Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast with Kathy Piech-Lukas
Your Dream Day Wedding Planning Podcast with Kathy Piech-Lukas
The 4Cs when selecting a Custom Diamond Engagement Ring with Paolo Salamone of Paolo, A Modern Jeweler
Prepare to be dazzled as we journey through the glittering world of custom bridal jewelry with experienced local jeweler Paolo Salamone of Paolo, A Modern Jeweler. You'll learn why supporting a local jeweler doesn't just give you a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry, but also an unmatched personalized shopping experience. From understanding the four Cs of diamonds to the importance of certified diamonds, our expert guest shares his profound knowledge and expertise. So, if you're eyeing that special sparkle for your big day, this episode is your ultimate jewelry guide.
In addition to this, we'll also be talking about why choosing a local independent jeweler for your engagement or anniversary bands is a smart choice. With unique perks like date nights and gift vouchers, a local jeweler's service is more than just salesmanship - it's an experience. We know wedding planning can be stressful, but don't worry, we've got some handy tips to keep you calm and focused. To round up this episode, you'll hear a heartfelt story about a couple who chose to remodel the bride's father's wedding band as their own. So, don't miss out on this sparkling conversation, packed with invaluable resources and touching stories.
To listen to more episodes visit www.yourdreamday.com
We are making our own story as we go, as we go, as we go, hopin'. We are hopin' that we'll go. So we're never after, never after. So we're gonna be talking about what it means to have custom jewelry done and a little bit about some of the things you should talk about when you're purchasing custom jewelry for your wedding. Now, one thing that I always recommend to people is if you can support local business, you're going to get much, much more personalized customer service versus going to national chains. So definitely support local businesses because they're passionate about what they do and they are so knowledgeable in what they specialize in. Wouldn't you agree, Paolo?
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am, I'm really happy to have you here. Thank you for having us and coming to our beautiful studio, oh and I'm just so excited because I get to play dress-up today. And modeling our jewelry for us today. That's very nice.
Speaker 1:I have a surrogate wedding ring because Silly Knee left mine in Rochester by accident. So thank you for the stand-in.
Speaker 2:And this is gorgeous.
Speaker 1:This is a princess cut with.
Speaker 2:It's a princess cut diamond set in platinum, actually with a cathedral setting with a matching channel set. Princess cut diamond ring.
Speaker 1:That is just gorgeous. Well, and tell us a little bit about what is so special about having custom jewelry done for your wedding.
Speaker 2:So when you're planning for your wedding jewelry and engagement ring, if you're doing wedding bands, it's really important to go to a local independent jeweler, because a local independent jeweler is going to give you great service, they're going to give you great pricing, they're going to give you a nice selection. The beauty of working with us is we are a custom jeweler and being a custom jeweler, our slogan is whatever your heart desires. So when you come and sit down with us, you're in our beautiful, relaxed studio. We're a private jeweler by appointment. Sit down, have a nice glass of wine or a cocktail with some chocolates and just unwind a little bit. We get to know the client, find out what your interests are, what style you're looking for, and then we take you step by step through that process.
Speaker 2:Some people choose to go with diamond jewelry, which we'll talk about in a few moments. Some people choose gemstone jewelry. Some people like a more European style. They choose just wedding bands and maybe stacking rings as well. So everybody is always welcome here at the studio. We have such a wide variety of clientele and we're just very happy to be with you today and tell me, and we'll keep on going and explaining what's going on here.
Speaker 1:Well, I was going gaga when I was looking at some of the different showcase pieces that you have here. I mean you have everything from white gold to platinum, to pearls and gemstones. I mean everything is just exquisite. I mean, that was the first word that came to mind was exquisite.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, yeah, I mean, we're one of the few jewelers in the city Well, probably even in the nation we literally design and create our own line. So we're designers, metalsmiths and gemologists, and the important thing about that is we cover the entire spectrum. So we've been in business 30 years, wow. However, we have 200 years of combined experience. So our style is classic, modern, trained by Italian traditionalists, and our master jeweler, ezio Aravario, trained me myself, paolo, as a designer, and then our current master jeweler on premise today is master jeweler Richard. So those are really important having the gemologist as well. We have two gemologists on staff. One is a cat designer, one is our broker, and then the other beautiful thing that we do is we use an independent graduate gemologist, certified appraiser, to do all of our appraisals. That's extremely important. It's very important yeah it's very important.
Speaker 2:And if you are choosing a diamond, the nice thing about that is at Palo we use GIA diamonds that come with their paperwork, so it's independently graded, lab graded, natural diamonds that we use. And the thing that most people talk about are the four C's, which are clarity, cut, carrot weight and color. So when we talk about color, it's how white a stone is. When we talk about clarity, it's how pure it is, and if you talk about cut, it's how light is reflected. But cut also determines the shape of the stone. And then carrot weight is one carrot is 100 percentage points, so a half carrot would be.50 carrot total weight.
Speaker 1:Wow, Well, in the color. I know for my husband, speaking from personal experience, he is so sensitive to the color yellow that he can pick out when a diamond is like an eye color versus a D or an E color.
Speaker 2:And we show you all that when we come in. We show you the GIA or AGS paperwork with your diamond. We have a microscope if somebody wants to look through it. As far as clarity goes, we have a color guide that we can show the color. But I'll tell you one thing when you're dealing with a quality jeweler like ourselves and some of the great jewelers in the city of Cincinnati, you're going to be dealing with a stone that has a certification. It's already pre-graded by two independent graduate gemologists. So color is important, as is when you have a stone in front of you that's already graded color. It's putting your mind at ease. Oh, absolutely, even this stone here.
Speaker 2:This is an exact one carat round diamond. It's very good, very good, very good, which means it has very good cut symmetry and polish. The most important thing also is it's an E color. So DEF is colorless, ghij is near colors and, like you said, once you get into the eye or below, you'll start to see a little bit of yellow. If you stay in DEF, it's colorless and if you stay in GHIJ it's near colorless, so you won't see much color. And then another beautiful thing about this diamond it's a VS2. So that means that you have internally flawless, flawless, excuse me, flawless, internally flawless. Then you go to VBS1, vbs2, which is very, very small imperfections, and then you also go to VS1, vs2, which is very small. So if you do choose to go with a natural diamond, the four C's are extremely important.
Speaker 2:Here at Palo we use GIA graded stones and we also use AGS occasionally, which is the American Gem Society. Gia stands for the Gemological Institute of America and that's where all of our gemologists that we work for they're all trained with GIA. And when you're looking at diamonds, the most important part is color, clarity, cut and carrot weight. So color determines the color of a stone. So DEF is colorless, g-h-i-j is near colorless. We generally stay in the DEF color. However, we'll go to a G or H-color as long as it has really good clarity and cut Clarity is overplayed a little bit. If the stone is clear enough, you're not going to see the imperfections.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Okay and they're graded in advance. So you're going to see a document that shows you the color, the clarity, and then the cut. And cut is one of the most important, because cut determines the reflection of light, which is called brilliance, and then, it also determines the shape of the stone.
Speaker 2:And then carrot weight is very basic. Carrot weight is 100 percentage points is one carrot. So a half carrot would be 0.50, three-quarter carrot would be 0.75. Okay, so that's really important to have documentation with your diamond. And then the next thing that I want to show you that cut determines is the shape of diamonds. Ah yeah, there's so many different shapes. My goodness there are. There's even more than this when you get the fancy cut.
Speaker 1:These are probably the most popular ones.
Speaker 2:The most popular. Yes, so this is a GIA set of stones, so this is a round diamond which is the most popular. And then the rest of these diamonds on here, other than the emerald cut, are modifications of the round brilliant. So the round brilliant is the most popular. So a princess cut is technically called a modified round brilliant.
Speaker 1:Right because it's a square.
Speaker 2:It's a square, but it's modified, but it's cut on the same structure. So they have, on average, 57 facets. And then when you get down to the emerald cut, which is extremely popular as well, it's a step cut. They tend to have 16 facets. So this is just a little sampling. You have round pear, heart, princess cushion and so on.
Speaker 2:Like we just sold a beautiful trillion cut but they went with a gemstone, which is also very interesting because gemstone jewelry has become very popular. So if you want a diamond, that's nice and we work with natural diamonds. And then if you want a gemstone, we have beautiful collection of sapphires, which are the best because sapphires and ruby are from the same family. It's called corundum, so the sapphire starts out white and as it crystallizes it picks up other minerals. That's how we see color, and when it gets to the red color it becomes ruby. And they're 9 out of 10 on the hardness scale. And I'll close with this on talking about gemstone and diamonds. Hardness means scratchability. Any stone will chip or crack, but a diamond and ruby and sapphire are the hardest stones known to man, diamond being 10, ruby and sapphire being 9 on the hardness scale. So that's really important as well. And then what I'd like to do is show you some jewelry.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. That would be OK with you, absolutely. So what is this beautiful piece that your assistant gave to me?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so what you're wearing today. I'm just to relax your hand here. This is our split bar ring. So it's a half-carat diamond set in white gold. It's weighted on the bottom, which is commonly referred to as Italian or European shank, because it's weighted on the bottom so it doesn't spin as much. And then you have on a beautiful split bar necklace this is so beautiful which is another diamond set and on adjustable chain so you can adjust it for your outfit. And then you have here this is a beautiful estate diamond bracelet which is extremely beautiful. And then I also brought out a couple fun things to show you. This is a beautiful ring designed by our team.
Speaker 2:This is a platinum setting with an oval diamond, a very, very nice, high-grade oval diamond. And that's an amazing piece. It's nice and white and it's curved inside and out for comfort.
Speaker 1:I was going to say that's probably going to feel very comfortable, especially going on your knuckle. I know that's one of the fears that couples have when the wedding ceremony is going on they're worried that the ring is going to get stuck on their knuckle.
Speaker 2:Also for the engagement. That's also really important.
Speaker 2:So we generally if we can size the lady's ring and then the surprise begins, that's great. But if you want a surprise from the very beginning, we generally will find out a ring that fits her, but we usually go a little bit larger. We can always size the ring. It's included in the price of the ring and the beauty of that is it'll slide over the knuckle again. And now what I'm going to show you, this is an incredible piece. This is a very, very beautiful ring. It's a diamond ring set made by hand, literally pounded out of metal made by hand, and we flush-mounted very nice VSF round diamonds all the way around.
Speaker 2:So it's basically an eternity band, but it can be used as a wedding band and a anniversary band. What have you? That is beautiful. And then I'm going to show you a couple nice men's rings. This is a beautiful platinum men's band, again curved inside and out. And then this has pave set diamonds. So some men like diamonds, If they so choose. We do pave set diamond, and pave is we set the diamond, pick the metal around it, so it looks like one diamond, but it's actually multiple diamonds.
Speaker 2:It almost has a vintage feel to it. It does, it does, you're right. And then this has a matte finish which probably gives it that more vintage feel. And I'm going to show you one more fun piece here. This is a lovely ring. It's in yellow gold, which is becoming very popular with both men and women. And this is yellow gold, but it's a squared shank, so it's squared on each end, kind of softened on the edges, and then also curved inside, which is commonly called, in layman's terms, copper fit, but in jeweler's terms it's called inside round.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I want to show you this one last thing that we have which is beautiful. We have a nice collection of estate jewelry and that's great. If you need something used, we have a wonderful collection of estate jewelry. Estate meaning prion, vintage meaning 50 years or older, antique meaning 100 years or older.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I wanted to show you this.
Speaker 2:This is from my father. Wow, yeah, and it's um very neat. It's um hematite set in yellow gold okay, and then I just want to show you one more option. Yeah, for men or ladies, this is very, very nice. This is rose gold, and this is again flat shank curved inside. And then this has a florentine finish, which is a very old school italian design done with a hand engraver well, it's interesting.
Speaker 1:You can totally see the difference between the rose gold and the yellow gold. Yeah, there's definitely a difference in in just the way the light catches it just in the tones as well, yeah absolutely yeah, oh wonderful.
Speaker 2:So there it is. So again, what I'd like to go back. What you were talking about first, kathy, was, if you're looking to, you know, purchase an engagement ring, a wedding band, even an anniversary band. Always refer to your local independent jeweler. You're going to get the best service. I mean, the quality is usually impeccable. Uh, we were trained to only present the best when it comes out. And another thing that we do that's a lot of fun. If you purchase an engagement ring or wedding set with us, when you pick up the wedding bands, you receive a palo date night which includes wine and chocolates at the studio oh 100 gift certificate for a wedding gift, 50 gift certificates for your entire wedding party.
Speaker 2:And then, to celebrate, when you pick up your final wedding band, we send you down the dinner at prime Cincinnati, one of our branding partners amazing restaurant, wow, and you receive a 100 gift certificate. An excellent service there as well that's huge.
Speaker 1:I wonder if. I wonder if I can get married again. I wonder if jim, I wonder if jimmy will marry me again. We'll just treat you to a date well, and it's funny you bring up date night, because one of the things that I always tell my couples is planning a wedding is stressful. It's the first big decision making process that you will have as a couple right, I mean you're you're setting a budget, you're making decisions. You're dealing with family politics. You're dealing with choices like what kind of food are you going to have?
Speaker 2:what kind of flowers are you going to have?
Speaker 1:and that's stressful, that's very stressful, and so I'll tell my couples when you're starting to feel stressed out. You go on a date night and you are not allowed to say the word invitation, guest list, food, reception, you're not allowed to say any of those wedding buzzwords and it's just like getting a massage it's just it's.
Speaker 2:It's amazing.
Speaker 1:It makes you realize why you're doing it in the first place, yeah, and so I mean that's. That is a beautiful gift just in itself. It's the gift of a gift of peace, of mind just being together and relaxing.
Speaker 2:And that's one thing about our studio. It's not set up as a traditional jewelry store, which you'll see a little later. We are a jewelry design studio. It's a very relaxing atmosphere. We only see one client at a time. And two things I like to close with is one the date night is a great way towards the end of your wedding planning that you can enjoy on our, you know, as our gift and then I would also recommend always hire an event planner, a wedding event planner.
Speaker 2:Kathy is one of the best in the city. She has a network of incredible florist. We were very lucky to work with one of your clients and be a beautiful jewelry for them this is an amazing story. Wait till you hear about this and so we created some jewelry using the couples the couples jewelry we used. What did we use?
Speaker 1:and actually I have some footage that will we'll put into this so everybody can see. So we had the bride had her father's wedding band and then we had that melted down and then it was made into three different pieces, and one was made into a necklace, one was made into the gemstone was taken out of one of them and she used that in her bouquet, and then the other one she used as her now husband's wedding band.
Speaker 2:Right, that's right, and so that was beautiful and everything was custom.
Speaker 1:And I'll never forget the look on her face when she saw the ring. It was just this this soft, like what's the word. It was this soft glow glow. It was like a soft happy. You could just see that, the tenderness and the happiness she just it was almost like she felt like her father was there with that. Yeah, it was beautiful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was beautiful and that was nice because that wedding was documented by the photographer. But everybody was brought in through Kathy's group and it was just an amazing experience. So independent jeweler were palo, a modern jeweler in the gaslight district of clifton. You can find us online at palousacom. That's pao l o us a dot com. We're in the beautiful gaslight district of clifton, as I said, on ludlow avenue, and we would love to be your jeweler and there's your best oh, absolutely planner in the city right next to me if you want beautiful custom jewelry, palo is your guy.
Speaker 1:So definitely, absolutely so thank you so much for joining us today. We hope you've enjoyed all these beautiful, beautiful pieces that we have here at palo a modern jeweler, and be sure to check out your dream day dot com for future podcasts. Thank you so much and happy planning.
