Fancy Dress Friday: Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall edition

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Aubin

The leaves aren’t changing yet, but today is the last day of August and it’s certainly beginning to feel like fall in Portland, Maine.

During the past weekend we spent some time in the 1950s with posts about the early reality show “Bride and Groom” that was broadcast between soap operas in the early 1950s and a style post about which pieces of Turtle Love Co.’s jewelry would have fit in with Marilyn Monroe’s style, which featured this lovely collage as well as a look at her diamond eternity wedding band

A collage incorporating Turtle Love Co.’s Oval Peridot Ring in White Gold and Silver Petals Pearl Earrings into an outfit for Marilyn Monroe.

On the blog this week we saw two different Jen Burrall engagement rings featured. Natalie of Uniquely Natalie chose our White Nested Pearl Engagement Ring as her favorite in this week’s Currently Loving post at the beginning of the week and on Wednesday Aubin wrote about why she loves her Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring.

Turtle Love Co.’s Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring

In light of the recent frenzy over Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announcing their engagement, Natalie Portman getting married, and Avril Lavigne and Chad Kroeger revealing their plans to wed, TLC’s Head Honcho Adrianne shared her thoughts on why we’re obsessed with celebrity weddings (and why it’s okay that we are) in a post called “Celebrity wedding porn and the rule of law.”

Newlyweds Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied

Why do we care about Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied’s wedding?

Yesterday we posted a musical interlude based around the personalities of three of our engagement rings. Each of the rings had three songs associated with them, like our nested white pearl engagement ring with gold nest paired with songs like “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” by The Beach Boys. To check out the full list of rings and songs, click here.

We’re all rushing around today so we didn’t have time to appear in this week’s Fancy Dress Friday picture. Luckily, our resident Turtle Love Commitee agreed to make an appearance in the photo for us and even agreed to model some of our vintage rings. Don’t you think they look marvelous?

Turtle Love Committee Fancy Dress Friday photo August 31, 2012

Our Turtle Love Committee

TLC Tea Break: Songs of love and marriage

Posted on August 30, 2012 by Aubin

An engagement ring is not just a symbol of a couple’s love, but of their personalities as well. Below are three of Turtle Love Co.‘s engagement rings, each with its own different style and personality, and three songs to go along with each of the rings. To see more of TLC’s engagement rings, click here.

Nested White Pearl Engagement Ring with Gold Nest

Nested White Pearl Engagement Ring with Gold Nest (click the picture to learn more!)

This ring is hand crafted from recycled sterling silver and features a 6mm freshwater pearl wrapped in recycled 18K gold. It’s an ideal engagement ring for the couple who enjoys nature and new takes on old traditions. The songs to go along with the Nested White Pearl Engagement Ring with Gold Nest are:

Bus Stop by The Hollies

Wouldn’t it Be Nice by The Beach Boys

It’s Only Time by The Magnetic Fields

Blue Sapphire Solitaire Engagement Ring

Blue Sapphire Solitaire Engagement Ring (Click the picture to see more!)

Featuring a fair trade blue sapphire set in recycled 14K palladium white gold, this ring is for the modern couple who likes a hint of vintage along with their romance. The songs to go with the Blue Sapphire Solitaire Engagement Ring are:

Be My Wife by David Bowie

Hotel Yorba by The White Stripes

Just Like Heaven by The Cure

Diane Vintage Engagement Ring, circa 1950

Diane Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring circa 1950 (click this picture to learn more!)

One of the many antique engagement rings Turtle Love Co. has to offer, this platinum treasure boasts a .55ct round brilliant diamond and each shoulder of the ring features a beautifully engraved leaf cradling a round diamond – together totaling .03ct. This is an engagement ring for a couple who appreciates the timeless beauty of love. The songs to go with the Diane Vintage Engagement Ring are:

With This Ring by The Platters

Hey Paula by Paul & Paula

We’ve Only Just Begun by The Carpenters

Why I Chose My Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Aubin

When Joel and I got engaged two years ago I borrowed a ring from my mother, a vintage yellow gold band with an emerald at its center and a surround of tiny diamonds, and told myself that we would eventually get the engagement ring of my dreams. The only problem was that I had no idea what my dream ring looked like.

When I began working at Turtle Love Co., I recognized that it was the perfect environment in which to figure out what kind of ring I wanted as a symbol of my engagement. Because TLC sells a wide array of vintage engagement rings and artisan-made rings I had a lot of room to explore what appealed to me. I had my borrowed engagement ring to start with for inspiration and right off I knew that, although yellow gold is nice, it doesn’t fit my personality as well as silver does. In the time I’d been wearing my mother’s ring I’d also grown tired of it getting caught on my clothing and I decided that my ring would need to have a low, smooth setting so I wouldn’t have to worry about it getting hooked on my sweaters.

Turtle Love Co.’s Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring

While I was going through the engagement rings listed on our website one day I decided to search by gem stone. The first one I entered was my birth stone, topaz, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the Nested White Topaz Engagement Ring by Jen Burrall. There are many reasons why this is the perfect engagement ring for me. First, I am a big believer in buying local whenever possible and Jen Burrall’s studio happens to be a few blocks away from my apartment, which makes it buying very local indeed! Second, although the name suggests the ring is reminiscent of a bird’s nest, it struck me that it looked like my favorite flower, ranunculus. In the Victorian language of flowers, ranunculus means “I am constantly amazed by your charms,” which when combined with my birth stone is the perfect message for my engagement ring.

Aubin's ranunculus bouquet and wedding rings

A photo taken at Aubin’s recent wedding of her and her husband’s wedding rings on either side of her ranunculus bridal bouquet (photo by Katie Martell)

Celebrity wedding porn and the rule of law

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Aubin

With the recent interest in celebrity weddings reaching a heightened pitch, Turtle Love Co.‘s Head Honcho Adrianne takes a look at why we care about how famous people choose to tie the knot.

Jennifer Aniston’s getting married. Brad and Angelina might be getting married too. Why do we care? Natalie Portman married Benjamin Millepied this month. It’s hard to have ZERO interest in this topic. But why?

Newlyweds Natalie Portman and Benjamin Millepied

As a young lawyer, I had the privilege to clerk for federal district court judges for two years. As I sat in grandiose courtrooms, I pondered the value of the imposing architecture, the apparently antiquated customs (such as standing when the judge or jury enters the courtroom), the judge’s long black robes. It became clear that one of the important roles that the courts play in our lives is to provide the APPEARANCE of justice, and the finality of an outcome.

Let me be clear: in all of my work in the federal courts, I was consistently impressed and inspired by the dedication of everyone in the system - judges, clerks, juries, staff - to promoting a just outcome. But a just outcome alone isn’t enough - a decision rendered on a Post-It note by a clerk behind the window at the DMV won’t have the same impact as one declared by a judge in a black robe behind a huge desk in a stately courtroom.

Edward T. Gignoux U.S. Courthouse, Portland, ME

Decisions rendered by the courts with authority and finality help us organize our lives. Even if the outcome is not favorable to a particular litigant, at least that person can accept the issue as settled and move on to sorting out life as it then stands. And the outcome of litigation serves as an example and establishes guidelines for non-litigant members of the community.

Though they seem frivolous, reports about celebrity “events” have similar value in helping us evaluate and process events in our own lives. (“Ooh, that’s cool that Natalie Portman had macarons at her wedding. I like macarons, maybe I’ll serve them at my next party.”) (“Ooh, her house is nicer than mine… but my house is pretty nice considering I don’t earn millions for each film I act in and have to clean it myself.”) (“That engagement ring is really unique - I like the idea of having something out-of-the-ordinary.”) (“Wow, that’s a really messed up situation. I’m glad that didn’t happen to me.”) (“Wow, I’m glad someone else’s life is just as confused as mine.”)

Celebrity reports help us feel the perverse comfort in knowing things are working out for us even when they aren’t working out for others - schadenfreude. We can compare the dramas in our own lives to the dramas in the lives of celebrities, people we know-but-don’t-know. And we experience culture - the shared understanding or experience with members of our community outside our immediate social circles.

The newly engaged couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie

Obviously, mean-spirited or meddling celebrity reports are cruel and not constructive. But knowing about and being interested in the cultural events created by well-known people isn’t all mush. Like a judicial decision, there’s substance in celebrity events that helps us identify with others within our culture and filter our own life experience.

(But it’s still ok if you want to hide your copy of People inside an issue of The Economist.)

Currently Loving: Nested White Pearl Engagement Ring by Jen Burrall

Posted on August 27, 2012 by Aubin

Jen Burrall’s Nested White Pearl Engagement Ring is the unique piece of jewelry that caught the eye of Vintage Style Council member Natalie of Uniquely Natalie for today’s “Currently Loving” post.

This ring, crafted by Jen Burrall in her Portland, Maine studio, is made of recycled sterling silver and features an oxidized hammered band and a round, freshwater pearl that is bezel-set in a nest of sterling silver. While this piece is inarguably inspired by the natural world, it’s the nautical elements of the ring that drew Natalie to choose it for her pin board. “I immediately thought of the ocean with all the pearls I saw on the Turtle Love Co. website, particularly this ring,” she says, “I pictured a fun, ocean/beach inspired wedding/party to surround this beautiful piece.”

To see the images Natalie was inspired to surround our Nested White Pearl Engagement Ring with on Pinterest, click here!

A match made for television: the 1950s show Bride & Groom

Posted on August 26, 2012 by Aubin

There is no shortage of criticism for shows like The Bachelor and The Bachelorette where people find their spouse through reality television, but televising marriage choices is nothing new. Between 1951 and 1954 couples could get married live on television on a 15 minute show called “Bride and Groom.” The program, which was broadcast between soap operas first on CBS and later on NBC, offered couples the chance to be legally married on camera and not only provided the minister, dress, and music, but also gifted the newly wed couple with various household items to get them started and even paid for their honeymoon.

Bride & Groom radio show interview with a newly wed couple

Host John Nelson interviews the newly wed Earl and Genevieve Ranney on the radio version of the show in 1947. (via reminisce.com)

As an additional parting gift, each couple was given a 16mm film of their wedding to show their friends and relatives who were not able to see the broadcast. Many of these films have since been converted and uploaded to youtube, including footage of some couples who are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversaries this year. One of those couples, Don and Mary Lou Ellis of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, spoke to their local newspaper about their television wedding this past month. According to the article, which you can find here, around 70,000 couples applied to the show each year and those who were accepted to be married on television were chosen for the uniqueness of their stories.

Couple getting married on the show Bride and Groom in 1952

Don Ellis, standing next to his new bride Mary Lou, shakes host John Nelson’s hand on “Bride & Groom” in August, 1952 (screen capture from youtube)

Rings for the bride and groom were provided by Keepsake Diamond Rings, who furnished a band of small, channel set diamonds for the bride and a matching ring for the groom. You can find similar classic style wedding bands on Turtle Love Co.’s website by clicking here.

Which Turtle Love Co. jewelry would fit Marilyn Monroe’s style?

Posted on August 25, 2012 by Aubin

Despite being known for singing that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, the diamonds Marilyn Monroe is seen wearing in numerous publicity photographs and public appearances were on loan from prominent jewelers and not from her own collection. Monroe’s personal style was more down to earth with a free spirited feel to it that lent itself more to simple colored glass and faux pearl necklaces. In 1999, a Christie’s auction of Marilyn Monroe’s personal belongings revealed that most of her jewelry, save for a genuine pearl necklace and the diamond eternity wedding band, was costume jewelry, showing that she valued design over decadence. Behind the public image, Marilyn was the type of girl who would have liked Turtle Love Co.‘s unique designs and appreciated our simple, yet elegant rings, necklaces, and earrings.

In this Polyvore collage, we’ve styled an outfit Marilyn might have worn around our Silver Petals Pearl Earrings by Bree Richey and our Oval Peridot Ring in White Gold. This style collage was inspired by the fashion choices Marilyn made in the late 1950s and early 1960s during her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller. Her clothing and accessories from this period are more reserved than in the early part of her career and she wore more simple pieces of jewelry, like the necklace seen in the photo in the upper left corner of the collage.

Marilyn Monroe’s diamond eternity wedding band (image from here)

Marilyn Monroe’s wedding band, given to her by Joe DiMaggio in 1954 for their wedding, features 35 baguette cut diamonds in a platinum setting. The eternity band is a classic style whose identical cut gems circling the ring represent the eternal love of the married couple. Turtle Love Co.’s Classic Eternity Wedding Band with Diamonds and Rubies is a twist on the traditional diamond eternity band and is made from recycled 14k white gold and conflict-free diamonds.

Turtle Love Co. Classic Eternity Wedding Band with Diamonds and Rubies

To learn more about Turtle Love Co.’s Classic Eternity Wedding Band with Diamonds and Rubies click this picture!

Fancy Dress Friday: something old, something new, something you edition

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Aubin

This past week at Turtle Love Co. has been dedicated to weddings and modern twists on classic things.

We began the week with a guest post from August’s Vintage Style Council member of the month, Laura from sweeter salt. She showed us how to style a nautical themed outfit around our Classic Floating Pearl Necklace with Red Silk. To read Laura’s guest post, click here.

Turtle Love Co.’s Classic Floating Pearl Necklace with Red Silk

On Wednesday we shared another found vintage wedding photograph from our collection, which was labeled only “Marvin and Wanda” on the back. The post also included some late 1960s etiquette from Emily Post about the order in which the wedding and engagement rings should be worn. Click the photo below to be taken to the post:

A vintage wedding photo from Turtle Love Co.’s collection labeled only “Marvin and Wanda”

Thursday’s blog post was a trip down the memory lane of puppet popular culture with a post called “How to propose and get married Muppet style.” The post features videos of a wedding on Sesame Street with Elmo as the ringbearer, The Count trying to propose to his girlfriend but getting distracted by counting the things he loves about her, and this upbeat wedding preparation song from the 1984 movie The Muppets Take Manhatan:

The most important news of the week, however, is that we’re starting something new and exciting on our facebook page!

Post a picture on our facebook page of you wearing your Turtle Love Co. jewelry and you could be our cover photo for an entire week!

Our customers are very special to us and we love seeing the pictures we’re sent of people wearing and loving the jewelry they bought from Turtle Love Co. so we would love to share your joy with the world! Starting next week on Monday, August 27, we will choose one photo of our customers with their jewelry to be featured each week as the cover photo on our Facebook page. We can’t wait to see your pictures!

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That’s all for now from the team at Turtle Love Co.! One of our own, Miss Aubin (who is rocking the pilot’s hat in this picture) is off to become Mrs. Aubin as she gets married on Saturday. Are any of you getting married this weekend too?

TLC Tea Break: How to propose and get married Muppet style

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Aubin

Recently, the Turtle Love Co. team was discussing our favorite weddings and proposals from popular culture. Although some now classic funny scenes like the mid-flight proposal between Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore in The Wedding Singer made the list, we couldn’t think of many from The Muppets, who surely must have touched upon the subject over the years. So I’ve done some youtube mining and found some matrimonial themed muppets videos for you to enjoy!

The Count proposes: Admittedly, this proposal doesn’t go the way most proposals in popular culture do, but he certainly earns points for persistence. Hopefully after the fade out he went on to count all the ways he loves her and she said yes.

“Somebody’s Getting Married” from The Muppets Take Manhattan: There are few things as uplifting as a muppet musical number (especially one that includes singing cakes!) and this song is no exception. In the youtube comments of this video someone mentioned that they had this song played at their wedding as the guests were getting seated for the ceremony, which is perfect! Although the musical number includes visits to numerous wedding related shops we don’t get a good look at the wedding rings Kermit and Miss Piggy choose. What style of wedding rings do you think they would go for?

Luis and Maria’s wedding on Sesame Street: In May of 1988, two of the humans who live on Sesame Street, Maria and Luis, tied the knot with Elmo as their ring bearer and all their friends in attendance. The episode takes a frank look at the emotions associated with a wedding with songs about everything from excitement to the anxiousness and joy of the bride and groom. Elmo, however, ends up stealing the show with his constant reminders to himself to not “drop the rings,”

Bonus video: In 2010, a man named Sid created a 3 minute short film to propose to his girlfriend Sara. That in itself is nothing extraordinary, but the stars of the short film are muppet-esque puppet versions of the couple! The film was shown in a movie theater where Sid had brought Sara, who suspected nothing. After the film was over, the lights in the theater were turned on and it was revealed that their friends and family had quietly filed in while the movie was playing and were sitting in the seats behind them. Sara accepted the proposal and the couple went on to make a sequel to the proposal video with their puppets that chronicled their wedding and honeymoon. You can read the blog post Sid wrote about the proposal here.

Vintage wedding photos: Marvin and Wanda’s 1960s wedding

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Aubin

Today’s vintage wedding photo is one of the rare found photos in Turtle Love Co.’s collection that has two names written on the back- the groom and bride, Marvin and Wanda. Like last week’s vintage wedding photo this one appears to be from the 1960s.

A vintage wedding photo from Turtle Love Co.’s collection labeled only “Marvin and Wanda”

Emily Post on the order in which a bride should wear her rings: “Since the wedding ring must not be put above the engagement ring, on her wedding day a bride either leaves her engagement ring at home or wears it on her right hand. Afterward she wears it above her wedding ring.” (from the 1970 edition of Emily Post’s Pocket Book of Etiquette)

One of the antique engagement rings on our site from the 1960s is our Avery Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring. This robust geometric white and yellow gold setting features a .40ct brilliant-cut diamond with color K and clarity VS/SI. Two brilliant-cut diamonds (totaling .10ct) are set to either side in a triangle of 14k white gold. To see more pictures of our Avery Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring, click the photo below.

Click this to see more pictures of our Avery Vintage Diamond Engagement Ring