Good morning, and happy Friday! This week has just flown by, hasn’t it? Tomorrow, I head to SF for the week to help out with all the preparations leading up to my sister’s wedding next weekend! I am so excited and absolutely can’t wait for her special day—it is going to be beautiful, wonderful, and fun… just like her!
Today, we have an extra-special interview featuring Natalie Yerushalmi Lewis, the vice president of marketing at The Jewelers, Inc. in Las Vegas. I had been getting requests from various male friends (and some of their girlfriends!) to do a piece on jewelry and engagement rings, and given her expertise, Natalie was the first person to come to mind. Read on for her wisdom about all things bling-related!
So, you work with diamonds and fine jewelry all day--sounds divine! What do you love most about your job?
What girl wouldn't love being around diamonds and jewelry all day long? Of course, there are many things I love about my job. Being around all the sparkle is definitely one of them. I also love being able to be a part of so many people's special moments in life, like engagements, anniversaries, birthdays, etc. Being able to take part in that special time and help make people happy is really something I look forward to every single day.
A lot of my male friends have expressed anxiety when it comes to diamonds and engagement rings. What is your best piece of advice for someone buying a diamond for the first time?
When you are shopping for diamonds or engagement rings, I would say one of the most important steps to take is to make sure to go to a few different stores and make sure you get a good feeling with the jeweler. In my opinion, I think it is best to pick the store you feel fits you the best. Choose the jeweler that you think you are going to be treated the best; the jeweler that you feel is going to be the most honest and straightforward and is going to take care of you. After all, when you are buying a piece of jewelry, the most important part of the experience is the service. This is a piece your future wife is going to have for the rest of her life. She is going to need it cleaned, sized, engraved, polished; have the stones checked, the prongs tightened, etc. You want to make sure that wherever you go is a place that you feel confident is going to be able to and want to take care of you for the rest of your life and not just be there for that one purchase.
We all know about the four C's--cut, clarity, color, carat. But sometimes budgets don't allow for you to go all out in all of these criteria. How would you rank them in order of importance?
The answer to this question really depends on the customer and the type of ring they are looking for. Some customers want the center diamond to be the star of the show and want it to be as large as possible. In that case, that customer would probably sacrifice a little on the clarity and color side of things to get a higher carat weight. Some customers are going to put the ring in yellow gold or rose gold and in those situations, you can sacrifice a little color because it won't be as noticeable. While there are still others who want their stone to have the most sparkle possible who will lean more towards cut and clarity. A good jeweler will help you find the perfect balance to fit your needs.
You, my friend, have a GORGEOUS engagement ring (see photo above)! Did you have to drop a lot of hints, or did your husband just know?
First, thank you so much! I did get very lucky with my husband's taste. My mom does have a similar style ring that I used to try on before I had my ring and always said how much I loved it—and my husband and my mom worked together from there. We have a custom manufacturing facility in our main store so it made it easy for my husband to get creative and add a lot of personal touches to it, which I loved. We always encourage adding something custom or personal to engagement rings, even as simple as a sweet message engraved on the inside because it always makes it that much more special. I got extremely lucky with my ring and I can't tell you how much I love it and how much it means to me. I wanted something classic and timeless but also unique with its own special touches. My husband did such a great job; I got even more than I had dreamed of.
One side has my birthstone in the crown with my initials and the first 2 Hebrew letters for the word “love” and the other side has his birthstone in the crown with his initials and the second 2 Hebrew letters for “love.” He also engraved, “I promise to love you forever” in Hebrew. The bottom inside of the ring also says “love” in Hebrew, in a design similar to the Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture in Israel.
What are your thoughts on purchasing stones online (such as on Blue Nile) vs. in person? Do you think that just knowing the specs from the website are enough?
As I mentioned before, an engagement purchase is something you are buying for the rest of your life. It is going to need a lot of "TLC" over the years whether it is sizing, cleaning, polishing, engraving, checking prongs etc. These are things that can't be done on a computer screen or through the internet and ideally, you want the jeweler you got the ring from originally to be the jeweler that can take care of all of that for life.
You are buying a diamond here, one of the most luxurious items on the planet. People spend large portions of their savings to find the perfect one. In my opinion, this is something you have to see in person to really know if it is THE ONE. The diamond grading process is very subjective to the individual person who is grading the stone at the time, no matter where the certification comes from. Just by seeing the specs from the website does not mean you will be happy with what it looks like in the end. For example, a customer could look at 2 stones with the same exact specs on paper and fall in love with one and not be so head-over-heels about the other. The grading of a stone can only tell you so much but without seeing it, you don't know exactly what you are getting. I personally think that going into a jeweler and being able to see the stone is the best way to see the brilliance and fire in the stone rather than relying solely on specs on the internet.
Tell us a bit about The Jewelers of Las Vegas (pictured above)--what makes your family's business so special?
The Jewelers of Las Vegas was started by my parents in 1976. My brothers and I are all involved in the business and we are a family business from top to bottom. We believe in giving our customers the absolute best personal service out there. We truly treat our customers like family which is what keeps them coming back to us through multiple generations. We are always involved in what our customers need and when you walk through our doors, you can deal directly with one of the members of the family.
Being able to work with an owner of a company is always something special and makes the experience more familial. We are available at all times—on our cell phones after hours or in the main store during hours; if you end up at any one of our other 11 locations, you can always get one of us on our cell phones. We care about our customers more than anything else. We have been around for a long time and when you walk into our main store, the walls are covered floor to ceiling in pictures and autographs of people who have shopped with us, Elvis being one of my dad's favorite customers from his past. My dad learned over the years that customer service is the most important thing and that has resonated with all of us in the business. That's what our company is about.
[Editor’s note: check out this great Las Vegas Review Journal article about The Jewelers!]
For all the ladies out there who want to treat themselves... what would you recommend as a good investment piece?
I would say a good investment piece would be a nice pair of diamond stud earrings. They can be dressed up or dressed down and make the perfect accessory for any outfit. They can be passed down from generation to generation. Also, with us for example, we offer a lifetime trade-in value on any diamond solitaire or diamond stud earring, so that makes it also a great investment. This way, it always retains its value and if you wanted to, you can always upgrade over the years which is always a fun option to keep in the back of your mind.
Let's go back to engagement rings. In your mind, what is the most classic, fool-proof option?
I think the most classic, fool-proof option would be a Round center stone in a solitaire setting. This is the most classic setting and looks beautiful on absolutely everyone.
We all know that the big, name-brand jewelers end up charging a huge markup... but I think everyone wonders: HOW huge is that markup for a Tiffany engagement ring vs. one purchased at a smaller jeweler's?
Since you used Tiffany as an example, at a store like like Tiffany, a customer will always pay more for a ring just because it says Tiffany on it. I always recommend to our customers that if they like something at a "name-brand jeweler," to always check pricing with your local jeweler as well. Most of the time, you will be able to find something bigger and better for much less. In the end, the ring is what you are buying, not the name. I am a big proponent of getting the most bang for your buck. When you are making such an important purchase, I believe that the piece of jewelry is of the utmost importance rather than the name on it.
What is the best proposal story you know of? You can count your own!
Since you said I can count my own, I will! I did love my proposal. My husband (Patrick) and I were planning on taking a summer vacation and my parents were also traveling at the same time. Patrick wanted to go to Paris first so we could overlap with my parents' trip for one day before they went off somewhere else. That day, when we arrived, we checked into the hotel and got to walk around the city after having a great lunch. Wine, my parents, Patrick, Paris; it was a perfect day. We had dinner plans for later on that night. We were staying at a different hotel from my parents, so Patrick and I planned to meet them at the restaurant. On the way to the restaurant, Patrick and I stopped at the Eiffel Tower because I had always said how much I loved the twinkling lights. As we were watching the twinkling lights, Patrick got down on one knee and proposed! To top it off, my parents came running from behind the bushes—they had been taking pictures and recording the whole thing. We popped open a bottle of champagne in the car on the way to the restaurant and had a great dinner (full of phone calls to everyone, of course!). It meant so much to me that he put so much effort into having my parents be a part of the moment—I loved that. And it was so special that we were able to have the entire rest of the trip together to celebrate as a newly engaged couple.
You live in Las Vegas. Do you ever have people come in to buy rings for a spontaneous wedding at one of those 24-hour chapels?
Absolutely. In fact, we get a lot of those. We had a couple come in recently who were in a totally different country from where each of them lived—they lived half-way across the world from each other, came to Vegas, came straight to our store, bought wedding bands, and got in the car right away to get married by "Elvis." It happens all the time!
What is the best jewelry gift you've ever received (besides your engagement ring)?
I honestly don't know if I could choose! I have so many special pieces of jewelry that I have received over the years from my parents and of course from my husband. One that I love is a really cool piece my husband designed for me. He designed a pendant modeled after the Robert Indiana LOVE sculpture—the one he did in Hebrew in Israel. My pendant is totally 3-D which makes it really cool, and covered in pave diamonds. It is such an amazing piece.
What are the safest and riskiest types of jewelry for people to gift?
I would say the safest for women would be diamond studs or diamond hoops even. I think when you get into the more fashion pieces like pendants and rings, it can come down to taste more than anything—so it can get risky when you are picking it out for someone else. For men, watches are the safest and something that most men love. I would say any other jewelry can be hard to pick for a man because a lot of men don't like jewelry at all or are very particular about what they would wear.
What is your current jewelry obsession--any specific stones or designs?
One of my current jewelry obsessions would be the Hearts And Arrows Princess Cut stone. It is such an amazing stone, really so much fire and so much sparkle. It is a specially cut stone that is not carried everywhere but once you see it, you fall in love. It is what we used for my wedding band and it turned out absolutely amazing.
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Thank you very much, Natalie! I hope you all enjoyed her interview, and definitely be sure to check out The Jewelers either online or during your next visit to Las Vegas! I was at their flagship location this past January, and it is a wonderful place. They have such an amazing selection of jewelry, and they are so warm and welcoming—it’s not cold and intimidating the way that some jewelry and luxury goods stores can be. I actually got to meet almost the entire Yerushalmi family! My friend was purchasing a piece of fine jewelry for herself—the first time she’d ever done that—and it was very cool to see Natalie walk her through the decision-making process and explain all of the options.
Have a great weekend, everyone! I will try my best to post every day next week, but forgive me if I fall behind in the midst of my sister’s wedding week!
Images courtesy of www.artofoverwhelm.com (via Pinterest), Natalie Yerushalmi Lewis, www.monalisajewelers.com (via Pinterest), www.agirlastyle.com (via Pinterest), www.lulamag.com (via Pinterest), www.israelpublicart.com
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