.: Wedding Bands & Diamond Wedding Bands :.
Selecting Wedding Bands or Diamond Wedding Bands: Wedding ring symbolizes marriage; a spouse wears it to indicate a marital commitment to fidelity and true love. Wedding bands in plain gold or platinum or set with diamonds are often given or exchanged during the wedding ceremony by the groom or bride to his or her future spouse. Some go for double-ring ceremony, or use of rings for both partners, is a relatively recent innovation and the past American jewelry industry started this marketing campaign aimed at encouraging such practice. In some countries like USA the diamond wedding bands are worn on the left hand generally the fourth finger as containing the vein of love. It is a matter of tradition or personal choice. Customers now have multiple choices to select their wedding bands or rings for engagement. Choosing the right metal for your bands can go a long way to saving you money and getting the right style at a right price. Gold is still the most common metal used by jewelers for making bands in14-karat gold. Platinum is equally in demand and is a strong, malleable and is highly resistant to wear and tear and scratch resistant. Everyone has his or her own personal choices when it comes buying jewelry. Many prefer to go for wedding bands set with diamonds or other gemstones. Though they may price higher but indeed look gorgeous and very attractive. Most of the customers usually do not have the experience when it comes to choosing a diamond of fine quality. Though it is not hard yet it is overwhelming. There are few important things to keep in mind before buying diamond. Get yourself familiarize yourself first with so called four C's of diamond. What are 4 C’s? They stand for color, cut, clarity and carat. These four C's are the most important determining factors when choosing diamond as each one of these plays their own part in the end conclusion of buying fine quality diamond. All jewelers examine the diamond for its quality with a loupe to have a closer, magnified look at the stone. Customers must also prefer to look at the diamond and pay close attention to the facets. Their symmetry should be very precise. The preciseness of the cut is what determines the diamond fire and its brilliance. If a diamond is nicely cut, it will have a good reflection of light. This reflection of light on the cut surface – facet will give the sparkling and glittering appearance. In a well-cut diamond, light enters the diamond and reflects straight back to the viewer's eye. Some cutters will sacrifice cut to create the largest possible diamond, thus making too shallow or too deep of a cut and causing light to "leak" out the sides and bottom of the diamond. Cut is graded Ideal, Premium, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor. Similarly the color of a diamond can vary too. The ideal diamond color is clear white. They can however, range from clear white, to yellow, to brown. The color chart range from D thru Z, D being the best, Z being the lowest. Clarity of any diamond piece when examined carefully will reveal the internal and external flaws it has. Since there is practically no such thing as a perfect diamond in the world, but still some diamond will assuredly have minor to few degree of flaws. Certificate of authenticity given by the jewelers should give you the details of how many flaws the diamond has. If there were a dark or a cloudy spot inside the diamond which is called an inclusion or if there is a pit, polish line, or scratch on the outer surface this would be a blemish. Diamond frequently has inclusions, or small flaws, air bubbles, scratches, or other minerals inside the diamond. The less inclusions a diamond has, the more valuable it is, and the more beautiful it is. Here is the general scale for grading diamond's clarity is: F Flawless: means no internal or external inclusions. IF Internally Flawless: No internal inclusions but slight external inclusions.VVS1-VVS2: Very Very Slight inclusions - minute inclusions that are nearly difficult to detect under 10x magnification, even by an experienced appraiser/grader.
VS1-VS2: Very Slight inclusions - minute inclusions that are invisible to the naked eye and seen only with difficulty under 10x magnification. SI 1-SI 2: Slightly Included - invisible to the naked eye, yet easily seen by an experienced appraiser/grader under 10x magnification.I1-I3 Included: inclusions are visible to the naked eye and affect brilliance.
Stones that are VVS2 to F are very rare and thus very expensive. Most couples will opt for something between SI 2 and VS1, and will never know the difference. Lastly, the fourth C is the diamonds caret weight. It determines the overall size of any diamond. Normally bigger the size, higher goes the price of a diamond but that may not be true all the times. Small size diamond with very fine cuts. hardly any spot on it and very clear and sparkling piece may command higher price than the larger size with lots of blemishes. It is common practice to ask that an independent international laboratory such as GIA, EGL, DCLA, HRD, IGI, and AGS certify the diamond. When you buy a diamond, it should be accompanied with a certificate of authenticity. This should list the four C's and state the approximate retail value of the stone. Be sure you get a certificate and make your own comparisons between what it says and the diamond itself. Finally, one should never compromise on the quality and cut of the diamond. Buying quality grade wedding bands is a wonderful gift for loved ones and if set with diamonds all the more better and impressive.