Our Bridal Pearl Jewelry

Jeremy and I finally had our American wedding last weekend, August 3rd, at Dos Pueblos Ranch in Santa Barbara, California!

I picked out my wedding dress in February right before we left for the Tucson shows. The dress has a silk chiffon ombre of beige layers and I wanted to have that ombre effect in the bridal jewelry as well as the decor. During the Tucson show, Pearl-Guide's Caitlin William's daughter Kether and I started looking for champagne colored briolette diamonds. Not knowing what the design was going to be, I’ve selected some dark brown diamonds and champagne colors. For months I pondered what to make and nothing came to mind. A good friend of mine told me I should think about it on the long flight to Hong Kong in June but I had no luck. A week before the wedding I finally got it. I chose to wear the natural colored exotic metallic pearls. Jeremy gave me the special metallic freshwater pearl as a promise ring a few years ago, and since then finding the metallic freshwater pearls have been a project of ours. I chose the warmer pink metallic drops that would complement the warm hue of the diamonds.

Putting together the briolettes was a challenge! Only a 30 gauge wire will go through the hole of the diamonds and I handmade the jumprings to be laser welded onto the chain. The earrings were sent to four different custom jewelers who specialized in laser welding and none of them were able to successfully weld or solder the jumprings. So three nights before we left for Santa Barbara, I took the diamonds out and wire wrapped them individually onto the chain.

Once the earring design was finished, creating complementing sets for the bridesmaids was easy! I wanted to keep everything simple and chose a bale from findings producer that had brown and champagne diamonds set to create an ombré effect like the drop earrings. I paired the pendant with drop metallic earrings on our classic setting.

For the groom and the two best men, I chose 10 mm Tahitan baroque pearls and made them into lapels to be attached next to the boutonnieres. I wanted to be very subtle but have a nice dark peacock color.

During our rehearsal dinner Jeremy surprised me with the most exquisite wedding gift, a natural conch pearl pendant.

Jelly bean shaped, pink conch pearls have been my favorite pearls since I’ve been working at PP. I even have a picture of a cluster of conch pearls on my business card. My wish came true when my husband found me this amazing pearl. The chatoyance is so clearly visible on the bottom portion of this pearl. Jeremy has explained to me that this pearl came pre-drilled when he purchased it. Takayas and Jeremy designed around it so that the pendant will look presentable front and back. The bale was derived from the love knot incorporated into our wedding bands. I will cherish this pendant (and my husband) forever.