Gold Once More Above $1,100

The Wall Street Journal

LONDON--Spot gold climbed back above $1,100 a troy ounce on the last trading day of the year Thursday, getting help from a weaker dollar and rising crude oil prices.

Gold will finish the year on a steadier footing after its steep tumble earlier in December, having bounced 5% since bottoming at a seven-week low Dec. 22. Its recovery will bring gold to a gain of 26% for all of 2009.

Spot gold was trading at $1,103.95 an ounce, up 1% on the day. Gold's recent recovery since tumbling over 12% in the first weeks of December has been accompanied by a modest rebound in the euro against the dollar, and a steep rally in crude oil prices.

Its recovery will bring gold to a gain of 26% for all of 2009.

"I think the story of instability in the Middle East has pushed the price of oil higher, which translates to higher gold prices," said Afshin Nabavi, head of trading and physical sales at Swiss bullion trader MKS Finance.

While gold has regained a steadier footing, its direction at the start of 2010 will largely depend on whether or not the dollar will further strengthen.

But for the last trading day of the year, volumes will likely remain thin and volatility low.

"It's the last day of the year, I don't think a lot of people want to get fresh involvement," said Nabavi. At such a high price, now may actually be the time to trade gold for cash, rather than seeking gold as an investment.

In other precious metals, spot silver was 1.5% higher at $17.037 an ounce, spot platinum rose 0.6% to $1,460 an ounce and spot palladium was up 3% at $402 an ounce.

Palladium will end the year with the most upwards momentum. The metal has gained 15% since bottoming at a five-week low Dec. 22, the same day gold hit its bottom.

Making An Entrance: Carvela Pink Tiered Sandals @ Endless.com

Your dress is perfect, crisp white falling right at your knees. So what would set it off? These over the top amazing pink open-toe tiered sandals by Carvela. Available at Endless.com.

Womens Fashion: Latest Fashion Trends

Unique Moslem Wedding Gown

Unique Moslem Wedding Gown...........

That Shade of Blue: Mark Bouwer GlamIt! @ Bluefly

If blue is your color, then this is your bridesmaid dress. Get this gorgeous dress by Mark Bouwer GlamIt! at Bluefly.com for $538.00

Fancy Feet: Bourne's Sexy Peep Toes @ Endless.com

You ladies know that I am a shoe freak. So I could not help but to be in total shoe lust over these fab blush pink peep toe shoes by Bourne. Available at Endless.com.

Rhinestone Beauty: Great Grandma Agnes on Etsy

These are so beautiful. For those of your that are piercing-challenged, these beauties are clip-ons. Get these unique and darling rhinestone earrings at Great Grandma Agnes on Etsy for a cool $20.00.

Beautiful Adornment: Kim Alessi @ Zappos

I love the color of this beautiful Kim Alessi teardrop necklace. Great for you or for your beautiful maids. Available at Zappos for $72.00.

BRIDAL CONTEST: $5000 Sweepstakes @ LuShae Jewelry

Enter LuShae Jewelry's online competition for the chance to win $5000 cash (to spend anywhere you like). Simply display one of their jewelry badges on your blog, website or social profile page and be automatically entered each and every month. The sweepstake giveaway is open to all countries. We will also draw $200 monthly to a random winner. Every entrant will also receive a 15% discount off the entire LuShae Jewelry range! Good luck!

PROMO: Eco-Beautiful Weddings

Eco-Beautiful Weddings is the first and only quarterly online magazine and daily blog dedicated to eco-friendly weddings. They challenge each engaged couple to come and find ideas here on how to green their wedding. So if you are trying to go green baby, then this is the choice for all things eco-friendy and socially responsible for your wedding. You can also follow them on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ecobeautiful

PROMO: When You Need A Helping Hand - Virtual Shopping Service

If you are pulling your hair out trying to find the perfect bridesmaids dresses, the Virtual Shopping Service is at your service. It's easy to get started. Just complete their questionnaire with all of the nitty gritty information and within 24 hours, you’ll receive a phone or email confirmation letting you know that they are "on the case" or "it's not going to happen". Then within 72 hours, you’ll receive an email from VSS with all of the information you need to scoop your item! Get started. You can also follow them on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ShoppingLocator

Glitter and Glam: Ban.do

I love Ban.do. I have blogged about them before. But I saw this yesterday and love it. Check out Ban.do's entire line of bridal bands and flower hairpins.

A Lovely Little Gift: The Perfect Dress

I adore this beautiful print, appropriately called "Fancy Dress" by Yasmine Surovec. This would make a lovely gift for the bride-to-be. Get it at the Working Proof for $35.00.

It's An Emergency: Mojuba Emergency Kits

If you find yourself (or your future hubby finds himself) in a little jam... ummm like spilled you chipped a nail on your more than perfect manicure or he spills a little something on his tuxedo, Mojuba's Bride and Groom Emergency bags are sure to have the perfect solutions inside. I am loving these stylish bags. Each bag contains a luxurious, chic assortment of disaster-averting products that were hand-picked by sought after wedding planner and Mojuba Founder Jackie James. As a wedding planner, she would know :-)





The Bride's Wedding Kit, priced at $165, contains a variety of goodies including Kiss My Boo Boo band-aids, Madame Paulette™ couture stain removal kit, L’Occitane® luxurious hand cream, BugCatcherz® fashion tape to keep your clothes in place, Ms. Manicure® nail files, Nail polish remover, Soft rice paper to powder your beautiful face, Charles Worthington® hairspray, Bobby pins, Sniff® tissues to dry your joyful tears, Gentle eye drops, Makeup remover, Little i® breath fresheners for close encounters, Colgate® toothpaste and a toothbrush, Scope® mouthwash, Mojuba™ Kodak® camera to capture spontaneous moments, Mojuba™ pen and notepad for your thoughts, Clear straws to sip champagne without smudging your lipstick, Clear lip gloss, Shoe horn to slip into your new shoes, Shoe shine wipes, La Fresh® hand sanitizer wipes, Carmex® lip balm for kissing, Lint brush, Gilchrist and Soames® sewing kit with pre-threaded needles, Band-Aids® for your aching feet, Pepcid Complete® for a nervous stomach, a pocket to stash your cash, and a place to keep your cell phone or mp3 player.




The Groom's Wedding Kit, also priced at $165, contains goodies including Shave kit with Gillette® shave cream and styptic pencil for nicks, Hair comb, Right Guard® deodorant so you never let ’em see you sweat, Listerine PocketMist® for close encounters, Cavallini & Co.® file folders for wedding documents, contracts and bills, Advil® for splitting headaches, Kodak® camera for photos with your buddies, Mojuba™ pens and notepad, Poker-size Mojuba™ playing cards for fun, Colgate® toothpaste and toothbrush for your pearly whites, Minty fresh Scope® mouthwash, Shoe horn to slip into your new shoes, Shoe shine wipes, La Fresh® hand sanitizer wipes, Carmex® lip balm for kissing, Lint brush, Gilchrist and Soames® sewing kit with pre-threaded needles, Band-Aids® for your aching feet, Sniff® tissues, Pepcid Complete® for a nervous stomach, Eye drops, a pocket to stash your cash and a place to keep your cell phone or mp3 player.

One More Day of Celebration

Bridal lovelies, I am recuperating from my weekend of birthday celebrations. I can not believe how quickly we have arrived at the end of the year. So, I will not be posting today. Posts will start back tomorrow.



In the meantime, check out one of my favorite wedding blogs, Snippet and Ink.

For Your Fancy: Fancy New York

I had the privilege of meeting this amazing designer, Steven Nato of Fancy New York at the MS Weddings Anniversary event a few months ago. The model was wearing the most gorgeous light pink modern vintage dress. I must admit that he has modern vintage down, bridal lovelies. This dress is gorgeous. See the rest of his amazing collection here.

HOLIDAY SHOPPING: The Capitol Fashionista's Gift Guide

Bridal lovelies, if you are looking for some fab gifts for the holidays, check out The Capitol Fashionista's gift guides. There are some amazing and very unique deals.

Gift Guide: $500 and up

Gift Guide: $250 to $500

Gift Guide: $50 to $150

Gift Guide: Under $35

Diamond Miners Band Together To Lower Prices Of Rough-Cut Stones

Wall Street Journal

ANTWERP, Belgium— The world's top diamond miners plan to slowly increase output to tamp down prices of the rough gemstones. The cautious move aims to appease customers who have been squeezed by flat retail prices.

The delicate choreography comes even as the top four diamond producers fret that demographic and other changes threaten to permanently sap demand for the gems and create a long-term crisis for the industry.

Prices for rough, uncut rocks have risen more than 40% since February. Meanwhile, retail sales are falling, to $65 billion this year from $74 billion in 2008, RBC said.

"A lot of companies are going to be out" of business because of higher rough prices, said Eyal Atzmon, whose Antwerp-based company El-Ran polishes and trades diamonds.

As the financial crisis crushed the luxury-goods market, De Beers Group, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Alrosa Co. slashed production this year. The four diamond miners control 90% of global production and influence prices through a Byzantine yet legal system of closed sales, secret long-term contracts and a few auctions.

De Beers, for example, slashed output by more than 90% in the first quarter.

And Alrosa sold all its production to the Russian state in the first half, rather then sell rough diamonds to its regular customers who cut and polish the stones for sale to consumers.

Global diamond-mine production is forecast to fall to $8 billion this year from $13.1 billion last year, according to Toronto-based RBC Capital Markets.

With manufacturers and polishers complaining of vanishing profit margins, the big four miners pledged Monday to ease their pain.

"We had to avoid a large-scale and catastrophic collapse of our industry," Sergey Oulin, vice president of Alrosa, said Monday at an industry conference in this port city, the center of the world diamond trade.

While the miners are loath to see prices for uncut diamonds drop too sharply, they are also worried that they might put some of their customers out of business if prices stay high.

"There is a consensus that rough prices have gone too high," said Des Kilalea, an RBC analyst. "But what everybody craves in this business is stability."

The miners plan to increase production gradually to avoid destabilizing the market. Alrosa holds more than $1 billion of diamonds, but won't sell it all at once, Mr. Oulin said.

Production "all depends on what demand will look like in the future," said Tim Dabson, a De Beers executive director.

Any increase poses risks for the miners. Short-term retail demand was hit by the global recession. But even as economic growth resumes, the industry faces other longer-term challenges, particularly in the U.S., which accounts for 40% of retail sales.

"We know people over 55 treasure diamonds…but that's not so clear for the iPod generation," Mr. Dabson said. "We need to tap into that market."Other risks include the tendency of consumers in the growing economies of India and China to favor less-expensive gems than what sell elsewhere.

The industry also is contending with what Mr. Dabson called "ethical consumerism," the linking of diamonds to war, corruption and environmental degradation. The industry participates in the Kimberley Process, an effort to ensure that diamonds traded internationally aren't used to finance rebel groups.

The industry needs protection for "when we're hit by a crisis like the 'Blood Diamond' movie," said BHP Billiton marketing director Chris Ryder, referring to the 2006 Leonardo Di Caprio film about diamond mining in war-torn Sierre Leone.

He also said the industry needs to mount general "demand defense." De Beers, the biggest diamond producer, has said it would reduce its advertising budget, worrying executives throughout the industry. The big miners have discussed a collaborative $200 million ad campaign, but have yet to commit.

Mr. Dabson drew applause, however, by playing a De Beers TV commercial for the U.S. that features a couple ice-skating on a frozen pond.

Retailers are worried as well. Zale Corp., which operates 1,930 retail jewelry locations across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, reported a net loss of $189.5 million for the fiscal year ending July 31 and a 16.8% drop in revenue. "Diamond fashion has been extremely hard hit," David Sternblitz, vice president and treasurer of Zale, said, adding that demand for diamonds has decreased commensurate with overall jewelry demand on account of the recession.

But while most diamond retailers face what Zale CEO Neal Goldberg has called "the most difficult year in retailing in memory," other diamond sellers are doing well. Blue Nile Inc., one of the U.S.'s largest online diamond retailers, has remained profitable and gained market share at an accelerated pace in the recession, as customers turned to the Web for discounts, said CEO Diane Irvine.

The recession has also been advantageous for diamond sellers in the very upper echelons, where customers are investing in million-dollar diamonds as safe investment alternatives. "It's a refuge for your money if you have the cash available," Henri Barguirdjian, CEO of Graff USA, said, adding that his company, where the average sale is $150,000, was 20% ahead of last year's retail sales in the U.S. market.

Despite such exceptions, most diamond retailers are suffering, with some of the larger U.S. jewelers – such as Fortunoff and Finlay Enterprises Inc. – filing for bankruptcy this year. Even if economic growth resumes, other longer-term challenges face the diamond industry, executives in Antwerp said.

Something A Little Different: Quail Bridal

You ladies know that I am always on the hunt for something new and different. Well, I fell madly in love with Quail Bridal. The talented Michelle Williams dropped me a sweet note about her fab line of bridesmaids dresses. I was too happy to see designs that are fun and flirty and completely unique. Have a specific color in mind? Michelle says bring anything and she will find a match. I want the blue one (to wear as a cocktail dress, of course). LOL. Get more information on her web site here.

DISCOUNT: Turtle Love Committee

Bridal lovelies, don't forget that you can still score a deal on Turtle Love Committee's wonderful jewelry. Get 15% off you order thru Friday, December 4th. To get your discount, go to their web site and enter Promo code is BWL at checkout.

And even more, they have a great Bridal Party jewelry promo. Get 10% off when you buy four of the same pieces of jewelry. This code is good indefinitely! To get this discount, use Promo code is: BRIDALPARTY.

Ruffles Rule: Fawn & Forest

This is the cutest dress. Your little flower girl will be a vision of modern beauty. Get this adorable dress by Psalms for $125.00 @ Fawn & Forest.