Blog....weddings, brides, flower girl gifts

A Brief History of Pearls:  These precious radiant gems have a history that is as colorful and interesting as the jewels themselves. The earliest written mention of pearls dates back to 2206 BC, at which time their beauty was recorded by a Chinese historian. Between 800 and 700 BC, Homer mentions natural pearls in his dramatic epics. Legend has it that Cleopatra smashed a priceless pearl, and then swallowed the pearl powder, just to win a bet with Mark Antony.

In the 1930’s, designer Coco Chanel paved the way for the wide acceptance of cultured pearls. “She almost always  wore them like costume jewelry, mixing them without any thought to whether they were faux, natural or cultured. Thanks to  Coco Chanel, the pearl strand has defined classic women’s fashion.” It wasn’t until 1955 when Tiffany & Co. acquiesced to this popular demand. Others like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor also  dressed in sumptuous pearls.

In 1498, Christopher Columbus returned from his third visit to America bearing pearls from the Venezuelan coast. 1767 marked the arrival of English explorer Samuel Wallis in Tahiti and the beginning of large-scale pearl harvesting. By the 1860s, Polynesian shallow water oyster beds were depleted due to over-harvesting. Pearl harvesters around the world began to seek alternate means of producing the valuable gems

Pearls and Weddings....brides....bridesmaids....flower girls =  GIFTS that need to be purchased.  We can help you with this task.  Email us...or call us 828-681-8041.  Let us take some of the burden off of you at this very special time in your life. Let's face it, Brides and their Moms get tired, stressed, and sometimes downright irritable :}.  Gifts for the bridal wedding party, and for the Flower Girls is an important detail, that we can easily handle for you.  Give us the details: Number of wedding party gifts that you need:, Your Colors; The ages of the wedding party members; Tell us your vision and requirements. Set a budget for us. We will handle it all, and put the gifts in a gorgeous gift package, and ship it to you. All you have to do, is hand them out.

Not sure what size your flower girls would wear, we can tell you. Give us their ages, or, let us make the calls / emails to get the sizes right. Whether you are a June bride or an October bride, we have seen it all, done it all, and we want to help you.

Don't see what you were thinking of?  Not a problem. We will get it designed for you. Tell us what you want for your wedding party or flower girls, give us 10 days, and it will be on the way to you. Original design, just for your wedding,  exclusively for your magical day. We can make the jewelry in any size, and for different body shapes / types. Customize your wedding party jewelry. Easy.....we handle the details.

Now what about you, the bride? Or the Moms?  We have gorgeous selections of original bride and wedding jewelry designs created by us at Sterling and Pearls. Don't see what you want? We will have it made for you. Custom designs for your wedding at very reasonable prices.  Relax a little, enjoy this amazing process...breath...feels the joy, and always remember this Bride...nothing is ever as bad as it seems.

Try not to react to any bad news for at least 5 minutes. By the next day, it will not be such a big deal. Stay strong, stay committed, but relax a little more. Take some deep cleansing breaths. MMMMMMMMMHHH...AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. In and out slowly. Eyes closed. Every single detail may not turn out as perfectly planned, but as long as your love for the groom is perfect, well we think things will be just fine on your wedding day.

Gift Ideas For Flower Girls....Many of our brides have recently chosen the peach or lavender pearl sets for their flower girl gifts.  Both colors are freshwater pearls that are naturally colored, not dyed.  They offer a wonderful accent color choice, that is soft, feminine, and not over bearing. Think about lavendar or pink / peach pearls for your accent colors, the result is stunning and glamorous looking.

We have several different sets of freshwater pearls to fit different budgets. We are often asked "what is the difference in round or rice shaped fresh water pearls".  Our response is that the round freshwater pearls (never identical, but very close to being perfectly round most of the time) are more valuable due to the unlikelihood  that they would turn out round. It is the pearl farmers dream, after waiting 2 long years for a mollusk to produce pearls, that they would be round!  They are more rare because they have roundness. They also cost more.  Rice and nugget pearls (freshwater) are very common and usually are irregular shape and color, texture. They are not as valuable, because their complexion is not as "beautiful".  We do not use nugget pearls, because quite honestly we think they are unattractive and have no value.  We do use some finer selections of rice pearls in our budget pearl sets. We hand pick the smoothest, shiniest ones for our sets.

 Rice pearls look like a teardrop and Round pearls look more like a circle / ball  although they are not completely perfectly round, but very close. The round freshwater pearls hold more value than the rice. If that is not an issue then you may choose the rice pearls. Either way, we always hand knot them on double silk cords. They are always pretty and exquisite looking. Our gift wrap packaging is free, and really pretty. An organza ribbon bow adorns each box that we send out.