The Daily 101

Sunday night’s Oscars was packed with dazzling stars decked in the finest designer gowns and designer jewelry. Still trying to find out who designed those gorgeous platinum diamond earrings Sandra Bullock was wearing? Well, search no more. Below is a list of the hottest jewelry styles from the Oscars and the after parties:

Charlize Theron
The Oscar winning actress wore platinum and diamond cluster earrings and a platinum and Harry Winston diamond bracelet.

Sandra Bullock
Sandra Bullock, who won Best Actress for her role in The Blind Side, wore platinum and diamond earrings and her own platinum and diamond bracelet from Neil Lane.

Penelope Cruz
The gorgeous actress who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress wore platinum and diamond drop earrings, and three platinum and diamond bracelets by Chopard.

Kate Winslet
Kate Winslet, who won last year’s Oscar for Best Actress, wore a humongous platinum and yellow diamond pendant, platinum and yellow diamond drop earrings and three platinum and yellow diamond bracelets by Tiffany & Co.

After the awards, several stars stumbled into E!’s After Party event where they sported casual yet stylish designer jewelry. We spotted several fashionable Tacori rings and bracelets. Check them out:

Navy NCIS‘ Cote de Pablo wore this stunning Tacori cognac quartz ring to E!’s Oscar celebration event.

Olivia Munn, who will star in this summer’s Iron Man 2,showed her red carpet style with the Barbados Blue ring from Tacori at E!’s Oscar party.

90210’s Jessica Lowndes wore this gorgeous Tacori Aflueress bracelet to the InStyle Magazine OSCAR Viewing party and also to the E! after-party.

American Idol judge Simon Cowell has been in the news a lot lately. Not for his judging on the latest season of American Idol, but for his recent engagement to girlfriend Mezghan Hussainy. Cowell, known for being an unmarriageable bachelor, finally explains why he’s settling down.

“I never believed I could be with one person for the rest of my life,” he said on the talk show Life Stories with Pier Morgan. “I thought she’d hate me or I’d get bored, which is what I had a reputation for. I thought I had it all. I had girlfriends and I thought, ‘Why get married?’”

Cowell then admits that everything changed once he met Hussainy, but he still hesitates to use the word “love.”

“Love is something that’s quite confusing,” he said. “You’ve got to really, really like somebody, then it develops into something deeper. As long as you can retain that chemistry, then it really is the most incredible feeling.

“It’’s a difficult thing to describe, other than that you know when you are. There are a lot of beautiful women in the world.

“But love comes down to chemistry. You’ve got to really, really like somebody, because there’s a thin line between love and hate. I’ve seen it, so you’ve got to like them.”

You might think actress Megan Fox is some kind of sex vixen, but the actress is a lot more conservative than you might think. In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, Fox says sex without love is “sick.”

“I’ve only been with two men my entire life, my childhood sweetheart and [current beau] Brian [Austin Green],” she says. “I can never have sex with someone that I don’t love, ever. The idea makes me sick.”

Anyone with an opinion probably has a say on the matter. On one side are folks who think sex and love are not mutually exclusive, and on the other side are people who feel you need both. Of course, if you’re in a stable relationship and you both have marriage on the brain, this issue probably no longer concerns you. But there have been several instances of long lasting relationships that started off as “casual,” or relationships where couples are still waiting until after marriage to do the deed.

But what’s your opinion on the matter? Do you need both love and sex?

Tired of boring ol’ paper wedding invitations? Check out this couple who decided to use their creative and technical strengths to put together a video game invitation! The couple designed two video games (a version for the bride and a version for the groom) in which the goal of the game is to get to the end to see their wedding info.

“We knew that we didn’t want standard paper invites,” bride-to-be Darina told Offbeat Bride. “We wanted something for people to keep and remember. We are geeks. We love video games. Why not have a video game invite?”

You can check out videos of the video game below, and, if you have Windows, you can download the game and play it for yourself! How neat is that?

There has always been a constant debate over whether it’s good to live together before marriage or if it’s bad for the relationship.

Previous studies reported that couples who live together before marriage have a higher divorce rate — an astonishing statistic considering about 60% of couples today live together before marriage.

But according to an article in USA Today, a new federal study says there’s little difference between couples who live together before marriage and couples who live together after marriage.

The study sampled 12,571 people ages 15 to 44, including 7,643 women and 4,928 men.

Are you moving in with him for the right reasons?

But some people are not happy with the study’s findings.

“I think it’s going to lull some people into thinking there’s no problem with living together,” Mike McManu, co-author of Living Together: Myths, Risks & Answers, told USA Today. “It appears to say you can cohabit and it doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t look at all the couples who begin cohabiting and how many of them are able to make a marriage last.”

What are your thoughts on cohabitation?

Most women expect flowers, a candleit dinner or a bottle of expensive hampagne when their man proposes to them. But this guy decided to dazzle his girlfriend with a bucket of green goo.

The proposal, which was all caught on video, shows finace John preparing a bucket of green gooey substance that is then dumped all over his fiancee Nikki in cruel, prank-ish fashion.

As Nikki marches around angry and covered in goo, John pops out an engagement ring. She doesn’t believe him at first, but he assures her “it’s a real diamond.” And surprisingly, she says yes!

Watch the video below:

Continuing the celebrity engagement ring trend, American Idol judge Simon Cowell gave his fiancee Mezhgan Hussainy a gigantic, gorgeous engagement ring.

The ring is a 6 carat brilliant cut diamond engagement ring. Estimated value? $750,000, according to Usmagazine.com.

Check out more massive celebrity engagement rings here.

Remember that dance scene in the middle of (500) Days of Summer? Well, a guy wanted to give his girlfriend a memorable proposal. So what did he do? He recreated the entire dance sequence from the quirky romantic comedy, much to the surprise of his girlfriend.

According to his blog, he and his friends practiced the dance steps the day before the proposal and managed to pull  off a pretty great performance with only an hour of rehearsal.

Check out the video below:

Celebrity jewelry expert Michael O’Connor knows a thing or two about engagement rings and bridal jewelry. In this interview he answers our most frequently asked questions about engagement rings and wedding bands. Check out his answers below:

Do I have to wear my engagement ring and wedding band on the same finger?

There is no “official rule” that the engagement ring needs to be worn on the same finger as the wedding band, except for the ancient belief that the fourth finger of the left hand contains the vein that runs directly to the heart and therefore, both rings were placed there. Many women, specifically those who love some of the unusual cuts of diamonds, will opt to wear their wedding band separately from the engagement ring. That’s fine! However, remember the special significance of both and ensure that both are made from materials that will provide you a lifetime of daily wear. If you do choose to wear the rings together, remember to ensure that both rings are made from the same metal so that the more durable metal does not wear down the less durable metal.

I have short fingers- what type of engagement ring and wedding band would look best on me?

Many people think that if they have shorter fingers that it’s difficult to wear rings. Not true! The trick is to give your fingers the appearance of length and there are a couple of simple rules that you can apply to do this. First, remember that you may not have as long a distance between knuckles as people with longer hands. To give the illusion that the space is longer than it is, choose rings that are narrower in width. Specifically when you’ll want to wear your engagement ring and wedding band on the same finger, narrower rings stacked together give the visual impression that the space is longer than it is. Make sure your rings stack up against one another with no gap to maximize this affect. Additionally, if you choose a style that is crowned by a “north/south” orientation on top – perhaps a marquise cut stone or a narrower emerald cut or radiant cut (one that is longer from knuckle to tip of finger) the line that is created along the finger will create the illusion of length.

I don’t have a huge budget for our wedding bands, so what should I get?

Budgets are a very personal item when it comes to engagement rings and wedding bands and I feel that a couple should buy the very best they can afford to mark the significance of becoming engaged and married. Typically, the “rule” is to apply a “two-months salary” guideline to the wedding band, and then I suggest another one-month’s salary devoted to purchasing the two wedding bands. I realize however, that for some, this may not be a possibility. I would still urge couples to remember the significance of the moment and think about the fact that these items need to be worn daily for life. With platinum being the best metal for wedding bands I also believe that many couples might be surprised at just how affordable the best can be.

Once you set a budget that works for you, research online and in-store to see if buying the best is still an option within your budget. A website that might help you determine this are Preciousplatinum.com where you will find a variety of designer styles and a calculator to help you determine budget.

With half of North America covered in snow right now, I guess it was only time before someone decided to make use of it all.

An Ohio resident wanted to give his girlfriend a memorable proposal. So, while his girlfriend was out of town, he decided to build her a fairytale snow castle.

But he didn’t stop there. The castle was stocked full of wine, roses and even a heater.

Check out our list of the best places to propose!

“I wanted it to be special,” he told Fox 8 News. “I wanted her to have a story that nobody else had…and this is what I did.”

Needless to say, she said yes.

See more pictures of the snow castle here.