Increasingly, engaged couples are considering the cost of some wedding jewelry. In today's high pressure high cost lifestyle couples are really wondering whether or not it is appropriate to spend big on, say, a diamond engagement ring.

The more spent on wedding jewelry the less available later for the important things in the marriage, like a house. Or the kids when they arrive. Is it responsible to spend so much to buy a diamond engagement ring when these more important things may need to be compromised later?

Especially when you consider that good quality man made diamonds cannot be distinguished from real diamonds, even by jewellers.

Faux diamonds are big business. The pearl jewelry industry was revolutionised by the advent of cultured pearls. Synthetic diamonds are doing the same thing to the wedding jewelry business.

There are a range of ways to produce synthetic diamonds. Modern technology is very adept at making any product which will sell well and faux diamonds are no exception. And the quality is so good that many of the alternatives to diamonds perform exceedingly well when compared to diamond using the common diamond quality tests.

In such tests as hardness, refractive index, fire, brilliance, luster and others the man made diamonds perform admirably. Sometimes even better.

Brilliance is a test of the amount of light which enters the stone and gets reflected back. It is affected by the quality of the cut of the stone.

Fire is the ability of the stone to break light down into it's component colors and is also affected by the cut. “Fire” can be seen as color coming out of the stone.

Luster is the amount of light reflected back from the surface of the stone.

Moissanite, for example, outperforms diamond in brilliance, fire and luster and is only very slightly lower on the hardness scale. In fact a special piece of testing equipment had to be designed so that jewellers could tell moissanite from diamond as so many were unable to.

And, of course, moissanite is much cheaper than diamonds. And if most jewellers cannot tell it apart from diamonds, could you?

There are a range of different processes used to produce a stone which is a good diamond alternative. Most produce fine quality stones which produce stunning quality jewelry which any woman would be proud to wear.

Moissanite is not strictly a man made diamond though, as it is, in fact, naturally occurring. Unfortunately it doesn't occur in sufficient quantities to be commercially viable for mining. But technology has come to the rescue by devising a method of producing high quality crystals.

Our preference for the best alternative to diamonds? Moissanite. A fine jewelry stone which will make a stunning engagement ring, or other jewelry piece. And you can buy moissanite wedding jewelry at a fraction of the price of diamond wedding jewelry.

And when the kids come along, buy them something extra from the money you've saved.