Do You Want A Celebrity Diamond Engagement Ring?
Is there a better way to tell the world that you're in love than to give (or wear) a diamond engagement ring? For the jewellery lover, celebrity engagements and the often fabulous rings that are given are a great source of delight and even inspiration. It isn't just the size of the diamonds in the ring that makes them so unique. The personalities involved are what make the headlines as much as the engagement rings. Even if the rings were fabulous, nobody would ever see them outside of friends and family if the personalities were unknown.
A Brief History Of The Diamond Engagement Ring
The first recorded diamond engagement ring was given to Mary of Burgundy by Maximilian I of Austria in 1477. As was common among royalty and the nobility of the time, the marriage was a political one designed to unite the two houses and serve as a unifying influence upon the country.
While we often look out for the largest engagement rings, the smallest one recorded is noteworthy! The recipient, a Princess Mary, was just two years old and was married by proxy (due to her being a baby) to the Dauphin of France in 1518. Sadly, not all marriages are about love.
Over the centuries, diamond engagement rings have become more elaborate and larger and have often included other jewels. In part, that is because it was difficult to cut and polish a diamond so that it had good sparkle until the past couple of hundred years. Other diamonds, such as rubies and emeralds, were popular because they were easier to cut and polish. Modern diamond engagement rings may still have other gemstones. Still, they usually play a supporting role to the diamond's headline appearance. We use platinum and gold in its white, yellow and rose colours. At All Diamond, we avoid silver because it is too soft to use in fine diamond jewellery.
Famous Women and Their Diamond Engagement Rings
Famous people, celebrities, musicians, actresses, royalty have had a significant influence on the styles of many areas of fashion. They can set trends in the clothing and jewellery that we buy, sometimes lasting for many years. Diamond jewellery, including celebrity diamond engagement rings, are no exception to the rule. Here is a short list of some famous diamond engagement rings and the ladies who have worn them.
Royalty, always a top choice; they get so much media coverage!
The engagement ring given to Queen Elizabeth II by her husband to be Philip Mountbatten was made with diamonds from a tiara that had belonged to his mother. Grace Kelly, who married Prince Rainier of Monaco, was the happy recipient of a 12-carat diamond engagement ring. The central diamond was a huge emerald-cut white diamond. Lady Diana who married, and sadly divorced Prince Charles, was given a ring with a central blue oval sapphire weighing 18 carats. Fourteen white diamonds surrounded the sapphire. The gemstones were set into white gold. Prince Charles would have paid around £50,000 for it, assuming he didn't get a good discount!
Actresses, some are almost like modern royalty - others, not so much!
When Elizabeth Taylor became engaged to her third husband, film producer Michael Todd, in 1957, he gave her an emerald cut diamond weighing nearly 30 carats. But it was her second marriage to Michael Wilding that started a trend that continues today, around 75 years later. The engagement ring Michael Wilding gave her had a sapphire as a central stone shaped into a cabochon rather than faceted. The trend for sapphires in engagement rings came from that engagement and that ring! We have some in our engagement ring collection.
Moving toward some sense of the real world at last, when Priscilla was engaged to marry Elvis Presley, he gave her a ring with a 3.5-carat centre diamond surrounded by 21 smaller diamonds.
Phil Bronstein is a journalist and editor. When he proposed to Sharon Stone, he did so with a 3.5-carat diamond engagement ring. OK, that's still out of the reach of most of us, but that would probably have given his credit card statement some bigger numbers than usual!
When Michael Douglas popped the question, Catherine Zeta-Jones ended up with a 10-carat marquise diamond on her engagement ring. The ring was valued, at the time at almost $2 million. Joan Collins is a woman with more than her fair share of engagement rings. Her last, so far, is from her fifth husband, Percy Gibson. He gave her a heart-shaped diamond ring in a vintage setting from the 19th Century,
Pop stars, so much money, so much exposure and always image to consider
Three months before they married and just after Madonna gave birth to their son Rocco Guy Ritchie gave Madonna an Edqrdian band in platinum set with three sizeable antique style diamonds. The ornate band is decorated with many smaller diamonds. The ring, designed by Neil Lane, used the three diamonds to symbolise the past, present and future. Was it an engagement ring? Nobody really knows. Madonna said it was a token of Guy's love and celebration of the new baby.
When the drummer Keri Lewis proposed to Toni Braxton, he designed the ring himself. $.5 carats of diamonds with an oval-shaped central stone supported by two adjacent heart-shaped diamonds.
More of a diva than a pop star, Paris Hilton was given not one, but two, engagement rings by her billionaire fiance Paris Latsis. A 24-carat canary diamond ring worth $5 million and a 15-carat white diamond ring valued at $2.1 million. For the girl who has everything, more than one engagement ring per proposal is a minimum requirement!
Britney Spears also has two diamond engagement rings. Unusually, the first she bought herself before she got married. That was a $40,000 cushion cut diamond ring with a pave setting in platinum. Then nine months after she married Kevin Federline, he gave her a 5.5-carat solitaire diamond to upgrade from the one she bought for herself.
Replicas Or Affordable Real Diamond Engagement Rings
While we usually cannot afford to buy the same type and quality diamond engagement rings as those described above and others, it is possible to purchase replica celebrity diamond engagement rings or rings inspired by these famous pieces of diamond jewellery at a much more modest cost. The cost of such rings will vary according to the materials used - imitation diamonds, poorer quality genuine diamonds, simpler mounts etc.
We would say this: don't try to buy a replica that uses fake or imitation gemstones. You and your fiancee will never feel the same way about the ring as you would if it was genuine, even if much more modest in size and appearance. Life and emotions are not about copying others with poor quality fakes.
Sure, since many people can never afford to buy diamond engagement rings like the hugely expensive real thing, people will always be willing to buy replicas. Please don't let that be you! The styles of rings popular with celebrities will soon enough become available at much more reasonable prices. Study the styles of the celebs, be inspired by what you see. The chances are that you will see something beautiful that has aspects of those designs in our collections. Please have a look at our diamond engagement ring collections and be inspired yourself with something genuine and beautiful.
