http://www.kay.com/en/kaystore/diamond-engagement-ring-1-1-4-ct-tw-princess-cut-14k-white-gold
any thoughts on either of these. I'm going to surprise her, so if she doesn't like it are most jewelers ok with exchanging if for another model.
That ring is pretty low on the clarity. The color isn't that high either, but I'd give up a little more on color to increase clarity. Also, a lot of the time the big jewelers (like Kay) don't give you the exact carat they advertise; it falls within a given range.
I just bought a stone and setting two weeks ago after researching since February. I wanted to stay local, but the jeweler I was working with wouldn't budge on price, and they were consistently at least 25% higher than everything I could get online. Would've tried other jewelers but this is the only one in town that carried the designer setting I wanted.
Anyways, I ended up using
diamonds.pro for a lot of research and guidance, and eventually bought the stone through one of the commission-free customer reps at
James Allen. They are close if not the same in price as bluenile, but every single one of their diamonds is photographed at 15x magnification in a 360deg view. Just go on their customer service page, describe what you want, and they send you a few options that you can actually see, in detail, before you buy. If you buy both a setting and diamond through them you get a free appraisal for insurance purposes, and everything has a 60 day guaranteed 100% full refund. You can also save an extra 5% if you pay by wire transfer. The whole process went extremely smoothly for me after I had actually researched what was out there and decided on the characteristics I wanted in a stone. I think it took 3 days from the time I contacted them with what I wanted in a stone to the day I bought it.
Hope this helps. Good luck