With multiple jewelry brands to choose from, it can be hard to know where to start, especially if you don’t have a favorite yet. That’s why I’ve handpicked two very different jewelry companies to give you a starting point. On one hand, we have Brilliant Earth, which was founded in 2005 and is committed to […]

Shopping for an engagement ring is an exciting occasion, with lots of options to explore, but it can be hard to know where to start.   Once you have one or two anchors, the search gets easier. Maybe you already know the shape and your preferred metal color. From there, you can compare settings, metal materials,

I got divorced at age 44, and for about a year afterward, dating wasn’t even on my radar. But when I was ready to dip my toe back into the dating scene again, my friends finally talked me into downloading a dating app. I assumed it would be exactly what everyone complains about now: being

Cowboy boots can make a great wedding shoe, but choosing the right pair takes more than finding a style that looks good with a dress. You may be wearing them through the ceremony, photos, dinner, and several hours of dancing, and the venue can change just as much as the outfit does.  When I’m choosing

Choosing a matchmaker Having decided that professional matchmaking might not be quite as strange an idea as I once thought, I started looking at who I would actually trust to do it. A few names kept coming up, and I found myself circling back to Tawkify and Three Day Rule. They’re both established matchmaking services

Tawkify and Kelleher International both offer professional matchmaking for people who want more help than they’re getting from typical dating apps, but each is targeting a different audience. Tawkify works with a broader range of people looking for high-touch matchmaking, while Kelleher is more selective and tends to work with high-profile individuals whose dating lives

If I’m going to pay someone to find me a date… At the venerable age of 40, I’m not particularly interested in going on more dates just for the sake of going on dates. I’d actually like to meet someone who gets me. Someone whose weird matches my weird. I don’t want to waste any

When I’m buying a wedding gift, I don’t want to give someone something generic just because it looks respectable wrapped in a box. I want to feel like I’m making the couple’s life a little better after the wedding is over and they’re back to normal, laundry, work, and figuring out who stole the blankets

So, apparently I’m dating again. I turned 40 this summer, which makes being single feel a little more daunting than it did at 30. Not desperate, exactly, although my parents may have a different view. They have started asking increasingly specific questions about whether I’m “seeing anyone”, delivered with the casual subtlety of people checking

I’m married now, but I’ve done the dating-after-a-relationship-ends thing, and I watched one of my best friends spend years trying to find the person she wanted to build a life with. She tried It’s Just Lunch and a few other matchmaking services along the way, so I saw pretty closely what she hoped paying for