Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler what to look for in an engagement ring?

If he does, I pledge to make it my avatar.

I tried to read through the entire thread and there's lots of good advice...

I spent way too much time learning about diamonds and don't really suggest going as far as I did. Just make sure you buy from a reputable place, there's a certificate and have a 3rd party appraisal depending on how much your spending.

I would also suggest going to a Jewelery Exchange where's there's lots of stores in one spot as they have the best deals. I will also suggest looking at and buying loose stones.

Furhtermore, looking at a stone under a microscope it utterly useless in my mind. You want to have a good cut, clarity and so on but as long as the stone really sparkles and looks good by eye is all that matters. Everyone will be looking at the ring/stone with eyes not microscopes.

My jeweler had suggested to me what to get, she also had pulled stones that I had requessted and had various size stones and quality there for me and just let me look at them. I did so by eye and then with the magniying thing. She asked me what I thought of each one and then we grouped them in order and went through them together. She actually showed me where I could save money and only loose quality that a trained eye would notice. I was impressed.

Ultimately I stuck to my intial standards (for the most part) and bought a diamond by quality and brilliance (how well it sparkled) compared to getting a slightly larger one. I was lucky my wife only wanted a .5 carat but being bigshot (sure) I upped it to a .73 carat set in platinum. Apparently white gold can discolour and turn more gold color in time?? Not sure, I liked the color of platinum better regardless but d@mn it's pricey.

As we were both talking about getting married so much and we knew we wanted to get married at a certain time. I was able to have me wife there for most of the buying experiece so we both got to enjoy it and she got exactly what she wanted. In hindsight, I probably should have done a pre-proposal before the ring shopping but whatever...she was happy.

Lastly, there was a saying along the lines of as a diamond ages it shrinks...well it's actually the finger it's on usually gets bigger so the diamond just looks smaller

Hopefully this is your first and last engagment ring, do it right and get something you both will be happy with for years to come. And like others have said, hopefully one day someone else new to the family will be able to wear it with pride as well.

Congratulations.

Well, I purchased a ring today!

My girlfriend and I had browsed through a few stores at the mall in the past(just to browse- I would not buy anything that expensive at a mall), and yesterday we drove all over town and went to several diamond/jewelry stores. She finally picked out the engagement band and wedding band that she liked, and we looked at several mounted stones to get an idea of what she liked in terms of clarity and color.

I went back the next day (this afternoon) by appointment to pick out the diamond.

I purchased a 1.51 Carat Princess Cut stone with the following color/clarity GIA properties:

Color: G
Clarity: SI-1

It is going to be mounted on a white gold band that has another .33 carats around the ring (from the top down to the middle), and then there is a matching wedding band with about another .33 carats. Both of the bands are pretty thin.

I looked at a couple of smaller stones (1.0 carat) that were in the VS2-VS1 category with similar color grades for slightly less cost.... However, the inclusions that were found in the SI1 diamond I purchased were impossible to see with the naked eye- and I really couldn't see them under a 10x loupe either (I am sure a trained eye could have easily picked them out under magnification tho.)

I have to wait a few days or so for them to set the stone on the band and size the ring.

I imagine I won't be able to wait for long to pop the question after I get the ring. Oh yeah, I didn't stick to my initial budget- but I only went slightly over. I am pretty sure that she is expecting a 1 carat stone- but I did ask her if she would like something bigger and she said "DUH!" She said if it came down to being able to get a slightly larger stone that looked the same in terms of color and clarity to the naked eye, then she said she would be all for it. In the end I decided that she would be more happy with the SI1 1.5 carat diamond then the VS1 1.0 carat that I was trying to choose between. (to me once you go beyond SI1 on the clarity scale it is just for bragging rights... I mean how often is someone going to look at your ring under 10X maginification?)

Thanks for all the great advice and I will update you when I give her the ring!

Here's hoping she miraculously says yes.

Congratulations!
Now, since you bought the ring with her, she might expect a proposal! There's no turning back!

Yeah... now i can start buying electronics again!

Unfortunately I can't afford them now! DOH!

Oh well, I need to save for a downpayment on a house first anyway...

An electronic house?

good call!

I was going to say that about the buying electronics part. Does she realize how nice of a speaker and TV setup you could have for the price of that one little ring?

Just try not to think about it too much, or while she'll being doing this:

You'll be doing this:


Just kidding of course, congrats on your pending engagement.

Congrats on the big step!



Want some more advice for this? Don't rush into the proposal. The proposal moment ranks up there as one of the few major life-events that you can completely control. Assuming she says yes, of course!

Your future wife will remember every detail of that moment for the rest of her life. If you do it at a restaurant, that restaurant (and table) will become special forever. Or if it's at a park, "that tree over there" will instantly become a priceless memory. Woe to the day that it's cut down. You get the idea.

So give it some thought. Whatever you do will be special, of course. Don't stress out about it, but do think about how you want that moment to unfold.

Personally, I think that I rushed into proposing to my wife and I have a 'coulda-woulda-shoulda' attitude towards the event. Of course, my wife would say that I'm crazy and that it was a wonderful moment, blah-blah-blah, but I still think I could have done it better.