It’s not every day that you get engaged, so when you do, you might as well go all out, right? That’s certainly the mantra newly engaged Mariah Carey and boyfriend-turned-fiancé James Packer adopted last month.
Mariah has long been known for wearing enormous diamonds and plenty of them. In fact, some people even wonder if she has more carats in her home than your average jewelry store has behind glass. Basically, if Mariah Carey leaves the house, she does so with enough glittery jewels on that looking directly at her during daylight might result in temporary blindness from all the light reflections.
OK, probably not. But you get the point: she really, really likes really, really big jewelry and lots of it.
The Stone
However, everything in her collection moved to the back when Packer popped the question. He presented the pop singer with a Wilfredo Rosado-designed ring, and there are no synonyms for the word “big” that feel extreme enough to be applicable here. Large? Huge? Enormous? Gigantic? Humungous? Colossal?
Mariah’s ring is all of those and more – it’s 35 carats! That’s about the size of Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé’s engagement rings…combined. The cost? A mere $10 million.
Is that too much even for Mariah Carey? Apparently not, especially when you consider that she’s a multi-millionaire and Packer is a multi-billionaire and the fourth-richest man in his home country of Australia.
The Design
Wilfred Rosado has been a friend of Mariah’s for more than 25 years, so it’s no surprise that he got the gig to make her engagement ring. “I took the standards super high, and I wanted to create a ring that could not be measured up to,” Rosado told Vogue of the ring he designed and created with the help of an “army of craftsmen.” No one who sees the ring (pictured above) would argue that it wasn’t worth it.
“What is really most interesting about the ring are the proportions – the stone is so large, but we were able to create a beautiful balance with the overall simplicity of the design,” the designer noted. “It was about mixing simplicity with volume, which is very difficult to do.”
Flanking the astounding gemstone are just two other diamonds. The pair of baguettes being the only other gems on the ring keeps things somewhat simple and basic – at least, as simple and basic as a ring with a 35-carat diamond can get.
“She obviously has a strong point of view about what she likes,” explained Rosado. “We have the same taste, and when it came down to it, I really wanted to create something for her that was about new beginnings. I wanted to give her something super sophisticated and something that took away all of the embellishments that a lot of people use when they design engagement rings these days. But it is epic. It’s an epic ring for an epic time in her life.”
Packer checked in with Rosado on three occasions during the two weeks the designer was spending 12 hours a day working on the ring. Mariah’s fiancé wanted something “very rare.” He also insisted on having a small empty space on the back of the ring for a future engraving.
The Relationship
The proposal happened in Mariah’s hometown of New York City on January 21. Packer reportedly rounded up a group of Mariah’s closest friends for a private dinner at Eleven Madison Park, where he got down on one knee and proposed in front of everyone.
The happy couple first met each other a few years ago on the red carpet at the premiere of Hercules. They later showed up together as a couple for red carpet photos at the premiere of The Intern in New York City and were photographed vacationing that June in Italy. They’ve been dating only since June of 2015, but the pair has been all over the world together. In addition to Italy, they’ve vacationed in Israel, Australia, St. Bart’s and more.
“As soon as their friendship turned romantic, they have wanted to spend every moment together,” one source told E Online. “They have a connection that is unparalleled; it’s been a very beautiful experience for them both. If you spend even five minutes with them, you can’t help but believe in true love.”
Both are hoping this time around they have better luck than their last stabs at marriage. Nick Cannon filed for divorce from Mariah in 2014, a year after Packer split up with his own ex, Erica Baxter.
Cubic Zirconia Engagement Rings
Wouldn’t it be great to have a $10 million engagement ring? Of course it would be! But you don’t have to have that many zeroes in your bank account to feel like you have a ring worthy of a celebrity. Birkat Elyon’s Russian Formula cubic zirconia engagement rings are affordable, and they look exactly like the real thing!
Image Source: People Style Watch