Entries RSS Comments RSS

Uses for your Wedding Tiara after your Wedding Day

October 15th, 2010

When I originally wrote this article I decided it was too long for 1 blog post so I’ve spilt this post into 2, you will be able to read the remainder of it next week so don’t forget to bookmark us and come back to visit. Now on to the blog post ….

So you’ve had your wedding day, hopefully you enjoyed every minute of it and now it’s all over and you’re back to reality. You have your wedding dress hung up in your wardrobe, you’re tiara’s hidden in a drawer and your wedding jewellery is tucked away in your jewellery box waiting for another special occasion so it can be worn and admired.

These items all hold memories of the best day of your life and it seems a shame to not use them again, so I’ve thought of a few occasions where you can wear your wedding tiara and other ways to make such it gets put to good use.

A girly night out

If most of your female friends are now married, why don’t you have a themed night out and wear your tiaras, it will draw lots of attention and the single girls among you are sure to get lots of attention off the men. You could go the whole hog and wear your wedding dresses too but this might become a little difficult if your planning on going clubbing in them, who knows who’ll trip up over the train.

Save it for your daughter or your best friend

If you’ve spent a lot on your wedding tiara you might want to save it for a future generation, such as your daughter or maybe give it to your best friend for their wedding day. Remember though your wedding tiara might not suit their taste so don’t be offended if they don’t want to wear it.

Clean in it

Who says that you have to look scruffy when cleaning the house, not that there’s anything against it, but a number of my brides have been so desperate to wear their wedding tiara before their wedding that they still wear it after the wedding for cleaning the house, it helps bring some fun back into those boring chores. You might get a strange look if you answer the door in it though.

Let your daughter or niece play with your wedding tiara

If you didn’t spend a lot of your tiara and you’d get a lot of satisfaction from the enjoyment you know your daughter or niece would get from it while they pretend to be princesses, then give it away.

As I said in the beginning of this blog post, I was going to spilt it over 2 posts so while your waiting for all the other things you can do with your wedding tiara why don’t you add any ideas you have below and maybe I’ll add them to the remainder of this article, with credit to you of course.

Buying Wedding Jewellery

September 25th, 2010

Can you buy pieces of your wedding jewellery from different places?

So what do you think?

Can you think of any other reasons why you might buy pieces of your wedding jewellery from different shops?

Swarovski Crystal Bracelets

September 11th, 2010

At Wedding And Gems I’ve built up a small collection of Swarovski Crystal Bracelets, so I thought it would be nice to give my favourites a blog post all to themselves.

I’ll start with my favourite Swarovski crystal bracelet which is the Jax Wedding Bracelet. Really it’s more of bangle but has a clasp to make it nice and secure.

Another favourite of mine is the Crystal Ice Bracelet, this has a double row Swarovski crystals separated with silver beads and is just what you need if you want your wrist to really sparkle.

The Twinkle Wedding Bracelet is a simple design of Swarovski crystals on transparent thread so the crystals look like they are floating against the wrist.    This Swarovski crystal bracelet is available in many other colours.

The Woven Crystal Bracelet is another wedding bracelet which makes a statement, created entirely from Swarovski crystals this bracelet has a beautiful sparkle.

Swarovski Crystal Bracelet

This is only a small selection of the range of Swarovski crystal bracelets available. If you want to view more, then take a look at our entire wedding bracelet range

Bridal Hair Accessories – Your Options

September 10th, 2010

There are a number of options when you choose your bridal hair accessories, so you might be finding it difficult to decide exactly what you want to wear in your hair.  So I’m going to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of certain bridal hair accessories.

Bridal Tiaras

Everyone knows what a tiara looks like and you’ll find hundreds of thousands to choose from by using the search function in Google.  When you think of accessories for wedding dress chances are a tiara is at the top of your list.  One of the main advantages of choosing a tiara as your bridal hair accessory is the vast choice, however some brides feel that a tiara isn’t right for them and prefer an alternative.  Also unlike some of the other bridal hair accessories you won’t really get the chance to wear your wedding tiara again after the big day.

Bridal Hair Pins

Hair pins make great bridal hair accessories; they come in a range of styles from simple solitary Swarovski crystals on a pin or grip to intricate patterns of crystals and pearls.  An advantage of hair pins or grips is that they help hold the structure of your bridal hair style, plus they can be worn again.  The disadvantage is that you will need to wear your hair up to make use of them and often this will require you having a hair dresser who is able to do your hair on the day.

Bridal Headbands

The range of bridal headbands is growing everyday as more and more brides are opting for this easy to wear bridal hair accessory.  Their main advantage is that they work with hair being pinned up or left loose and can easily be slipped on to the head.  But if you’re looking for your bridal hair accessories to make a huge impact then a simple headband might not be for you.

Bridal Side Tiaras

There is a growing trend for side tiaras, mainly because they offer the ease of a hair band for placement but offer the focal point of a large hair pin without the need to have your hair tied up.  The only disadvantage I can think of for this type of bridal hair accessory is that if you want a focal point at the front of your head, a side tiara isn’t for you.

Bridal Hair Vines

These bridal hair accessories are great if you want a more relaxed and romantic look.  Hair vines come in a range of sizes, widths and patterns; they can be placed along the side of the head, twisted into the hair, worn across the forehead, used as a bun wrap or a hair band.  To be honest I can’t think of any disadvantages for hair vines, to me they’re great.

I hope this has started to help you decide what types of bridal hair accessories are right for you.  If you can think of any advantages or disadvantages to add to the list, leave them as a comment below.

Taking Care of Silver Wedding jewellery

August 27th, 2010

The majority of the wedding jewellery that is ordered is silver and silver needs a little looking after to keep it shiny and tarnish free.  This tarnishing is a normal process that happens with all types of silver and it’s a chemical reaction that happens on the surface.  But because it is only on the surface even the most tarnished pieces of silver wedding jewellery should be salvageable but the best thing to do is to prevent your wedding jewellery from getting tarnished in the first place.

Why does silver wedding jewellery tarnish?

Silver tarnishes because it comes into contact with Hydrogen Sulphide which is in our atmosphere and every day objects.  You can’t stop the tarnishing process but you can slow it down by caring for your silver wedding jewellery properly.

How do I stop my wedding jewellery from becoming tarnish?

As silver wedding jewellery tarnishes when it comes into contact with Hydrogen Sulphide there are a number of things you can do to slow down tarnishing such as keeping it in a dry airtight container as humid environments speed up the tarnishing process.  Don’t store them in paper, cardboard or wool as these also contain Hydrogen Sulphide.  Handle your wedding jewellery as little as possible as the natural oils on your skin will accelerate the tarnishing process.

Oops to late, How do I remove the tarnish?

If it’s only lightly tarnished and not an intricate piece then you may be able to restore the shine with a silver polishing cloth.  These cloths are really inexpensive and often leave an anti tarnish barrier helping to prevent against further tarnishing.  If your wedding jewellery has a yellow tinge then you might need to clean it in a silver cleaning solution or use this nifty trick.  Grab yourself a bowl, kitchen foil, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water. Place the piece of wedding jewellery in the bowl with the kitchen foil and sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda of it then pour over the boiling water.  The reaction between the foil and the bicarbonate of soda removes the tarnish.  This video shows the same process but instead of using a bowl and foil, they’ve used a foil container. Also be aware that bicarbonate of soda is called baking soda in the US.

I’ve used this method with jewellery containing Swarovski crystal beads but haven’t tested it on other gems or pearls so take care not to destroy your wedding jewellery if it isn’t created from Swarovski crystals and silver.