Announcements

Wedding invitations not only set the tone of your celebration, but are the first joint statement you and your fiance make publicly after becoming engaged. Here are a few tips to consider.

• On the invite, there should be the name of whoever's hosting the wedding (usually the bride's parents) at the top. Remember, the bride's name should always come before the groom's.
• It's a good idea to order your entire stationery wardrobe from invites to thank-you notes from the same stationer to save time and money. It'll also ensure paper, design and color consistency.
• Invitations should be ordered no later than three months and sent out no later than six to eight weeks.
• Include an RSBVP card, a phone number or email address where guests can confirm their attendance by a certain date.
• Drawing up your guest list, requires on part realism (budget and logistics) and two parts hospitality and graciousness. Be as tolerant as possible tot he groom's as well as both sets of parents' requests. Don't forget being obstinate about the guest list may strain relations with your in-laws for eternity. And never make the mistake of sending invites to people you really don't want to come on the assumption they won't. They're normally the very first to accept! Also you don't have to get 500 invitations for 500 people. Some of these people are in couples, so you'll only need one per pair. But get extra envelopes just in case you mess up with the addresses.
  

Diamond care

So you have chosen and finally purchase, your precious stone. How do you give it the best care and attention to make sure it stays beautiful forever? There are a few simple rules to follow.

Diamonds will not abrade or chip as do other stones and they respond well to care and attention. Remember, diamonds are great grease collectors. natural oils from the skin, hand creams, suntan lotions and the like will adhere to the surface of the stone and prevent the proper refraction of light. This, in turn will cause even a superb gem to look dull and lifeless. The safest cleaning combination is warm soapy water and a tooth brush. soak int eh war,m soapy water and clean the top and under surface with a soft toothbrush.

The gold setting of diamond can also become dull without proper care. Clean it regularly with a chamois cloth. Don't clean your gem rings with alcohol or chemicals. Leave any chemical treatment to the experts. Diamonds set with emeralds, rubies or sapphires need extra care and are best left to a professional jeweler to clean.

Emeralds are very sensitive and fracture easily; also the color is often unstable due to exposed flaws which occur int eh cutting. soaking in alcohol or chemicals can cause the color to leach out. Rubies and sapphires are more durable an respond well to cleaning care. Remember harsh chemicals will affect the setting of any stone.

If you are a swimmer, beware. Swimming in chlorinated pools every day will cause erosion of gold resulting in the weakening of a ring setting or the eroding of the gold links in a chain. So leave the gold and precious stones at home when going on a sun-fun holiday. If you have a good jewelery and enjoy wearing it, one of you best investments in the purchase of a good quality jewelery box. Moore damage is done to jewelery lying loose in unlined boxes than is ever done through constant wear on the hand.

A diamond is tough. Lying loose it can badly scratch other softer stones and pearls. So a jewelery box with several drawers lined with silk or velvet is a must. It might also have a drawer with a ring roll so rings can stand upright, a drawer for chains and necklets to be laid flat and a thickly padded drawer for brooches to be pinned safely. A thing of beauty IS a joy forever if you work at it.

Buying Diamond

If you are planing to buy a diamond either of your engagement or wedding, here are some tips you may want to know.

Rule number one is: always go to an established jeweller Stay away from the fly-by-night dealers. This is usually a large transaction that one must entrust to the hands and appraisals of the most reputable diamond dealers.

Rule number two is: to insist upon obtaining a certificate on all diamond gemstones of one carat and above, more or less all stones valued from $5,000 and above. There are a hundred different certificates around says a diamond expert. The two officially recognized certificates are those issued by the international gem societies, HRD, tech Diamond High Council of Belgium or GIA, the Gemological Institute of America. They are the only internationally recognized documents on the world's diamonds.

Valuing a Diamond - part 2

Clarity refers to the presence of imperfections and flaws within a stone the INCLUSIONS. The vast majority of gemstones do contain flaws, bubbles, clouds and feathers whose size and placement affects the valuation of a stone. A totally transparent stone, which has no visible inclusions when examined under a jeweller's 10-power magnifying glass, is deemed FLAWLESS or loupe-clean. Inclusions are measured by the standard GLA (clarity grading system) of 12 basic divisions, from loupe-clean (flawless) to vvs (for very very small) to vs1 and vs2 and so on.

The fourth C in gemmology stands for CUT, a most vital factor in the valuation of a diamond. Cut refers actually to two aspects of the whole gemstone.

First there is the overall shape of the polished stone. Diamonds are generally considered in six basic and popular shapes, emerald (rectangular), oval, brillant (round), pear, heart and marquise(boat-shaped). The brilliant is the most popoular shape : a rounded spinning top-like full-cut diamond with 58 facets. The 70 facet radiant is a new cut in the market, similar to tech emerald cut but with more brilliance. A baguette is a small rectangular rod cut with less facets than usual. In the end, the shape of a gemstone is largely a matter of personal taste.

Valuing a Diamond - part 1

The four C's;
Diamonds are a confusing and risky business. Fortunately there is a practical process almost a scientific means for valuing diamonds and then establishing prices. Diamond dealers and their buyers use a standard vocabulary or jargon in their gemstone world. This revolves around measuring the weight and quality of a gemstone. The determining factors of gemology are called the four C's; carat, color, clarity and cut. These are the four basic dimensions of gem-talk.

The term CARAT, for a standard weight was originally derived from the word carob, a small oriental bean which ancient lapidaries balanced upon their fine measuring scales. The carat today is the gemmologist's unit of measure equivalent to 200 milligrams or one fifth gram. A point is a one-percent fraction of a carat, so there are 100 points in a carat. A gemstone is thus generally priced on a per carat basis and the larger a whole stone is the more costly it is value.

The quality of a gemstone diamond or otherwise is determined but its COLOR. The shade, intensity and hue of a stone may indicate rarity, which affects both price and perceived beauty. The whiter a diamond, the deeper the green of an emerald, the more rare, the more precious, the more expensive. To many diamond lovers, the stone's color is of prime importance.

Diamonds are found in different colors, even in finely varying degrees of white from exceptionally white-plus to tinted white. International diamond dealer color-grade stones by a standard alphabetical system of twelve major classes. Most stones contain traces of color, even the slightest tinge that only an expert eye can detect. The most common colors among diamonds are yellow and brown. Sometimes reputable jewellers label, their diamond colors by particular trade terms, crystal, white, silver cape, etc; terms calculated to evoke a customer's interest. many experts recommend that given a choice, one would buy the whitest possible diamond and sacrifice the next factor, clarity.