Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend

A wedding day is a time of love, mystery and romance, a time of pledging vows and love to one another for all eternity and a ring represents enduring commitment. Diamonds are a symbol of eternity, especially when you consider that every diamond is at least 40 million years old.

How to choose your diamond
The value of a diamond is determined by the 4C’s – Colour, Cut, Clarity and Carat.

Colour
The purer a diamond’s colour, the rarer it is. Diamonds are graded by colour, starting at D and continuing through the alphabet. While many diamonds appear colourless, they may actually have subtle yellow or brown tones. Although still beautiful, they will be less rare and therefore less valuable.
To appreciate the simple beauty of each individual stone, you should compare diamonds side by side with a jeweller.
Diamonds in well defined colours that include red, pink, blue, green and canary yellow are highly prized and particularly rare.

Cut
A well cut or faceted diamond, regardless of its shape, scintillates with fire and light — offering the greatest brilliance and value. When a diamond is cut to good proportions, light will reflect from one mirror-like facet to another and disperse through the top of the stone, resulting in a display of brilliance and fire. Diamonds that are cut too deep or too shallow lose light through the side or bottom. As a result, poorly cut stones will be less brilliant and beautiful and certainly less valuable than well cut diamonds. The most common cuts are the round brilliant cut, the oval, the princess, marquise and emerald.

Clarity
The purer a diamond, the greater it’s clarity and the more brilliant it is. Clarity refers to the number, colour, type, size and position of any inclusions (or flaws). The fewer inclusions, the more rare and valuable the stone. Diamonds with very, very small inclusions are graded as VVS1 or VVS2. Inclusions that can be seen with the naked eye are graded I1, I2 or I3.

Carat
This refers to the weight of the diamond. The more the diamond weighs, the more valuable it is.

• each carat is equal to 100 points.
• A .75 carat diamond is the same as a 75-point diamond or a 3/4 carat stone.
• Diamonds of equal size may vary widely in value and brilliance, depending on their qualities of clarity, cut, and colour.

How much should you spend?
A commonly used guideline is two months salary.