elizabeth Taylor for the second time, he too presented her with a cabochon sapphire ring.

Lady Diana Spenser's engagement ring from Prince Charles was an 18 carat, deep blue, oval sapphire surrounded by 14 round brilliant cut diamonds. This same ring, as many of already know, was presented to Kate Middleton, now known as Princess Katherine, from Prince William.

Medium to Dark Blue is the most associated color for this birthstone, but if you were lucky enough to be born in the month of September, you may pick from any color in the sapphire family for your jewelry. Your choices may include blue, yellow, pink, green, brown, purple, white, orange or colorless, and there is even a rare variety known as color-change sapphire that shows different colors under different lighting conditionsSapphires in any color are a versatile stone that may be set into most any type of jewelry for your enjoyment.

At Windy City Diamonds, we have custom manufactured many styles of jewelry that have incorporated Sapphires. Sapphires are beautiful on their own, but when accented with diamonds, the excitement intesifies with these precious stones.

Here is an example of a spectacular 5.00 carat, cushion cut sapphire diamond ring that we made for one of our clients.

Again surrounded by beautiful round brilliant cut diamonds, this made a breath taking diamond and sapphire engagement ring. This is one lucky lady!
Best of all, sapphires are easy to care for, requiring no special treatment for cleaning.

Sustainable Weddings

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending my Niece's wedding. My niece and her husband are extremely environmentally conscience, and they wanted to see how "green" friendly they could manage with their wedding, leaving as small a foot print as possible.

The first thing that they did was to use Vimeo to create an e-video for their save the date. Of course this was then disseminated to their friends and family via email, leaving no environmental footprint in their path, and they saved money as well. No paper, no printing, no postage.

Now comes the invitations. Again, turning to the internet, they produced a beautiful e-vite, along with a "response card" to maintain their goal of being completely sustainable in their approach. The invitations were beautiful, and I've found that there are a multitude of sites on the web that may be used for sending out these invitations via email, some free, some for a small fee, but this too saves on paper and postage, leaving no footprint.

I wondered how they were going to maintain this lofty goal of zero impact on the environment with their actual wedding, which did turn out to be a bit harder, but still, I was amazed at the extent to which they worked this out.

The arrived and left their wedding on bicycle, no pollution, no impact.
The wedding dress was made in a fashion that it could later be dyed and hemmed to wear in the future. This has a small impact on the environment, but no more than any other clothing that you would purchase normally.

The food that was served was all vegetarian, and delicious, but this didn't impress me as being sustainable, until I found out that all of the produce was grown locally, only organic produce, much of it by the chef him self, and used in preparation of all of the meals. No shipping, cartage, etc, no fuel used to transport, just good quality, organic (no pesticide) vegetables. They even served fruit smoothies made with locally grown organic apples. What a wonderful idea!!

The Flowers were all locally grown, in season flowers, which were beautiful, and again kept the environment footprint very small. In addition to this, the vases that were used were ball jars that will be re-used again and again as my niece loves to make canned fruits and vegetables.

Ok, so I guess you’re wondering how we can bring the jewelry into the idea of sustainability. Easy, the rings that were used were family heirlooms, re-worked to fit their taste!!

All in all, this was quite an impressive wedding and quite an impressive feat to accomplish such a small environmental footprint with 150 people at the wedding!

Our Friends from all walks of LIfe

It's truly a pleasure working with our friends and clients. We have clients from all walks of life and sometimes we are fortunate, and our friends share pictures of their special day, their wedding day with us. I would like to share one of these pictures with you today.

In some cultures, it is customary to have "Henna" parties. The bride and her bridal party will paint their hands with a temporary dye called henna, and often in very intricate patterns. I loved seeing the juxtaposition of the two hands, together with the traditional hand painting and the wedding bands that they chose to express their love and devotion to one another.

I thank them for sharing, and I hope that you too enjoy seeing how some of us have different traditions, that blend so beautifully with today's modern bride.

Wow!! What a wonderful engagment story

I recently received this wonderful email from a client of mine, months after I had worked with him, and I had to share it with everyone. One of the reasons that I love my job is that I have wonderful friends and clients, that appreciate the effort that we put into each and every piece of jewelry that we make, and everyone leaves happy!
___________________________________________________________

I'm sorry for the delay. This email is long overdue.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I was in your shop on a rainy, cold February 26th. I took care of everything engagement-related that day: asked her father (a cop) if I could marry his daughter around 8a, had a wonderful ring shopping experience at Windy City Diamonds from 10a-1p, and asked her to marry me around 7p.

Here's how it went down:

She had to take care of her grandpa till about 5:30p, planning to get home around 6p. We had a dinner party to go to that night around 7p, so I planned on asking her beforehand. I got to her place about 5:45p. From the time I left my house, I was so nervous! As I sat on her living room couch waiting for her to get home, my heart was racing so fast. I was amazed at how something like this could make my body react in such a way. I set up a camera in a hidden location, and stuck the ring in my pocket. When I heard the garage door open, I nearly jumped with excitement. I turned the camera on, and sat back down, pretending to read a magazine. She came through the door, coat on, and water bottle in hand. I was so nervous and excited that I basically ran right at her, haha (She later said that she noticed how I sprinted to her so fast).

We hugged and kissed and all that good stuff. Then, I went into "remember when?" mode:

me (trying to cover up a shaky voice): "I was thinking today how we're going to Lindsay's for dinner tonight, just like the first night we kissed years ago."
her: "yeah.."
me: "Remember when I went in for the kill, you stopped me and said, 'before we do this, you know how crazy my life is, and how crazy my family is?'"
her: "haha, yeah"
me: "Well, after all this time, all I know is that I'm crazy about you."
her: "I'm crazy about you too!"
me: "and now I wanna know (dropping to one knee, displaying the ring), do you wanna get a little more crazy?"
her: *gasp* "HOLY CRAP!"
me: "Jamie, will you marry me?"
her: *shocked* *2 seconds = eternity*
me: "(um), will you marry me?"
her: "yes! YES!!!!!"

I looked down at the ring and noticed that I had the center stone shifted off to the right, so I made a quick adjustment, haha. We embraced for a long time, called a bunch of family and friends, and finally went to our party. It was great! I'm glad I didn't wait.

__________________________________________________________
I'm fortunate that he came in, and I'm very happy that he took the time to share his story with me, which is why I felt compelled to share with you all as well. Enjoy your day!

How much should you spend on an Engagement Ring?

This summer, it’s estimated that more than 500,000 men in the United States will pop “the question”, which means that summer time is engagement ring time.

Many men will be wondering, how much should they save for an engagement ring? Traditionally, DeBeers Diamond Company suggested that a groom should plan on spending at least three months’ of his annual salary. Yet the question remains, how valid is this ideal of spending three month’s salary given the difficulties in the world economies today and closer to home, our still sluggish economy?

At a time when the unemployment rate is close to double digits and the household savings rate is in single digits, not everyone will feel comfortable spending 25 percent of their annual income on a ring.

Still, there is the ideal that 3 months salary is the target, but there are a few things to remember when making this decision. First, it’s not like an automobile that you will drive for a few years and then trade or sell for a newer model, nor is it even like a condominium or home that you may decide to sell and move for what ever personal reasons that you may have.

This is a purchase that will last a very long time, and will be enjoyed for a very long time. My wife still gets compliments on her engagement ring, and she has worn it every day since the day she put it on her finger, 34 years ago!! Remarkably, this is not an unusual response that I often hear from our friends and clients about their rings as well.

My personal opinion is that this is a purchase that is recognizing your stated love between two people and should be one of the happiest events/moments in your life. It should not be uncomfortable, or so stressful that you’re worried about how much you are spending on this ring; rather it should be purchased within your comfort zone, after setting your own personal goals as to what is important to you about this purchase. Believe me; she’s going to love what you do!!