[Case Study] Physician Ends 12-year Pursuit for a Dream Mangalsutra in 10 weeks!

In this article, I’m going to share with you exactly how a Florida-based physician designed her custom diamond mangalsutra in 10 weeks.

She was able to create a meaningful custom mangalsutra piece for her and her family:

• Despite of having a busy travel schedule
• Being told “no” by jewelers when she shared with them her creative mangalsutra ideas
• In spite of ongoing work and family commitments

Meet Ruchika Gadh

Ruchika is a primary care physician who runs her family practice in Plantation, Florida. For Ruchika, family is everything and family comes first.

Ruchika wanted to create a mangalsutra that represented her parents, in-laws, her marriage to her husband and her three daughters.

Her first mangalsutra chain had broken three times. Over the years, she had to try to find someone to help her customize it in a more meaningful way as she had kids and her marriage had progressed. Ruchika wanted to make her mangalsutra more like a family member.

But there was a big obstacle.

Most jewelers she reached out to, made mangalsutra design recommendations that were easy for them. The jeweler’s recommendations were what “they” wanted and didn’t see what Ruchika wanted.

And Ruchika doesn’t go to India often. Even then she was really not sure which jewelers to trust or not trust.

Relentless Ruchika Finds a Custom Mangalsutra Solution

After searching for custom mangalsutra options, Ruchika’s finds a story of another woman who was able to create her own designer mangalsutra.

Unknowingly, Ruchika had just found Sampat Jewellers, a company that helps women get versatile and elegant mangalsutras that women won’t store in their bank safe.

Ruchika felt happy after stumbling across this custom mangalsutra success story. In the coming days, she continued with her research as she wanted to be sure she was dealing with a reliable and trustworthy company.

Ruchika read through the whole Sampat Jewellers website before contacting them for further information. Once she felt comfortable with everything she read, Ruchika decided to move forward in her journey to create her very own custom mangalsutra. And within a matter of weeks, Ruchika had her dream personalized mangalsutra piece in her hands. In Ruchika’s own words, “I showed it to my mother-in-law, she was probably even happier to see it than I was because she has been waiting for me to go get it done. She kicked me, telling to get it (custom mangalsutra) done…So she was very, very happy when she saw it.”

Now let’s look at how Ruchika got there in 4 easy steps.

Step-by-Step Process to Ruchika’s Dream Mangalsutra

Designing a custom mangalsutra required Ruchika to go through four simple steps.

STEP 1: Commits to creating her dream custom mangalsutra

After her first mangalsutra chain broke multiple times, Ruchika knew that she wanted a durable and well-finished piece.

Ruchika also knew that family was very important to her. Not just her daughters and husband but her parents and in-laws as well. Ideally, would behave loved to have a mangalsutra piece that represented her entire family.

She knew and understood that the best route to get to her dream piece was the custom mangalsutra design process.

As a physician, Ruchika wore scrubs to work every day. For this reason, she picked a modern Tassel mangalsutra design from the Sampat Jewellers website and drew over it to express her design idea. She then scanned this piece of paper and sent it to Sampat Jewellers.

To get the custom design process started, Ruchika paid the design fee. Sampat Jewellers in turn committed to coming up with personalized mangalsutra designs for Ruchika within 7-10 days.

At this point, Ruchika was elated. She was excited to see the mangalsutra designs.

STEP 2: Reviews mangalsutra design options with her family

As promised, Ruchika received the designs via email within a matter of days. Sampat Jewellers had come up with seven unique and personalized designs that reflected her vision and style preferences.

Mangalsutra Design #1: Love Rose

What can be a better symbol of love than the purity of a rose? Inspired by the flower and leaves.

Mangalsutra Design #2: Oriental

A traditional icon that symbolizes Indian marriage and the three tassels representing the three daughters.

Mangalsutra Design #3: Saat Phere

This mangalsutra design was inspired by the seven pheras of the Indian wedding ceremony. The circle of diamonds has three fancy cut diamonds, signifying each wedding vow. The three tassels representing the three daughters.

Mangalsutra Design #4: Lotus

Lotus is a symbol of purity and good luck. The three tassels representing the three daughters. If you see closely, there are four diamond on the chain. The individual diamonds represents her parents and her in-laws.

Mangalsutra Design #5: Plume

Plume was inspired by a gracious nature of a woman that is beautiful and nurturing for the family. The three tassels representing three kids of different ages.

Mangalsutra Design #6: Unity

This design is a symbol of unity and good luck for the family. Using the same cluster of diamonds as a tassel for three daughters and two more on the chain for each of her families.

Mangalsutra Design #7: Ethnic

This design has a motif with Ruchika and her family members birthstones. This mangalsutra piece is ethnic and contemporary at the same time. The use of gemstones adds some color to this piece, making it more vibrant and fun.

After looking at the designs, Ruchika was in love! She appreciated how personal, unique and meaningful each piece was. She needed more time to share her changes. Most importantly, she wanted to show them to her husband and kids and agree on one design.

STEP 3: Finalizes her favorite mangalsutra design

Ruchika and her family had now decided to move forward with the Unity mangalsutra design. She just wanted to be sure the chain was dual-toned. She had questions about the dimensions of the pendant, length of the three strands and the total length.

Those were great questions because you don’t want to have a piece that’s too short or too long. The size of the pendant is equally important to get an idea of how it will look on your neck.

One way to get an idea of an ideal chain length is cut a 24-inch thread and wear it around your neck to see what chain length you prefer.

Ruchika was already wearing a 20-inch chain with a diamond pendant. Our designer at Sampat Jewellers recommended her to go with a 24-inch chain for the Unity mangalsutra. This would allow her to wear her existing pendant and Unity mangalsutra at the same time. Alternatively, she could wear each piece individually as well.

STEP 4: Gets her mangalsutra delivered to her doorstep

Ruchika finalized her order by making a payment for the Unity mangalsutra. The design fee was applied as a credit to the final order.

Once the order was confirmed, Sampat Jewellers team began sourcing diamonds and gold for this masterpiece. A 3-D CAD model was created to ensure accuracy in the final piece. Since this was a complex design, the piece had to be meticulously handcrafted by four artisans, each playing a different role in the jewelry making process.

The artisans started creating the gold pendant first and then set the round diamonds. In parallel, another artisan created specialty mangalsutra strands.

One of the main challenges with this piece was creating solitaire-like cluster diamonds.  Clustered diamonds were made with a combination of pear and marquise shaped diamonds, all fused together to create a solitaire-like look.  

The three mangalsutra strands were then attached to the gold and diamond pendant along with the dual-toned 18K gold chain. The final piece was sent for polishing.

The piece was then shipped directly from the Sampat Jewellers studio in Mumbai to Ruchika’s doorstep in Florida. The package was insured and came with a tracking number, so Ruchika was worry-free about the package getting to her safely.  

Here are the final specifications of the Unity Mangalsutra:

• Metal: 15.30-gram 18K gold
• Diamond Quality:
  • Carat: 1.40 carat
  • Cut: Excellent
  • Color: G-H
  • Clarity: VS
• Chain length 24 inches
• Handmade in Mumbai

Conclusion

That was an amazing story, wasn’t it?

To summarize, Ruchika was able to get her custom mangalsutra in 4 simple steps:

1. Commits to creating her dream custom mangalsutra
2. Reviews mangalsutra design options with her family
3. Finalizes her favorite mangalsutra design
4. Gets her mangalsutra delivered to her doorstep

Once the mangalsutra was delivered, Sampat Jewellers team got this beautiful email message from Ruchika.

“I received the mangalsutra and absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!  I’m so happy I finally found someone to help me create a piece that means so much to me and has taken me 12 years to finally get.   My family loves it as well!!!!”

This says it all!

In case you missed it, here is the Instagram story showcasing the Unity Mangalsutra

Below is Ruchika’s 5-star Google review that nicely captures her experience working with Sampat Jewellers on her custom mangalsutra piece. 

“For the past 12 years, I have been searching for the right jeweler to help me customize my mangalsutra after my original had broken on me 3 times and I was hesitant to continue wearing it.   Then I found Sampat Jewellers online and spoke to Jinal, who was so inviting and shared my excitement and vision with me. She was able to make my vision come true to represent my parents, in-laws, marriage to my husband and my 3 daughters all in one beautiful piece.  I’m so ecstatic and in awe of the outcome and am looking forward to designing future pieces with her. Thank you so much! You have no idea how much this means to me.”

Do you have a custom mangalsutra piece in mind? If yes, we may be able to help. Contact us here to get started.