Engagement rings... UPDATED ( I BOUGHT IT!)

[nakedfrog]

Just piping in to tell you not to buy a diamond because I'm against it

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Just piping in to tell you not to buy a diamond because I'm against it

Arent you married? What type of stone or ring did you go with?

 

[Turin39789]

Obligatory don't get a diamond post.


Get sapphires. The budget is less and my fiancee gets unending compliments on her ring. It's also more traditional(if you're royalty)

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Just piping in to tell you not to buy a diamond because I'm against it

Arent you married? What type of stone or ring did you go with?

Sapphires.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: mugs
Cut > Carat. I think size is the least important factor. Figure out how much you can spend (you've already done that), then decide how good a cut you want (don't skimp), what color (F is the bottom end of colorless, so that's what I went with), what clarity (not really necessary to get VVS1, but I wouldn't get SI2 either), and then see what size ends up in your price range.

My coworker just got engaged. She came in incredibly happy showing of her new ring. It looks to be about 1 ct. But the thing did not sparkle at all, in fact, from a foot or so away, the diamond looked grey.

There's another woman I know who got married last year. Her engagement ring is awful. With an unaided and untrained eye, there is a huge inclusion that can be seen. It was apparent that she was conscience about it though, because when she got engaged and she was showing everyone, she would always point out the inclusion saying "I love it, because there is no other ring out there with an inclsuion like this." :laugh:

Haha. I blame MTV and/or rap music.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Just piping in to tell you not to buy a diamond because I'm against it

Arent you married? What type of stone or ring did you go with?

Sapphires.

Me too!



An op, I raided her jewlery box one day while she was out, took the rings to the mall and got them measured and used the median size. It was still off, but close enough(too big) and we mailed it back to the jewler to have it resized. For that I took her to the mall jewlery store and had her finger sized.

 

[AMCRambler]

I've bought mine jewelry before, specifically rings, so I know what size from when I got her those. I've since forgotten though! Gonna have to steal one back and get it sized lol.

 

[somtingwong]

keep in mind that a 1ct diamond doesn't mean it's proportioned correctly. if it's not proportioned correctly, most of the actual weight is in the bottom of the diamond and it will look small. try to find a diamond that is 0.90-0.99ct and is well proportioned. it'll look just as large as some of the best 1ct diamonds. you'll end up saving yourself a few hundred dollars.

also, don't go crazy over the colors and clarity either. F-G are fine for color and VVS1 to VS1 is fine for clarity. general rule of thumb... if you don't see any major imperfections through a 10x loope, you're good.

 

[evolvedbullet]

You know, I wouldn't get a very expensive ring because she could sell it years after the marriage. She would gain from your loss, you should keep that in mind.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Scribe
So... I'm getting married

Well... I am going to eventually... I am in the process of looking for engagement rings, and I've found the setting that I want, and that my girlfriend is happy with.

Here's a link: http://www.jamesallen.com/products/item_58-506.asp

I'm going to buy the ring direct from them, because I can't seem to find anywhere cheaper that has such a nice ring.

I am going to get a 1 carat+ diamond, trying to stay in a $4000 budget (or thereabouts), and I know about the 4Cs. I am just wondering if it's worth getting a 1.1 carat and getting a lower quality cut, or the higher cut and the 1 carat even? I have heard the cut is the most important for the "sparkly-ness" of the diamond.

Much obliged for any help... I wish I could buy a 2ct diamond, but I'm not rich... this is a big investment for me anyway, and I want to make sure I make the right decision in what I do. I have to buy everything in the next two weeks, so please let me know what you think!

trust me do your due diligence...if you buy from one of those stores you will pay at least 1.5x more than if you buy a loose stone, then setting. After you learn your 4Cs it's IMPERATIVE that you physically go look at the diamond and look at the flaws yourself.

 

[imported_Devine]

Originally posted by: Rogodin2
Make sure your diamond isn't stained with blood and that your girlfriend understands that if she leaves you she dies.



Rogo

lol oh snap!!! :shocked:

 

[BKLounger]

funny this thread pops up today. I finally pulled the trigger and put the downpayment on an engagement ring last night. I must have been to 30 different jewelers looking for teh right ring, and the right person to buy from. Finally found the right place and the right ring. Now I just need to come up with the bucks to pay for the damn thing.

Btw to get ring size. The way i did it i took one of her rings that she only wears occasionally and brought it to the jewelers so they could get the size. Then i just put the ring back before she got home.

 

[GenHoth]

Originally posted by: Turin39789

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Just piping in to tell you not to buy a diamond because I'm against it

Arent you married? What type of stone or ring did you go with?

Sapphires.

Me too!



An op, I raided her jewlery box one day while she was out, took the rings to the mall and got them measured and used the median size. It was still off, but close enough(too big) and we mailed it back to the jewler to have it resized. For that I took her to the mall jewlery store and had her finger sized.

That is a good looking ring

 

[slimrhcp]

My grandmother is a jeweler, and I've spent 10 years in her store, learning about gems, and the industry itself. Short of purchasing an estate piece, I'm not sure where one would come across a quality 1+ carat diamond with a $4000 budget. Even if it's an antique diamond, it's unlikely to be priced like that.

 

[Mxylplyx]

Originally posted by: Scribe
So... I'm getting married

Well... I am going to eventually... I am in the process of looking for.....

As I was reading this, I thought the next few words might be "a woman". That would have made this a much better thread.

Anyways, I spent over a month at my local jeweler going through tons of diamonds to find the 3 for my wife's "millenium" type ring, basicly a center stone with 2 side diamonds. If you forgo the requirement that the diamond be certified, you can get a much nicer ring if you are diligent and educate yourself. Look at every diamond under a microscope. You'll know when you find the right one.

Wifes ring is awesome. I wanted the side stones to be about half the size of the center stone, and in a setting that slightly tucks the sides of the side stones under the center stone. Most off the shelf rings looked out of balance since the center was so much bigger than the sides. It looks like it has a large solid diamond face across the entire top of the ring, because it pretty much does. It's about 1.8 carats, and I paid $6500 cash by cashing out a loan check. They agreed to drop the cash if I paid them in cash, which saved me a bundle.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: ballmode
I'd like to know if you how on earth you find out the ring size of your girlfriend without revealing the fact you are going to get her a ring.

i bought her a non-engagement ring first, that way i had all the info for the real one

 

[purbeast0]

Here's the one I ended up getting for my girl.
Here's my bitch picture.
Here's a pic of it on my girl after i gave it to her.
(this was after a night we had been out drinking but we were pretty sober at this time, but that's why we have such bloodshot eyes hah )

Her ring is a 1.01 carats, and I forget the exact rating on it. I actually can't remember at all but it was of higher quality. I can look at the GIA certification slip when I get home and paste the exact specs. All I know is that on the GIA certification it says the appraisal for it is at $9.5K and the band is a platinum band.

I went and looked at rings from a somewhat family friend. A kid I went to gradeschool with and play sports with all through highschool, his family owns a jewelry store and they have a chain of them in his family. So I went in and talked to his father befor I purchsed one.

I definitely felt comfortable talking to his father because I knew it was someone I could trust and he told me all the ins/outs of how they grade diamonds and stuff like that.

Needless to say that one I got her relaly stuck out in my eyes and even though it was more than I wanted to spend, even after he gave me one HELL of a deal, I have no regrets at all and my fiance really loves it. It definitely sparkles like all hell and that is definitely something your girl will want in her ring.

 

[purbeast0]

Originally posted by: slimrhcp
My grandmother is a jeweler, and I've spent 10 years in her store, learning about gems, and the industry itself. Short of purchasing an estate piece, I'm not sure where one would come across a quality 1+ carat diamond with a $4000 budget. Even if it's an antique diamond, it's unlikely to be priced like that.

After sitting down in a jewelry store w/a family friend and him showing me tons of diamonds, comparing all the different C's to me, I'm going to have to agree with you on that one.

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: BKLounger
funny this thread pops up today. I finally pulled the trigger and put the downpayment on an engagement ring last night. I must have been to 30 different jewelers looking for teh right ring, and the right person to buy from. Finally found the right place and the right ring. Now I just need to come up with the bucks to pay for the damn thing.

Btw to get ring size. The way i did it i took one of her rings that she only wears occasionally and brought it to the jewelers so they could get the size. Then i just put the ring back before she got home.

Hmm, my girlfriend doesnt wear rings. We tried on some engagement rings a few months ago, but I dont remember exactly what size she was. I want to say 5 to 5.5.

I suppose I'll take her to a store and try rings on again to find out her size. I've already decided though, that I will buy the ring from Amazon or Blue Nile.

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: purbeast0

Originally posted by: slimrhcp
My grandmother is a jeweler, and I've spent 10 years in her store, learning about gems, and the industry itself. Short of purchasing an estate piece, I'm not sure where one would come across a quality 1+ carat diamond with a $4000 budget. Even if it's an antique diamond, it's unlikely to be priced like that.

After sitting down in a jewelry store w/a family friend and him showing me tons of diamonds, comparing all the different C's to me, I'm going to have to agree with you on that one.

Where do you live? I live in Dallas, maybe the market is flooded but I have seen all sorts of great solitaire round cut and princess cut quality 1 ct rings for $4k. Probably not all GIA but still nice stones.

 

[TheAdvocate]

Originally posted by: somtingwong
keep in mind that a 1ct diamond doesn't mean it's proportioned correctly. if it's not proportioned correctly, most of the actual weight is in the bottom of the diamond and it will look small. try to find a diamond that is 0.90-0.99ct and is well proportioned. it'll look just as large as some of the best 1ct diamonds. you'll end up saving yourself a few hundred dollars.

also, don't go crazy over the colors and clarity either. F-G are fine for color and VVS1 to VS1 is fine for clarity. general rule of thumb... if you don't see any major imperfections through a 10x loope, you're good.

Best advice on this thread. Especially the bold part. Getting an emerald cut will also make the stone look larger. I bought my wife a 1.9x carat diamond, emerald cut, and even I think it looks huge. She gets compliments everywhere she goes.

 

[cytoSiN]

First, congrats!

Second, here's a couple of pointers from my experience in the jewelry industry...just my $.02:

1. Good luck finding a high quality stone that falls within .1 ct below a whole carat...lapidaries (stone cutters) can lose their hands for that (literally back in the day...I suppose they just get fired now ). All stones are cut from much larger rough crystals, and unless the lapidary is trying to avoid a massive inclusion and has no other choice, he/she will almost ALWAYS finish a stone at or above a whole carat. Because diamond prices are based on a price/ct that varies with the total carat weight of the stone (e.g., price/ct is way more for a 4 ct stone than a 1 ct stone), it simply doesn't pay to cut the stone right below the carat mark. Thus, beware stones that have such weight. Also, keep in mind that most jewelers won't give you the price break that a .95 or .99 ct stone should carry, instead bumping up the price/ct to the next per-carat weight.

2. Avoid Blue Nile and similar etailers like the plauge. First, I should say that I've seen one or two nice stones from those places, so you can get lucky. But that comes nowhere near the overwhelming majority of crap I've seen. Basically, Blue Nile is in the business of buying large lots of stones that barely make their GIA-certified rankings. Like anything else, there is variation in GIA-certification categories. So there are some SI1 sones that are better than other SI1 stones, and there are some "excellent symmetry" stones that are better than other similarly ranked stones. A large proportion of Blue Nile stones are in the bottom rung of the GIA rankings, and they do this intentionally. They know people put way too much stock in the GIA certifications, and they don't post photos of the diamonds they sell, so they can get away charging the highest possible price for a certain ranking, even if the stone isn't deserving of that price. So until you get it, and unless you have a jeweler's loop (or good magnifying glass) and know exactly what to look for, you're just going to trust the cert and be done with it. Too many issues here to make it worthwhile, so why hope that you get lucky? If you live near any medium to large city, just go visit a jeweller and have them show you in person why a stone received its specific GIA certifications.

 

[Shyatic]

bump, since I actually bought the ring

Details are in the first post!

 

[AMCRambler]

Isn't $1,800 on the cheap side of things when it comes to an engagement ring? I mean DeBeer's is always talking about "How else can 3 month's salary last forever?" I'm not trying to put down your purchase, that looks like a very beautiful ring and I'm sure she will be happy. Of course not everyone is pulling down 100 grand a year like I always see in the salary threads here either. Just feel like if it doesn't hurt the wallet, it doesn't mean as much kind of thing. Maybe that's just a stereotype companies like DeBeer's love to perpetuate.

 

[Shyatic]

Originally posted by: AMCRambler
Isn't $1,800 on the cheap side of things when it comes to an engagement ring? I mean DeBeer's is always talking about "How else can 3 month's salary last forever?" I'm not trying to put down your purchase, that looks like a very beautiful ring and I'm sure she will be happy. Of course not everyone is pulling down 100 grand a year like I always see in the salary threads here either. Just feel like if it doesn't hurt the wallet, it doesn't mean as much kind of thing. Maybe that's just a stereotype companies like DeBeer's love to perpetuate.

That's just the setting.

The diamond alone is worth a LOT more than that. Definitely more than three months of salary totaled