Re: brides jewelery
^^ if its a GOOD investment it will give u more than what u paid and also more than the inflation rate which gold doesnt do if u look at its historical prices. anyhoo, in terms of giving gold to the daughter/DIL during a wedding, it shouldnt be thought of an investment, rather as jewelry that the girl would love wearing. however, many people believe it to be an investment not only because people think of gold as an investment ( which is not always bad as it is a less risky investment than many other things) but also because its thought by many that if the new couple happens to go thru a bad period of time financially, they can sell the gold and then ofcourse the solid gold jewery would give a better return than that with stones, even if it is diamonds or what not.
in addition, diamonds are possibly the worst investment ever, worse than rubies and emeralds. they have no intrinsic value, are almost il-liquid and u will probably not get nearly the same back for it, as u paid for it unless its one of those famous and rare diamonds. but looking at the viewpoint of a wedding, if the MIL only cares about 'showing off' then she should get diamonds and whatever stones she wants only to tell people how much it cost. but i hate showoffs and IMO showing off is just as bad as lying, so why not lie and tell people it cost more than it actually did and just save the money and give it to the new couple as a present?