Fun Facts Friday- Jewelry

• Seventeen tons of gold are made into wedding rings each year in the United States!74% of all brides receive a diamond engagement ring. Of those, 60% are involved in picking out their ring, while 3% actually pick it themselves.
• Engagement and wedding rings are worn on the fourth finger of the left hand because it was once thought that a vein in that finger led directly to the heart.
• Priscilla Presley's engagement ring was a whopping 3 1/2-carat rock surrounded by a detachable row of smaller diamonds.
• One of history's earliest engagement rings was given to Princess Mary, daughter of Henry VIII. She was two years old at the time.
• In the symbolic language of jewels, a sapphire in a wedding ring means marital happiness.
• About 70% of all brides sport the traditional diamond on the fourth finger of their left hand.

 

• A pearl engagement ring is said to be bad luck because its shape echoes that of a tear.
• Aquamarine represents marital harmony and is said to ensure a long, happy marriage.
• Giving a second ring, a wedding band, is a relatively recent practice. Since 1477, when Archduke Maximilian I, emperor of Austria gave a diamond betrothal ring to Mary of Burgundy, the diamond has been the gem of choice to seal an engagement.