I should admit up front that I love love love jewelry, and that I’m about as sentimental as they come.  That’s why I’m so impressed by Tracey Jenkins and Green Spot Studio.

Tracey specializes in custom wedding jewelry – and one of the coolest things (in my opinion) that she does – is take old jewelry and reinvent it.

So, say you had an old broach from your grandmother, or a collection of few pieces of family jewelry, that you wanted to modernize and wear for your wedding, Tracey could redesign and recreate it for you.

For example, Tracey had a client who wanted to create her wedding bands from her mother’s (who had passed away) jewelry. So she created these wedding bands to jacket around the engagement ring. (The diamond set in the engraving came from her mothers’ favorite bracelet.) Imagine how meaningful that wedding band is to the woman who wears it.

And Tracey created wedding jewelry for another client using stones from a few different family rings. Tracey had already made the clients engagement ring without family stones.  So the wedding day jewelry was designed to match the engagement ring style – and to use all of the diamonds from the different family rings.

Here’s the engagement ring (totally beautiful):

And here’s the wedding day jewelry (a bezel set diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds, and matching earrings…stunning).

Honestly, I’d probably pay double to get something so meaningful. But the cost is actually drastically less than new jewelry because the stones and metal are reused. (And of, course, recycled jewelry has much less impact on the earth).

Check out some more of Tracey’s designs – and then start hunting through your mother and grandmother’s old jewelry.  You could take care of “something old” and “something new” at the same time.

I’m a big fan of Adorn Brides a website where you can rent your wedding jewelry.  Think about it, even if you could afford to buy jewelry like that, would you really have a place to wear it again? (And around your house doesn’t count).

With Adorn Brides, you can rent some truly stunning diamond or gemstone jewelry for your wedding – at a very reasonable cost (insurance and shipping included).  And they can even suggest what jewelry might compliment your dress best.

We sent them this Lara Helene Atelier dress, and asked them what they would pair with it:

They suggested:

I do thing both sets would look great with the dress and can you even imagine wearing your dream dress and then topping it off with $20,000 of bling.

Start drooling now on their website.  And if you use promo code POWD, you can save 20% on your rental.

My grandmother was an amazing woman. I loved everything about her. And her 53 year marriage to my grandfather was full of love, respect and honesty – a perfect model of how a strong marriage should work.

When I got married, I wanted to use her wedding ring for my own, but it was too small and was so thin, I didn’t think it could be resized.

I wish I had known then about the Reuse Gold program by greenKarat.

Essentially, it is a service that allows you to reuse family or other gold to create a new ring.

greenKarat can make a ring of almost any design – in plain gold or with gemstones.  And if you wanted, you could even make a white gold ring out of family yellow gold because they refine the old jewelry into pure gold, and then add new alloy to create the desired gold color.

Not only can you get a “new” ring with tremendous heritage and tradition, but the Reuse Gold program neutralizes your impact on demand for destructive mining (an amazing environmental benefit) and it can also save you money because you get 100% gold market value credit for the gold you send in.

Sara and Matt (from the blog $2000 wedding) had their wedding rings made from gold donated from their family and friends.  Their rings originally cost $1375, but with the credit for the gold donated by their family and friends, their rings only cost $109.68. And were meaningful even before they went on their fingers.

All of the images on this post are rings created by greenKarat. Their’s is a thoughtful, and evironmentally friendly, service that is definitely worth looking into.

We are giving away a beautiful pair of pearl earrings from Ice.com to three lucky (and randomly selected) winners…today!

Pearls are classic and timeless.  And a perfect compliment to any wedding dress. (Or honeymoon outfit).  They are also a great bridesmaid’s gift that your girlfriends could wear during your ceremony.

To enter, leave a comment on this post telling us your wedding colors by 9pm EST today (February 2st, 2009).  You just might get an email tonight saying that you’ve won!

Ice.com has been in business since 1999 and is a great resource for wedding rings, pearls, and diamond and gemstone jewelry.

Take a look at their jewelry..and perhaps leave an “accidental bookmark” for someone to find right before Valentine’s Day.