Picture or Video?

Over the short life of this blog, we've posted a bunch of proposals caught on video. Some have been pretty awesome/creative, others not as exciting. We recently read this article in the New York Daily News about a man who captures proposals on his camera for a living. Not surprising he used to be a part of the paparazzi.

 

He is actually serving a very interesting market, one that seems to be getting bigger and bigger. With YouTube and Facebook we are obviously sharing videos and pictures at unprecedented rates. There are 48 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and eight years of content every day! As for Facebook, there are 6 billion pictures uploaded each month! 

The ease of transferring visual information today has to contribute to the number of marriage proposals being caught on video, and through pictures. 

For those of you who aren't engaged, do you want your engagement captured either on video or through a camera lens? Will we get to the point where it's more the rule than the exception for there to be visual evidence of the actual engagement? For those who are already engaged or married and didn't capture this moment as it happened, would you do it over again to record everything if you could?

If you're in the camp of having evidence of your engagement, would you prefer to have it be on video or through a plain, old camera?

 or?

Would you marry Lady Gaga?

Having a hard time understanding this article about Lady Gaga rejecting marriage proposals. That's marriage proposals, plural! Our thoughts are simple:

-Why are there MULTIPLE men lining up for Lady Gaga's hand in marriage? We don't know her personally, but based off of the interviews we've seen and the way she's acted in public, Lady Gaga doesn't exactly seem like the "settling down" and getting married type.

-If you're a guy is Lady Gaga A) Really that hot and B) worth all the baggage/nonsense that goes along with being married to her.

-What does Lady Gaga bring to a marriage other than money and dresses made out of meat? She's pretty talented but there is way too much else going on with her. 

-If you're married to her do you refer to her as "Gaga" or "Lady Gaga?"

-Let's be honest, does a Lady Gaga marriage last long than Kardashian's 72 day sham of a marriage?

What would be a good reason to marry Lady Gaga?

Man-gagement Rings

Just read an article about a trend where women are giving men engagement rings. We've put pictures of a couple of examples. At James Levinson Jewelry we've never sold one, but we are happy to serve this section of the female (or male) population if they'd like to get a "man-gagement" ring.

After some more research we have found this to be a common practice in countries like Argentina and Brazil. Now more and more people are adopting this trend in the US.

Along the way, was there a woman who got tired of waiting for her boyfriend to propose and decided to jump the gun and do it herself? Will this now become a trend among gay men...or is it already?

What are your thoughts on the man-gagement ring?? For the ladies (or men), is this something you'd want your fiance to wear in addition to you wearing an engagement ring?

Good Advice

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Happy December from James Levinson Jewelry! This is a busy time of the year for us with the holidays rapidly approaching, but it's also a popular time of the year for engagements. If you're thinking about proposing in the next few weeks we found a great article in the Huffington Post.

We want to highlight a section from it that we think is really important for you to keep in mind whenever you, or someone you know, decides it's time to look for a ring. While we hope you'll come to us for advice and to purchase the ring, you should keep this well written section of the article in mind no matter where you decide to go:

"I've never been a huge fan of the saying "diamonds are a girl's best friend." If you scrape away all of the marketing slogans that have been used to peddle engagement rings over the years, you're actually left with a custom dating back to the 1400s that symbolizes the desire to commit to one woman for the rest of your life. Because she'll be wearing the ring for the rest of her life, you should do your homework on what style she prefers. This can be as simple as taking a window shopping trip with her or interrogating her friends and family on whether or not she's mentioned which specific stones and settings she's a fan of. Finally, do yourself a favor and don't succumb to the pressure to spend several months of your salary on the ring. Your financial decisions are yours and yours alone to make. Remember, the ring symbolizes commitment rather than the size of your wallet."


Like the article states, you should always try and find out what kind of ring she might interested in. That will make the process of buying the ring much easier and less stressful. There is no shame in asking her friends, sister etc. They will probably view it as a great move on your part!

If you or someone you know is thinking about starting the engagement process we are happy to offer our advice which comes from 40+ years of experience. Whether you buy from us or not, the advice is always free. You will always deal with the owners, never any sales people!  Be sure to visit our website for our contact information including our direct numbers. Enjoy your holiday shopping!

PS...here is a link to the entire article we referenced. Happy December from James Levinson Jewelry!

Up in the Air

We've had a blog entry about underwater metal detecting, so why not a marriage proposal in the sky? This actually looks like one of those a shuttle flights like the one from Chicago to La Guardia's Marine Air Terminal (What a great flight for James Levinson Jewelry to get back and forth between the NY and Chicago offices, although it was much better when that flight left from Midway instead of O'Hare). 

Anyway, what are your thoughts about this proposal in the sky? Our first thought is, if you're going this route (no pun intended), you need to be supremely confident she'll say yes. If she says no, in the words of Seinfeld, that's a pretty big matzah ball hanging out there. Plus, it would make a short flight like that seem like as long as a trip to Australia--or the moon--either way! 

Luckily for the man, this young lady said "yes" and the whole flight got a glass of champagne. Not bad...

(Thanks to reader Amy for bringing this video to our attention)

Reality Check

One of the biggest misnomers in the world is "Reality TV." There is obviously entertainment value because these shows continue to get high ratings. However, most people watching should and probably do know very little "reality" actually applies in most cases. While shows like "Jersey Shore" probably has entertainment value, it does not reflect reality in any sense of the word...and has done very little except make some people from New Jersey embarrassed to admit it.

Another in a long list of "reality" shows is "The Bachelor/Bachelorette." Shockingly, another couple's fairly tale romance born from this, anything but, "reality show" has ended with season six's Ali Fedotowsky calling it quits with Roberto Martinez after an 18 month engagement.

Roberto certainly "manned up" and got Ali this really nice engagement ring.

Of course this is why the James Levinson Jewelry blog brings this former couple up (although James Levinson himeslf will readily admit to catching more than a few episodes of this show over its eight year run).

So Ali will likely give back the three carat, $50,000 Asscher Cut dimaond. Too bad, but still a nice ring!

Upon hearing about the breakup we got to thinking. We know the whole concept of the show does not reflect anything resembling a normal courtship between a couple. In reality, a gourmet dinner cooked by a private chef, followed by a moonlit walk down the beach is certainly not the norm for a FIRST DATE. 

However, digging a little deeper, have any of these pairings actually lasted beyond the show for any great length of time? We did some research so we can share the actual reality of the situation.

If you count "The Bachelor" and "The Bachelorette" as one entity, there have a been a total of 22 seasons. Of those 22 seasons, according to our friend Wikipedia and other sources, only ONE couple is still together and married! The one is Trista Rehn and Ryan Sutter from season one (pictured below).

With a 4.5% succeess rate over a pretty adequate sample size, what brings millions of viewers back to this show year after year? If you knew the outcome of a movie before it began, would you sit through and watch all of it in hopes that you were wrong this one time?? Or would you just watch because there may be attractive people, who may or may not sleep with one another on their weekend getaway to a fancy resort on private island? Is it as simple as some Americans will watch anything on television?

This show has the most predicable ending on television. At least you really don't know what will happen on the Jersey Shore. So, we need your help:

What is the hook here? If you are tuning in, what brings you back? If you don't watch, what do you think people get out of watching this non-reality, reality show already knowing the eventual outcome??

Cue up Queen and David Bowie for Thanksgiving

Today James Levinson Jewelry is talking about fake engagement rings...not cubic ziroconia rings, but engagement rings women wear who aren't actually engaged.

You might be scratching your head at this point and asking, what woman wears an engagement ring without being engaged?

Of the 55 million unmarried women in this country, many are obviously heading home for Thanksgiving this week. According to this article there are indeed women who can't take the pressure of going home to face their family without having a ring on their finger.

Fair enough if they feel pressure from their family to get married. This happens frequently and in many different families. The question becomes, how can a woman feel morally okay lying to her family about such an important milestone? And how is the lie even possible? Do these women all of a sudden show up for Thanksgiving and say "hey everyone, I'm engaged...here is the ring"?

No matter how much pressure a family puts on a woman to get engaged/married, wouldn't they think it's a little strange to NOT KNOW this important little tid bit before the woman comes home for Thanksgiving?

Furthermore, are these women single OR are they in a relationship and just don't have the bling to show off yet? If the latter is the case, how do the boyfriends respond to the woman who says "listen honey, I'm going to wear this ring over Thanksgiving weekend so my family thinks we're engaged, but I'll be sure to take it off after the weekend." Are there really sane men who will put up with that kind of behavior? If it's the former situation, (the woman is single) aren't there some pretty extensive issues she must be going through if she is willing to show up at Thanksgiving with a ring and say she's engaged? The natural first question from the family is probably not "where is your fiance" but "who is your fiance?"

To us, as much as we enjoy selling rings, we can't help but wonder what must be going through a woman's head when she feels the need buy an engagement ring if she's not actually engaged. She must be under some serious pressure


Does anybody know a woman who has done this or heard a story like this? If so, we'd like to hear from you...and as always, your thoughts and comments are welcome!

Happy Thanksgiving!!