If you’re recently, or about to get engaged, and choosing your own ring, it’s important to know what to look for. Of course, not all engagement or wedding rings have diamonds. You can choose any stone, crystal or gem you want!
If, however, if you’re leaning towards a girl’s best friend, we share some advice from experts on how to make sure your diamond is of good quality, suits your style and band, and is the best value for its price.
The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) has created a universally used system called the Four Cs of Diamond Quality. These categories are your go-to method for assessing your sparkly rock.
Cut
The shape of your diamond is a personal choice, and refers to the way a stone is hand- chiselled to reveal its proportions, symmetry and polish. In fact, the cut is the only way a jeweller can make a diamond unique and stand out. Cutting diamonds is a great skill, and the quality of the cut determines how the stone’s facets will interact with light and ultimately how much it sparkles. Choose a cut that catches your eye. Trends come and go, so don’t just go with the current most fashionable shape. Go for the one that shimmers its way into your heart.
Here are the most common options:
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Clarity
All diamonds bear ‘birthmarks’ – small imperfections inside the diamond, called inclusions. The number of these imperfections determine a diamond’s clarity and more flaws mean a less brilliant stone.
The GIA’s 11 point diamond clarity scale ranges from flawless to heavily included. Stones that are flawless or very slightly included are virtually perfect to the naked eye. However, diamonds with inclusions can be just as radiant, beautiful and perfect for you.
Here’s a spectrum on which you can find the clarity of your diamond:
Colour
Diamonds naturally occur in various different colours. However, in the traditional white diamond, white is highly sought after. The presence of other hues, especially yellow, lowers a white diamond’s value.
The GIA grades white diamonds on a scale of D (colourless) to Z (darkest). All D-Z diamonds are considered white, even though they contain varying degrees of colour, while coloured diamonds are graded on a separate scale. Do bear in mind that the colour of the band can also influence the stone’s appearance. If you’re going for the ‘pure’ look, choose the whitest rock you can find (budget allowing). However, don’t shy away from yellow diamonds, as they posses a beauty of their own.
Take a look at the scale for colour grading:
Carat
Most people think of carat as a stone’s size, but it actually refers to weight, with a metric carat equalling 0.2 grams. Diamonds are measured meticulously using 100 ‘points’. Very large stones are incredibly rare, as fewer than one in a million mined rough stones are large enough to produce a finished 1 carat diamond. As the weight of a stone increases, its value therefore increases exponentially, with a 3 carat stone potentially costing 9 times as much as a 1 carat equal stone.
Take a look here:
When going ring shopping, bear in mind that no one factor can determine a diamond’s value and that more expensive isn’t necessarily more you.
Source: Shiny Rock Polished
Image: Instagram/Weddingplannermontreal
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The Flamingo Project helps make things easier for women diagnosed with breast cancer and receiving treatment in the public health sector. The project was started by Dr Liana Roodt, and is run from Groote Schuur Hospital.
Dr Firzana Araie is a regular anaesthetist for Project Flamingo and decided with her husband Phillip that they wanted to celebrate their union by having donations made in their name instead of creating a wedding registry. Through this, the couple raised R25 000 for Project Flamingo, which is enough to sponsor a full list of patients.
“Thank you so much to the newly married couple of Dr Firzana Araie and Phillip Sterne,” the Flamingo Project said via a Facebook post.
Project Flamingo raises funds to alleviate the waiting period. Thanks to Project Flamingo, the waiting time for surgery is now down to 2-4 weeks at Groote Schuur. Funds raised for the project go towards offering surgeries, paying for theatre time and nursing staff.
Picture: Firzana Araie/Facebook
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You probably think wedding cakes have always been about indulging in something sweet on your special day. It’s an easy assumption to make. Of course, nothing in life is that simple. The wedding cake has a centuries long history and started as a tradition that was said to ensure fertility.
In Ancient Rome, weddings would end with the bride and groom having a wheat or barley cake broken over their heads. Yes, really. This practice is said to have been to ensure prosperity and fertility in the couples future. The guests would try to secure some of these blessings for themselves by scrambling for a few crumbs which had fallen from the broken bread.
The tradition made its way to England, and was eventually altered quite a bit. In medieval England – as the English acquired more spices – the wheat and barley cake shifted to something tastier. Instead of simple bread, they would use spiced buns, scones, and cookies.
Another alteration that the English made to the tradition was to forget the breaking of the bread. The ‘confections’ were stacked into a tower as high as possible. At a wedding, the newly-wed couple would be required to kiss over the tower of treats. If they managed to kiss without toppling the tower, it was said they they were guaranteed some good fortune.
From there things took an odd turn. Instead of wedding cakes, wedding pies were more popular. Again, eating the pie was meant to ensure the couple had a happy life together. The pie also contained a ring, which single ladies would try to find. Finding the ring meant that they would be the next to get married (kind of like the bouquet toss that we do today). This may sound pleasant, but it most definitely was not. The first recorded wedding pie recipe, from 1685, contained oysters, lamb testicles, throat, and pine kernels.
Luckily, things began to change for the better from there when cakes replaced pies. As sugar became more available in England, white icing became the cake topping of choice. Queen Victoria had a wedding cake covered with white icing.
Tiered cakes took off in the 18th century. The story goes that a trainee of a baker in London fell in love with his bosses daughter. In an effort to dazzle her, and get her to love him back, he baked her an elaborate, tiered cake.
Image: Pexels
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Iconic beach babe Pamela Anderson is a married woman! After dating 30 years ago, the Baywatch actress recently tied the knot with her ex, producer Jon Peters, in a private Malibu ceremony on January 20.
Anderson and Peters first met in the mid 1980s at the Playboy mansion when Anderson was 19 years old. Peters reportedly funded acting, dancing and singing lessons for the star during the very early stages of her career. The couple dated for a while and Peters even proposed but Anderson declined, citing their 22-year age difference as the main reason. He tells The Hollywood Reporter that he said to her, “In 30 years, our age difference won’t mean so much.”
This is the fifth marriage for both Anderson and Peters. Anderson married Tommy Lee in 1995 but divorced in 1998. She married second husband Kid Rock in 2006 but they split a year later. Third husband Rick Salomon came in 2007 but their marriage was annulled in 2008. She then remarried Salomon in 2014 but they split again in 2015.
The couple are incredibly private, and have very few photos together.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Peters said, “Pamela has never seen her full potential as an artist. She has yet to shine in a real way. There is much more to her than meets the eye, or I wouldn’t love her so much. There are beautiful girls everywhere. I could have my pick, but – for 35 years – I’ve only wanted Pamela. She makes me wild – in a good way. She inspires me. I protect her and treat her the way she deserves to be treated.”
Anderson shared a poem she wrote in dedication to Peters with The Hollywood Reporter.
“Jon is the original ‘bad boy’ of Hollywood –
no one compares –
I love him deeply like family.
His life used to scare me.
So much for a girl like me.
Now I’ve seen more of life
and realize ..
He’s been there all along.
Never failed me –
I’m ready now
and
he’s ready too –
We
understand
and respect each other –
We love each other
without conditions. –
I’m a lucky woman. –
Proof
God has a plan”
Feature image: Instagram / Pamela Anderson