Yes is the answer to the question, can I design my own engagement ring. You'll need to learn a few essential things about engagement ring design and that's what you'll learn here. Important factors you need to understand are diamond clarity and color, diamond shapes, types of metal for your ring band, and the various settings you can choose from.
A diamond's shape is going to have a great influence on the design of your engagement ring, so deciding on the shape of your diamond is a very important and long-lasting decision. A few of the most popular diamond shapes are Round, Princess, Emerald, Oval, Marquise, Pear, Cushion, and Radiant. Personal tastes, style, and preferences are going to play a major role in choosing your diamond's shape.
A diamond's price and desirability are greatly influenced by its color. An important fact to consider is that the less color your diamond has, the more it will cost. Some of the acceptable colors in diamonds used in engagement rings vary from a touch of brown to completely colorless. The color scale for diamonds will typically vary from the colorless "C" all the way up to the inexpensive "Z".
You will want to understand that the clarity of a diamond will be based on inclusions, and where, how many, and the size of the inclusions. What you have to pay for a diamond will be based on the number of inclusions found, and you can generally say that fewer inclusions will equal a more costly diamond. Inclusions are a natural condition of diamonds. A scale is used to describe the quality of diamonds and is based on inclusions that can be seen under a microscope. Engagement rings with the greatest number of inclusions will have an I3 designation and flawless diamonds will have an F designation.
Deciding which metal is going to be right for your engagement ring is something you need to take seriously. If you have allergic reactions to metal, then a platinum ring may be just the thing for you. Keep in mind that platinum is more expensive because it is a rare metal. One of the most popular metals for engagement rings is gold. Gold is mixed with other metals because 24 karat gold is too soft for rings, but the unpleasant side effect is that you may be allergic to some of the other metals. If you are allergic to metal then a titanium engagement ring is going to be a good choice. Keep in mind that the metal is extremely hard and cannot be resized. A very popular choice for an engagement ring is silver. It is inexpensive and beautiful. Keep in mind the silver is a soft metal and therefore mixed with nickel which you may be allergic to. An alternative to white gold is palladium. Many people have found that it is strong, and hypoallergenic, and is comparable in price to white gold.
Another choice you need to make is the setting for your engagement ring. Many people choose the prong setting because of its ability to cleanly display the best qualities of your diamond. Choosing a bezel setting is not only sensible because the design protects your diamond, but it also shows off the brilliance of the diamond as well. If you really want to highlight your diamond you will want to strongly consider the tension setting. Other than being more costly and hard to resize, tension settings are highly desirable. Stunning is a word often used to describe the pave setting. You'll pay more for this beautiful, but highly desirable engagement ring setting. It will be hard to match the safety provided to your diamond that is provided by a channel setting. Channel settings don't showcase a diamond as well as some of the others, but they do have their own unique beauty.
Don't forget that you'll also have to know what ring size you'll need. Practically any store that sells rings can help you with your ring size. Attention to detail and studying the options available will help you design the perfect engagement ring.
Custom Search
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Most Popular Wedding Flowers
Wedding flowers are perhaps one of the most important aspects of the wedding, although they also tend to be one of the aspects of the wedding that are dealt with the quickest. This is because people tend to make snap judgments about flowers when sitting back and thinking about it a little bit is really the better way to go. The flowers in a wedding are everywhere, serving multiple purposes and that is exactly why understanding not only what the most popular wedding flowers are, but also why they are so popular is essential to picking the best wedding flowers for your specific occasion. In order to really understand the most popular wedding flowers however, it is important to look at them from the point of view of the different uses they will have.
The Bouquet
When dealing with the bouquet, there are two things in particular that drive the most popular wedding flowers. The first of these two things is the color of the flower because the vast majority of wedding bouquets involve flowers that are white or off white (i.e. cream) in color. Think about all of the bouquets at all of the weddings that you have been to and you will soon realize this fact to be true. Examples of extremely popular flowers in this category include gardenias, stephanotis, roses, carnations, orchids, lilies and sweet peaks.
In addition to color however, another thing that you must take into account is the scent of the flower. Some wedding bouquets are carried by people that love to have the scent of the flowers whereas in other cases light-headedness or outright allergy might argue against scented bouquets. Flowers that are extremely popular in scented bouquets are gardenias, tuberoses, peonies and stephanotis, so keep those flowers in mind when making the final decision on this front.
The Decorations
In addition to the bouquet that the bride will be carrying, there are also flowers that are going to be around in terms of the decorations. Decorations at weddings quite frequently involve floral arrangements of some kind and because of that making the decisions regarding the flowers in those decorations is absolutely something that you want to make sure that you do. There are not really any most popular choices in terms of decorative flowers because the flowers that people use in the decorations are going to depend on what they are doing with the rest of the decorations that are not flower in form. Colour, texture, shape, size and smell are all aspects of the decorative flowers that will largely be decided by what the other wedding decorations happen to be.
The Reception
At the reception of a typical wedding, there will be flowers in the decorations once again. However, these flower decisions can largely be put aside as being covered by the decisions you made in the previous paragraph, which in turn leaves the flowers that you will be using on the tables. Tables at the reception traditionally have a flower arrangement and a centrepiece, although the two might be combined together depending on the centrepiece design that is used.
When choosing flowers for the tables in a reception, there are many factors that you need to take into account. These are the same factors that you took into account vis-à-vis the bouquet, such as potential allergies that guests might have as well as personal preferences of your guests in terms of scents. While some people jump at the thought of scented flowers, other people find them extremely irritating and that is exactly why you need to spend time thinking about the flowers in the wedding before the final decisions are made.
The Bouquet
When dealing with the bouquet, there are two things in particular that drive the most popular wedding flowers. The first of these two things is the color of the flower because the vast majority of wedding bouquets involve flowers that are white or off white (i.e. cream) in color. Think about all of the bouquets at all of the weddings that you have been to and you will soon realize this fact to be true. Examples of extremely popular flowers in this category include gardenias, stephanotis, roses, carnations, orchids, lilies and sweet peaks.
In addition to color however, another thing that you must take into account is the scent of the flower. Some wedding bouquets are carried by people that love to have the scent of the flowers whereas in other cases light-headedness or outright allergy might argue against scented bouquets. Flowers that are extremely popular in scented bouquets are gardenias, tuberoses, peonies and stephanotis, so keep those flowers in mind when making the final decision on this front.
The Decorations
In addition to the bouquet that the bride will be carrying, there are also flowers that are going to be around in terms of the decorations. Decorations at weddings quite frequently involve floral arrangements of some kind and because of that making the decisions regarding the flowers in those decorations is absolutely something that you want to make sure that you do. There are not really any most popular choices in terms of decorative flowers because the flowers that people use in the decorations are going to depend on what they are doing with the rest of the decorations that are not flower in form. Colour, texture, shape, size and smell are all aspects of the decorative flowers that will largely be decided by what the other wedding decorations happen to be.
The Reception
At the reception of a typical wedding, there will be flowers in the decorations once again. However, these flower decisions can largely be put aside as being covered by the decisions you made in the previous paragraph, which in turn leaves the flowers that you will be using on the tables. Tables at the reception traditionally have a flower arrangement and a centrepiece, although the two might be combined together depending on the centrepiece design that is used.
When choosing flowers for the tables in a reception, there are many factors that you need to take into account. These are the same factors that you took into account vis-à-vis the bouquet, such as potential allergies that guests might have as well as personal preferences of your guests in terms of scents. While some people jump at the thought of scented flowers, other people find them extremely irritating and that is exactly why you need to spend time thinking about the flowers in the wedding before the final decisions are made.
BEST WAYS TO IMPROVE MARRIAGE RELATIONSHIP
At the foundation of any marriage and family is a core relationship. Relationships can be difficult for many people - particularly when they are not comfortable communicating their feelings, when they feel unsettled when others are upset with them and when there are kids involved. For them, when there are challenges in the marriage, marriage counseling is often the most effective way of recognizing and working through the difficulties.
With marriage counseling, both spouses are able to sit down, to talk and to have the chance to be heard. Therapists who specialize in marriage counseling will be there to facilitate the conversation, to ask questions, to encourage active listening and to help both spouses to more comfortably express the hurt, anger or frustration that they are experiencing.
Unfortunately, the emotional toll of a conversation or an event can be particularly high. Within relationships, the emotional strain is something that can build over time - especially when both parties involved have trouble discussing the way that they feel or the event that prompted the response.
In marriage counseling, however, many couples find that they are in a better position to open up and - more importantly - to feel heard by their spouse. While it can be uncomfortable to start talking, while hearing the details of what hurt a husband or a wife and while it can be difficult to talk about emotions or situations that are painful, having those conversations in the setting of marriage counseling can ease some of the strain.
Marriage counseling, while it can dramatically improve relationships, is not just a matter of meeting with someone who will "fix" the problem; marriage counseling is a process of improving communication and ultimately of uncovering past hurts so that they can be worked through. Despite the fact that these hurts have often been buried, despite the fact that sometimes the event that has caused the hurt may be long in the past, marriage counseling can serve to uncover the underlying issues and to work on rebuilding communication and trust as well as a strong foundation for moving the relationship forward.
In part, the reason that marriage counseling works in many relationships is simple: marriage counseling works because it helps couples to acknowledge the hurts and frustrations, to work through the anger and to communicate with one another. In part, marriage counseling works simply because it enables both parties to express themselves and to feel heard by one another.
Communication is often difficult - especially when both parties either believe that they are in the right or there is a sense of not wanting to hurt the other person in any way. In marriages, a lack of communication can have a number of negative effects on the relationship; marriage counseling can serve to repair the damage and to reopen the lines of communication.
With marriage counseling, what many couples discover is that the biggest problem that they have faced is a lack of communication that has led to a lack of trust. What they learn during marriage counseling is the ability to communicate - something that, over time, allows them to improve the relationship on the whole.
With marriage counseling, both spouses are able to sit down, to talk and to have the chance to be heard. Therapists who specialize in marriage counseling will be there to facilitate the conversation, to ask questions, to encourage active listening and to help both spouses to more comfortably express the hurt, anger or frustration that they are experiencing.
Unfortunately, the emotional toll of a conversation or an event can be particularly high. Within relationships, the emotional strain is something that can build over time - especially when both parties involved have trouble discussing the way that they feel or the event that prompted the response.
In marriage counseling, however, many couples find that they are in a better position to open up and - more importantly - to feel heard by their spouse. While it can be uncomfortable to start talking, while hearing the details of what hurt a husband or a wife and while it can be difficult to talk about emotions or situations that are painful, having those conversations in the setting of marriage counseling can ease some of the strain.
Marriage counseling, while it can dramatically improve relationships, is not just a matter of meeting with someone who will "fix" the problem; marriage counseling is a process of improving communication and ultimately of uncovering past hurts so that they can be worked through. Despite the fact that these hurts have often been buried, despite the fact that sometimes the event that has caused the hurt may be long in the past, marriage counseling can serve to uncover the underlying issues and to work on rebuilding communication and trust as well as a strong foundation for moving the relationship forward.
In part, the reason that marriage counseling works in many relationships is simple: marriage counseling works because it helps couples to acknowledge the hurts and frustrations, to work through the anger and to communicate with one another. In part, marriage counseling works simply because it enables both parties to express themselves and to feel heard by one another.
Communication is often difficult - especially when both parties either believe that they are in the right or there is a sense of not wanting to hurt the other person in any way. In marriages, a lack of communication can have a number of negative effects on the relationship; marriage counseling can serve to repair the damage and to reopen the lines of communication.
With marriage counseling, what many couples discover is that the biggest problem that they have faced is a lack of communication that has led to a lack of trust. What they learn during marriage counseling is the ability to communicate - something that, over time, allows them to improve the relationship on the whole.
WEDDING MOVEMENTS
Let's face it, every bride-to-be needs some pampering! Planning a wedding can be stressful, with all of the coordinating, last minute changes, and a myriad of people to try to please. Typically most of this stress falls on the bride, who ends up walking down the aisle exhausted and frazzled. When planning this special woman's bridal shower, keep this in mind and consider using a bath or spa theme for the shower to give her a chance to step out of the whirlwind she's caught up in.
This theme can take a few different forms depending on the number of shower guests and the bride's preferences. For a very small group, a day at the spa could make for a very fun outing! Instead of bringing gifts, each guest chips in to help pay for the bride's spa treatments that day. Everyone can enjoy a day at the spa and the bride can relax and enjoy the worry-free attention she's getting. This type of shower works well when the guests consist of immediate family or very close friends. If you want you can make a day of it and plan a night out on the town as well!
While this plan requires a bit of set up to book everyone's appointments, you could forego the day at the spa and still promote the bride's relaxation. You can do this by adding a note on each shower invitation requesting that a small part of the gift include a bath product for the bride. You could even provide examples, such as nail files, bubble bath, massage oil, facial masks, a luxurious hand towel, foot soak, and the list goes on. This way, the bride still gets items that she needs for her home, and she gets a few treats as well, to encourage her to take some time for herself in the days and weeks leading up to the wedding.
If the bride doesn't want a big shower and doesn't enjoy opening an assortment of gifts in front of everyone, you could inform your guests on the invitation that instead of gifts you are welcoming money contributions that will go towards a spa gift certificate for the bride. All they need to do is let you know how much they would like to contribute so you can arrange to get the gift certificate and wrap it up for the shower.
A great way to thank your guests for attending and celebrating with the bride is to give them small bath bridal shower favors. Many options are available for a range of budgets, including foam toe separators, decorative soaps and fun nail files. Candles are also a wonderful option as well. These small gifts can be a fun reminder of the bride and the love she is celebrating.
A bath-themed bridal shower can be a wonderful way to add some relaxation to everyone's day. Every woman likes to be pampered, and getting the bride-to-be to relax for a day can be one of the best gifts she can receive. Make the day fun and worry-free, and remember to enjoy yourself as well!
This theme can take a few different forms depending on the number of shower guests and the bride's preferences. For a very small group, a day at the spa could make for a very fun outing! Instead of bringing gifts, each guest chips in to help pay for the bride's spa treatments that day. Everyone can enjoy a day at the spa and the bride can relax and enjoy the worry-free attention she's getting. This type of shower works well when the guests consist of immediate family or very close friends. If you want you can make a day of it and plan a night out on the town as well!
While this plan requires a bit of set up to book everyone's appointments, you could forego the day at the spa and still promote the bride's relaxation. You can do this by adding a note on each shower invitation requesting that a small part of the gift include a bath product for the bride. You could even provide examples, such as nail files, bubble bath, massage oil, facial masks, a luxurious hand towel, foot soak, and the list goes on. This way, the bride still gets items that she needs for her home, and she gets a few treats as well, to encourage her to take some time for herself in the days and weeks leading up to the wedding.
If the bride doesn't want a big shower and doesn't enjoy opening an assortment of gifts in front of everyone, you could inform your guests on the invitation that instead of gifts you are welcoming money contributions that will go towards a spa gift certificate for the bride. All they need to do is let you know how much they would like to contribute so you can arrange to get the gift certificate and wrap it up for the shower.
A great way to thank your guests for attending and celebrating with the bride is to give them small bath bridal shower favors. Many options are available for a range of budgets, including foam toe separators, decorative soaps and fun nail files. Candles are also a wonderful option as well. These small gifts can be a fun reminder of the bride and the love she is celebrating.
A bath-themed bridal shower can be a wonderful way to add some relaxation to everyone's day. Every woman likes to be pampered, and getting the bride-to-be to relax for a day can be one of the best gifts she can receive. Make the day fun and worry-free, and remember to enjoy yourself as well!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
