By Guest Blogger BrilliantEarth.com

So you’ve found the right girl, secured an engagement ring, proposed to her, selected wedding rings, and helped plan every last detail of the wedding down to the DJ’s vegetarian dinner. The long-awaited event is just around the corner. If you’re thinking to yourself that now is the time to relax and get ready to enjoy the festivities, think again. There’s one small detail you may have overlooked: an extra gift of jewelry for the bride.

For the bride? After the long road you’ve traveled, the idea that your bride now needs an extra jewelry gift may sound a bit bizarre.  Buck up, weary wedding traveler. Yes, the whole wedding has been designed to please your woman, but that doesn’t mean that as the wedding approaches, a small gift of jewelry, given as a surprise, isn’t a good idea. In fact, such a gift could pay you enormous, enormous dividends.

It’s perfectly normal for the bride and groom to feel some jitters in anticipation of the wedding. A pre-wedding jewelry gift is the perfect way to calm her nerves—yours too. She’ll be enthralled by your thoughtfulness and you’ll receive the pleasure of thinking about what a thoughtful guy you are. The benefits don’t stop there.  Over the long-term, she’ll have one more piece of jewelry that she associates with magic of your wedding, not to mention your rock-solid romantic credentials. Last but not least, she may actually need some earrings or a pendant to wear on your wedding day and in the years to come.

Deciding to get your bride a piece of jewelry in advance of the wedding is really a no-brainer. The harder challenge is selecting a piece that she’ll like. Fortunately, when it comes to pre-wedding jewelry gifts, you need look no further than Brilliant Earth.  All of our jewelry is meticulously crafted, conflict-free, and sourced according to the highest ethical standards. And, we offer a range of earrings, pendants, and rings that make perfect gifts for your bride.

A good option is always to go with something classic—such as diamonds.  Girls like diamonds not just because of their radiance and beauty but because diamonds go with just about anything. For instance, she’s sure to love our Platinum Four-Prong Diamond Pendant, featuring a ½ carat round diamond mounted into a four-pronged setting. She’ll also go nuts for our 18K Gold Round Diamond Stud Earrings, made from a beautifully matched pair of Canadian round brilliant diamonds. A more budget-conscious option is our Silver Heart Pendant, a heart-shaped silver pendant studded with a single sparkling, conflict-free diamond.

Some brides are looking for earrings or pendants to match an engagement or wedding ring. If her ring has sapphires, you can help her achieve a stunning look by showering her with more blue sapphires. Take a look at our 18K White Gold Sapphire Stud Earrings or our 18K White Gold Sapphire Halo Diamond Pendant. A less expensive option is our Silver Wave Pendant, featuring a small blue sapphire attached to the crest of a wave.

If she already has “something blue”, try something green! We recommend either our Green Emerald Halo Diamond Pendant or our budget-friendly Green Sapphire Leaf Pendant, both featuring exquisite, ethically-sourced green gems.

When it comes to jewelry and girls, sometimes more truly is better. Sure, you could get her a diamond pendant, but why not get her one with a center diamond surrounded by—more diamonds? Our 18K White Gold Diamond Halo Necklace features a 1/3 carat diamond surrounded by pavé-set diamond accents.

OK, so she’s already gotten two rings out of this wedding, but isn’t three is the perfect number? For her right hand, or the one without the wedding and engagement rings, we recommend our 18K White Gold Flora Ring, an intricately detailed ring with diamond-accented leaves and buds. Or, add splendor to the rings on her left hand by stacking alongside them our 18K White Gold Pavé Diamond Eternity Ring, one of the most elegant rings in our collection.

If you’ve gotten this far into the wedding process, you know that it never hurts to ask for help from all those wedding people who know weddings inside out. Don’t forget that our own fashion experts are there to assist you in selecting the ideal piece of jewelry to give her in advance of the wedding. With our help, she’ll be going bonkers for you as the big day approaches. So be the groom who goes the extra mile. While we can’t promise that a jewelry gift at this point will endear you to her for every second of every day once the wedding is over, you’ll have one more tool in your arsenal—and in her jewelry box—to add a sparkle to your lives together.

disclosure: sponsored post

BrilliantEarth.com drops by today today to pop a very important question: how can you create a green marriage proposal?

It’s been the one snag in your relationship: she’s nutty about being green, while you’ve never thought twice about skipping Earth Day. Admittedly, you’ve learned a lot from her. Everything in your relationship has gone swimmingly well since you exchanged your duck hunting rifle for a pair of bird watching binoculars.  Now that you’re thinking of ways to pop the question, you’re eager to show her how much you love her and how environmentally-sensitive you’ve become. Your marriage proposal needs to be solidly green.

The key thing to remember when making an eco-friendly marriage proposal is not to lose sight of the basics. Bear in mind what it is that you’ll be giving her: a diamond engagement ring. As she is probably aware, not all engagement rings are created equally green.  Many diamonds are mined in ways that harm the environment or that lead to violence and human rights abuses. Gold mining is an especially dirty process, releasing toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide into the environment and generating about 20 tons of waste for every gold ring that is produced.

Brilliant Earth, the global leader in ethical origin fine jewelry, offers a wide selection of diamond engagement rings that are eco-friendly, luxurious, and stunning. All of our diamonds and gemstones are certified to originate from socially and environmentally-responsible sources. Precious metals can be recycled repeatedly with no degradation in quality, so we use only recycled gold and platinum in our engagement rings, thus eliminating the need for dirty gold mining. We also offer a range of designs, many of them nature-inspired.  Select our Blossom Ring for her and you’ll get lifelong credit for giving her flowers!

Just because you’ve selected the perfect conflict free diamond ring (that she’s been hinting about) does not guarantee that your marriage proposal will be entirely green. All of that eco-friendly engagement ring shopping could be cancelled out if, as you get down on bended knee, you accidentally step on an endangered species or somehow cause an oil spill. Thus, to make sure that your proposal is thoroughly green, we’ve also thought of a few ways to “green up” some classic proposal ideas:

The Treasure Hunt Proposal: A creative way to propose is to design a treasure hunt. Usually this involves making a series of clues that lead her from destination to destination. You show up at the end of the treasure hunt to propose. Some guys make the mistake of forcing their eco-conscious girlfriends to drive around town. Instead, suggest to her that the two of you do some trash cleanup at a park or beach. If she’s as green as you think, this will actually sound to her like a great idea. Have your messages spread out along the park or beach in recyclable bottles.

The Fortune Cookie Proposal: One proposal idea you’ll probably run across is to have a special message baked into her fortune cookie.  The message itself might pop the question, or it might just give her an important alert: “You will soon receive a special ring.” But fortune cookies don’t have to be yellow; they can be colored whatever you want. To make the “green” theme prominent, arrange for her to receive a green fortune cookie. Be sure to make the message out of recycled paper. Then present her with the ring, explaining its eco-friendly origins.

The Sky-writing Proposal: Who said that flashy proposals can’t be eco-friendly? Another classic proposal idea is take your girl to a beautiful spot—a park, beach, or mountaintop—and hire a plane to skywrite those four magic words in the sky. As she glances up, she’ll be overjoyed, but have qualms about the fuel being consumed by the plane. No worries. Ask her to look up at the sky again as the plane continues with the following words: “Carbon offsets purchased to make this proposal.” You’ll want to really buy the offsets too.

The Heart Felt Proposal:  Sometimes the best proposals do not involve elaborate planning but carefully chosen words. If you’re at a loss for the proper vocabulary to express your feelings, consider drawing upon some environmental buzzwords. Many of them will resonate with your earth-friendly lady. Words that help: organic, sustainable, hybrid, renewable, stewardship, growth. Words to avoid: pollution, particulate matter, fecal coliform bacteria, waste, gas.

So just remember: Green marriage proposals begin with the ring, but that’s not all. An eco-friendly marriage proposal requires a little bit of forethought. Fortunately, Brilliant Earth stands ready to help you select the perfect ring, and to help you think through the rest of your proposal. As you shop for rings, free to share with us your green proposal ideas. And good luck!