Bridal Rental Jewelry

Filed in archive Bridal Jewelry on August 9, 2007

I have heard of renting jewelry and other high end items to wear to big events, but it seems, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, that this is becoming more popular, especially among brides who want to be the princess on their big day. Like Cinderella, though, after the day is over, the rented baubles must be returned. The newspaper actually tried out a few on-line rental companies. Some they liked but some they said were too expensive or required a longer rental period than they had wanted:

To see if renting jewelry was cost-effective as well as useful, we checked out four national online companies. We loved the ability to augment our meager jewelry collection with many stunning pieces. But in some cases, the services were expensive and required longer-term commitments than we wanted to make.

It may be aimed at brides, but Adornbrides.com's tasteful jewelry selection would work for any occasion. After making our selection based on a picture and a brief write-up that included diamond sizes, we agreed to lease for $90 a pair of single-strand drop earrings worth $2,200. (We got to keep them for two days. After that, the site charges a late fee.)

After filling out information like the date of the event, we were billed $22.50, 25% of the rental fee, with the remaining 75% and the $33.50 shipping fee to be billed upon return of the earrings. (All of the sites bill your credit card if an item isn't returned or comes back damaged.)

Within hours, we received an email from the founder, who wanted to reassure us that despite a holiday falling midweek, we could still expect a Friday delivery for our Saturday event.

As promised, the earrings arrived that day, and returning them two days later proved just as easy, since an addressed, prestamped envelope was provided. We just wished we could have kept them for a little longer.

Borrowedbling.com lends out primarily costume jewelry. Customers sign up for one of three membership plans. There's no extra charge for each individual piece. For $29.95 a month, a deal cheekily called the Countess, we could borrow as many as two items at a time, while serious jewelry addicts can sign up to be a Movie Star for $99.95 a month and lease as many as three items. The higher-priced memberships also provides access to a wider selection of items.

Joining was simple enough, though we weren't thrilled that we had to disclose our birth date and the last four digits of our Social Security number. Once we filled out all that with an assist from the helpful Service Desk, we were able to start borrowing immediately and settled on a pair of amethyst studs and a sparkly pink cocktail ring. We had wanted different pieces but were told we had to upgrade to Duchess ($49.95).

Three days later, the promised items arrived with a handy return envelope. While the service was a breeze to use, we were annoyed that we couldn't cancel our membership until three months later.



This diamond and 18kt white gold necklace is from Adorn Brides. It retails for $9800 but it can be leased for a mere $360.