Thursday, August 30, 2007

Everything's gone green



Hot Slice and I decided my dowry was finally big enough* to get engaged. We officially became engaged a few weeks ago. I try to keep my personal life out of this blog, but suffice to say that I've been accused of being radiantly happy more than once lately.

It was a priority for us to wear rings that had a low impact on the environment. Mining is incredibly destructive environmentally, not to mention the questionable labor practices for the workers. We found three companies that use recycled gold and either fair-trade or synthetic gems:

GreenKarat
Leber Jeweler
Brilliant Earth

We decided to purchase our rings from Brilliant Earth. Shown above are my sapphire engagement ring and HS' engagement/wedding band (he is already wearing it). We were very happy with Brilliant Earth's service and the quality of the rings. My sapphire is more sparkly in real life than in the picture. I knew I didn't want a diamond and so I was happy to see the wide variety of non-diamond engagement rings available.

I hope that the "green" jewelry industry grows, because researching mining has been a real eye-opener for me.

*Just kidding, of course. I still need to add 5 cattle to it.

8 comments:

Katyola said...

Let me be the first in bloggyland to congratulate you. I'm so happy for you and the Slice; you both deserve the greatest of happiness in life!

Anonymous said...

congrats to both of you. you do look radiantly happy

Theresa said...

Congratulations! It's great that you could find non-diamond, recycled rings. I've always been uncomfortable with the idea of diamonds, plus, everyone has them, so your sapphire really stands out!

Amy said...

Congratulations and have loads of fun planning what I can only imagine will be a green wedding!!

Kumudha said...

Congratulations!
Buying recycled items is a great idea to protect our earth.

Anonymous said...

What a great idea! Very cool. Congrats!

Amy said...

Thanks, everyone. All the good wishes have been one of the best things about getting engaged!

bazu said...

This is a bit late to the game, but congratulations on your engagement!

I love that you found environmentally friendly, no-cruelty rings. I was reluctant to go anywhere near diamonds (and my dowry was laughable at best! ;-) so we got tattoos as wedding rings. I love them!