Perhaps unsurprisingly, weddings were the most popular choice when we asked people this question.

But a number of other occasions also scored highly in our diamondthrills survey, and we reproduce the chart below so that you can see the results for yourself.

The chart shows that 70% of people responding to this question would consider hiring jewellery for a bridal occasion – either their own wedding or perhaps someone else’s (most women probably don’t want to upstage the bride by wearing fabulous diamonds at someone else’s wedding, but the mother-of-the-bride could perhaps get away with it, and some brides like to deck their maid-of-honour and/or bridesmaids out in diamonds).

The next most popular occasion, selected by two-thirds of people, is a formal occasion such as a charity ball or graduation event.

Just under 40% of people told us that they would consider hiring jewellery at a personal social occasion such as a party, whilst nearly a third told us that they would consider jewellery rental for a corporate event or a business occasion.

We were not surprised to discover that weddings are likely to be the most popular occasion for hiring diamond jewellery, not least because the average spend on weddings in the UK is over £15,000 (which we reported here) and because many brides consider bridal jewellery to be an important part of their wedding outfit.

Much of the apparatus of a wedding is hired specially for the day, so why not hire the jewellery and look fabulous for a fraction of the cost of ownershi? You wouldn’t buy the limo or the marquee for just one evening or a weekend, so why not borrow the jewellery and dazzle with diamonds on your special day?

But the other lesson learnt from the survey is that it doesn’t have to be about weddings: there are lots of other occasions when you might consider hiring jewellery in order to make a brilliant impression: business dinners, graduation ceremonies, charity balls, parties, anniversaries…

You can complete the same 2-minute survey – completely anonymously if you wish – by clicking on this link. Anyone who completes the survey and leaves their email address will go into a draw to win a diamondthrills experience: free loan of a beautiful piece of diamond jewellery for any occasion (in the UK) of their choice.

Survey methodology

In our online survey we polled over 300 women in the UK in households of above average incomes, and we asked them a series a questions, including this one about the occasion(s) when they would consider hiring/renting fine diamond jewellery.

We didn’t show them images of specific pieces of jewellery – we were just interested in what the reaction would be to the idea of jewellery rental because it’s a fairly new and unfamiliar concept.

People responding to the survey were able to tick more than one box, i.e. they could express enthusiasm for hiring jewellery at weddings and at corporate functions – that’s why the percentages shown in the chart add up to more than 100%.

You can complete a similar 2-minute survey by clicking on this link.