Fri 3rd Dec, 2010

Sensational diamonds for your wedding

I came across the fabulous Diamondthrills recently and really wanted to share them with you. Jamie established Diamondthrills last year for those of us who want the glamour and excitement of wearing diamonds, without the hefty investment. With Diamondthrills, you can hire your diamond jewellery for a snip of their retail price.

I asked Jamie to tell me a little more about Diamondthrills and why their diamond jewellery is the perfect accompaniment to any bride or mother-of-the-bride.

Diamond jewellery to hire

Tell me a bit about yourself

I'm 42 years old. Live in central London. Married to Fiona who runs her own business too (www.imagecasting.co.uk), and daughter Ella born Feb 2010.

I trained as an engineer but had been working in the diamond business for 15 years, including 13 years with De Beers in such places as Belgium, Portugal, Namibia, Botswana, Israel, India, Hong Kong and Thailand. I learnt to cut diamonds, then ran diamond cutting factories, then moved into sales (of rough diamonds) and Marketing. I developed and launched a diamond brand for De Beers in Hong Kong, Japan, China, India called Forevermark (‘responsible’ diamonds, with quality standards, each one inscribed with a tiny icon and a unique number).

Why did you decide to set up Diamondthrills?

We used to lend out diamond jewellery to girls in the office at De Beers for special occasions – sometimes personal things like weddings, sometimes business events, charity balls, etc – and it didn’t seem to matter that they didn’t own the diamonds, they still enjoyed the experience of being adorned by fabulous diamond jewellery even if they had to bring the diamonds back and pop them back into the office safe on Monday morning.

So that gave me the idea... would people pay for that sort of experience? I did some research and people told us that yes they would love to borrow diamond jewellery and they would pay for the experience.

Also, it always struck me as a bit unfair that models and actresses get to borrow fine jewellery for red carpet events – the Oscars, Baftas, that sort of thing. Why shouldn’t women everywhere get to enjoy diamonds and jewellery without actually having to go out and buy it (or wait forever for someone to give it to them...) just like actresses on the red carpet?

What are the benefits of hiring diamond jewellery?

First and foremost we give women access to great diamond jewellery for a fraction of the cost of ownership. We also give women flexibility in their jewellery choices: they can pick something dazzling to go with a particular outfit or to suit a particular occasion.

And because we deliver the jewellery and it’s all insured, we are making our service convenient and safe. We can add new pieces to our range and feature pieces by up-&-coming jewellery designers, so you can actually ‘try before you buy’ by hiring something and seeing how it feels at some special event – it can take the risk out of buying an expensive piece of jewellery, especially if you’re buying it as a present – why not hire it first?!

We clean the jewellery and we check that the diamonds are fixed in securely, giving you peace-of-mind. Does anyone do all that for your jewellery at home?! And if you’re getting married then it’s such a special day and you want everything to be high quality and perfect – why fake it on your wedding day? Why opt for crystal or something that’s meant to look like diamonds & gold but just isn’t the same thing at all? Above all hiring jewellery is smart (in both senses) and savvy.

What have been your successes so far?

Well we got the business up & running towards the end of 2009 so we’ve barely been here for a year, but we’re pleased with how things are going so far. Almost everyone says, “Oh what a good idea!” when we tell them about what we do, so that gives us confidence that we’re on to something good. Our customers seem very happy – we’ve got some great testimonials – and we’ve seen our jewellery make very public appearances on the red carpet in Hollywood at this year’s Oscars, in the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament in May, on ITV shows, in national newspapers, at high-profile awards ceremonies... so I’m pleased that we’re getting our diamonds out and about and creating a positive buzz about what we do. One of the biggest events of the year for Diamondthrills was appearing on BBC Dragons’ Den in September. It was a scary thing to do but a great experience.

diamond bridal jewellery to hire

How can Diamondthrills help brides and the bridal party?

We provide a wide selection of stunning diamond jewellery – earrings, necklaces, bangles, bracelets, pendants, even a tiara – all of which features high quality genuine diamonds set in 18kt white gold – perfect for bridal jewellery.

We can bring our jewellery to brides so that they can try the jewellery on with their wedding dress, we can provide jewellery not just for the bride but also for other key members of the bridal party (it makes a great gift for a maid of honour!).

You want to look your best on your wedding day and what could be better than being adorned by stunning diamond jewellery? It can even count as your ‘Something Borrowed...’

Tell us about the jewellery that's most suitable for brides?

It’s all been chosen with bridal jewellery in mind, but we find that the most popular items are earrings and necklaces, especially the Lakshmi earrings and the Flora necklace.

For a great set, a popular option is to combine the Venus necklace with the Mariana earrings (and we do the second item at half price so hiring a set is good value).

For something different, it’s a good idea to think about a bracelet or our extraordinary Aphrodite bangle – the great thing about wearing a bracelet or a bangle is that you get to enjoy it all day because you can see it clearly - you can’t easily appreciate earrings or necklaces or tiaras whilst you’re adorned by them, at least not without looking in a mirror!

diamondthrills