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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Galatea Berger, jewelry designer and diamond broker of Galatea Designs, at her home in Highland Park on July 13.
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Photos by Erin Nelson.
Along with engagement and wedding rings, Galatea Designs also offers ring sets, bangles and other custom-designed jewelry.
Galatea Berger has a special set of resources: a creative mind, an eye for beauty and an extensive list of global diamond cutters and brokers on speed dial.
She’s helped many men design engagement rings for the loves of their lives — and she’s seen their faces change color when they think about what’s next. At that point, they’re so happy, but they also know the gravity of the next step, she said. “And I’m in that moment with them.”
“What makes me different is that I listen,” she said.
She listens to what her clients want — and she doesn’t want to sell them anything that isn’t the ring of their dreams, Berger said. That includes details like the wearer’s tastes and if she has a career where she might be pulling gloves on and off.
But Berger also listens to what’s on the men’s minds.
“I’m a part of their journey,” she said. “I love people, and I love their stories. I always ask them how they met. It’s interesting what they say about how they knew she was the one — to hear their stories, it’s just the sweetest thing.”
Over the years since she started Galatea Designs, she’s helped many men not only buy rings but also plan their engagements.
“I always ask how they plan to ask her,” she said. “I tell them, ‘People are going to ask her how you did it, so you have to put your heart out there. Write a poem. Do something special.’”
Sometimes their talks stop there. But often Berger finds herself slipping into a life coach role as clients open up and share about their lives.
She said she remembered one man who came in to pick out a ring and was nervous for a variety of reasons. He said he would give marriage a year and see if it worked.
“I said, ‘Well then, you shouldn’t get married,’” Berger said. “‘You have to put your heart on the table; if it’s not for life, you don’t need to go there.’”
She said the man went back and had a vulnerable, emotional conversation with his soon-to-be fiancée about their relationship and their future, then came back and told Berger they were now closer than they’d ever been.
“If he had just bought the ring and left, that wouldn’t have happened,” she said. “That part of it isn’t my job, but it is my job at the same time.”
And as a result, Berger finds herself wrapped up in the stories of these couples. She ends up at many of the weddings, often sitting with the family.
“I’ve been very fortunate that people trust me,” she said.
Berger’s work started in the 1980s after she graduated with a degree in art and was working as a bank teller and designing jewelry, or “wearable jeweled art,” on the side. Soon customers were dropping in just to see what new designs she was wearing that day.
“I didn’t like numbers, but I loved the people,” she said.
Not too long after that, Berger’s Mountain Brook-based business was born.
“My friendships from the bank became my customers,” she said.
Over the years, Galatea Designs has grown and gained recognition from Alabama to Europe. She has designed pieces for a Spain-based manufacturer, and she has designed a commemorative ring for the University of Alabama. She specializes in procuring diamonds certified by the Gemological Institute of America and the European Gemological Laboratory.
Though Berger does create other pieces, she mostly designs engagement rings. One client, Chris McAlpine, came all the way from Arkansas to have a ring designed after friends recommended Berger.
“The service and quality of personalization that Galatea gave us was amazing,” McAlpine said, noting that his now-wife is ecstatic with the ring.
Berger did “an exceptional job,” he said. “She made the experience more about me and what my wife’s needs were, opposed to what she [Berger] wanted.”
For Berger, that’s what it’s all about — being a part of a couple’s personal story and helping to see it through. It’s a life’s work that fits her personality and her name.
“You may remember the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a mortal who sculpted a statue so beautiful that he fell in love with it,” she writes on her website. “Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, took pity on the lovesick artist, and brought to life the exquisite sculpture, which was named Galatea.”
So Galatea Designs, though obviously named for Berger, also brings up feelings of “striking visual appeal” and “man’s love for woman,” she wrote.
Her business logo, a woman with a diamond in her hand, is also meaningful to Berger.
“She’s moving forward; she’s like a person of power,” Berger said. “Her hand is extended and her palm is up, which means she’s receptive. Most of the things I have or do have a meaning.”
She jokes that her clients should be careful not to fall in love with the jewelry — to save that for the woman in their life who will be wearing it.
“I tell them, once you find that person you truly love, you treasure that,” Berger said. “Not only is it an honor, it’s also a responsibility. Out of all the people in the world, she said ‘yes’ to you. Now you’ve got to step up.”
The goal of Galatea Designs, she said, is “to give life to a concept.”
Galatea Designs is located at 6 Office Park Circle in Mountain Brook. For more information, visit galateadesigns.com or follow Galatea Designs on Instagram @galateadesigns.
