Holy photoshop! She doesn’t even look like a real person there. She almost looks like a vampire.
Ha! I love it. Something so very similar happened between my sister and me when she saw my (beautiful, but still modest; certainly no Krupp diamond) engagement ring. She made a little face and said “Wow, I don’t know if I’d ever even want anything that big…” so I asked her if she wanted to try it on. After she did she sighed and said “Yeah, I would.”
I don’t mind showy jewelry at all as long as it’s done well (like, you don’t have to wear every piece of jewelry you own all at once; if you’re wearing a gigantic necklace, skip the earrings; don’t refer to it as your “bling” unless you’re Jay-Z, or whatever). The best ring I never owned was a decent sized (probably a half inch each way) multi-stone peridot (I love it, I don’t care if most people don’t recognize how great a stone it really is) in the shape of a pinwheel with a diamond accent in the center. Gorgeous. I should have snatched it up the very first time I ever saw it because I can’t find it anymore. 
I have a version of the Heart of the Ocean necklace from Titanic, which I wear on a doubled up silver chain, usually with a plain black ribbed turtleneck. I ALWAYS get major compliments on that necklace. The only other jewelry I’ll wear then is a pair of simple stud earrings and one or two rings. (Usually silver – I ALWAYS wear my grandmother’s engagment ring, for one)
But it’s just that one big piece, against a black top. Very standout.
A few years ago, I read that rich people have to carry huge insurance policies on gems, and that these policies limit the actual number of days that these pieces can be worn. So most people wear reproductions instead (the real gems stay in bank vaults). Is someone really going to wear a 50 carat diamond bracelet?
Oddly enough, I just finished “Furious Love”, a new book about the marriage of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and yes, that’s true. She received a humongous jewel near the end of their marriage, and she was allowed to take it out of the vault to wear in public only 30 days a year - AND - she and the gem had to be accompanied by armed guards wherever she went. (I believe they did talk her into getting a reproduction made at a cost of several thousand dollars.)
It doesn’t have to mean “when I’m in a room full of 20 people, I want all of them to notice my gorgeous long neck”. It could be “when people are noticing me anyway, as people are wont to do on occasion, I want to draw their attention to my gorgeous long neck with this jewelry.” Although I get the impression you think being noticed at all is a bad thing somehow so maybe it doesn’t matter.
I tend to agree. There is nothing worse then a woman with too much jewelery on. It is better to wear one piece large or small then too much which takes away from the overall appearance. I also do not like the look of more then one or two rings.
I am not a person that wears jewelry often except earings. I don’t have a need for it but even if I did I would not want to appear gaudy. I have never liked bling and find it silly for my age group.
I guess it depends if they shove it in your face or not. if someone wears a large stone because she likes wearing a large stone and is pleased by the circumstances surrounding her receiving the ring - that is one thing.
If she keeps shoving the stone in my face - I would find that offensive.
Erm, unless she was slapping you across the face, under what circumstances would she be shoving the stone in your face?
“Look, I got engaged! Isn’t my ring gorgeous!” - I’ve even seen someone proceed by telling people how much had the ring cost. And yes, she was putting that ring a lot closer to people’s faces than a hand would normally be.
To me it made her sound like rather than engaged to get married she’d been… I don’t know, appraised.
Most of the jewelry mentioned in the OP would not be big diamonds. (Or even little ones.) The currently fashionable “big” rings are often made of semiprecious stones–like lovely pale green quartz. And set in silver rather than gold. There’s even some very striking “fashion jewelry”–that’s the new name for “costume jewelry.”
If you ever go out of your house & are not wearing your cloak of invisibility, people will see you! I would prefer they think “what a pretty ring!” rather than “didn’t she wear that outfit just last week?” or “those sure are sensible shoes!” (I’m mostly into ethnic or arty sterling. But I’ve got a bit of really shiny CZ! Texas women are not shy.)
Well sure - I have a fantastic smokey quartz ring that’s about 1.5 inches x .75 inches (single stone) that I like to wear quite a bit but I don’t go ‘shoving it in people’s faces’.
Unless just by wearing it I’m shoving it in people’s faces in which case…bite me and worry about your own stuff.
I knew a guy who repeatedly made mention of how he could have bought a car instead of his then-fiance’s wedding ring. Aside from being tacky, it’s a stupid claim too. What wedding ring is so cheap that you couldn’t have bought some car instead?
“Wow you asked her to marry you with a $200 ring you bought with money you won at a slot machine?” “Yeah man, it was a tough call. I coulda bought a car with that money… they had a 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport right there on the lot.”
Without going into details, hubby wouldn’t have got much of a car with the $$ he spent on my wedding ring.
Which is good, 'cus I would have kicked his ass if he had spent mega $$ on some dumb diamond. I get that some gals like them but I’m not one of them and I would have been pissed if he hadn’t been able to figure that out after being together for 2.5 years.
I’m getting married later this year - our original plan was for me to make our rings, but if that doesn’t work out, they won’t be very expensive. Certainly nowhere near the cost of a car. To my mind, rings are just shaped metal, it’s the memories and sentiment attached to it that make them important, not the price tag - we have better things to spend that money on.
(I agree completely that the guy was being horribly tacky by mentioning it, but not everyone has hugely expensive wedding rings…)
Speaking of low budget diamonds. My diamond was a quarter carat and small. It was adequate but I never got one compliment on it. When I broke off the engagement he kept telling me to keep it. I left it on his counter and on the box I wrote, “Would make a nice tie tack”. That was awful but hey I didn’t want it either. Needless to say when I ran into him and his wife years later I couldn’t help but notice she had a beautiful diamond on.