Quite serious discussion for our little forum!
This is a tricky one. You will find a lot of people, and almost every jeweler, following the drumbeat of DeBeers when it comes to diamonds. Two-months salary, a diamond is forever, etc, etc. You can certainly do your own research on countless sites about how all of those work. Yes, there are very real differences between lower grade and higher grade stones. Spend some time and look at them. Ask the jeweler to demonstrate the differences in the 4C's to you. Understand the difference between the flaws.
Hopefully this ring will mean something to her for a lifetime, and might even be passed down to your children. When you think of it that way, you want to get something nice. But at the same time, I've known people that spent many thousands on a ring that they really couldn't afford at all. A guy I used to work with had divorced after a couple of years and was
still making payments on the engagement ring. Talk about an insult. As in most things, strive for balance.
In the end though, love is love. If you love her and she loves you, the size of the diamond doesn't matter. She will love that 15-point diamond chip just as much as that 4-carat rock. Some women might not care at all about the ring. It just depends. And if she's the kind of person that the size of the rock is all that matters, well...all I will say is good luck.
My best advice would be to get friendly with a jeweler. It has been my experience that all precious stones have
tremendous markups on the prices. DeBeers really does hold a monopoly on the diamond market and they are far worse than OPEC at controlling supplies and prices. It is a bit of a cartel. Absolutely negotiate. It's been my experience that I usually get anywhere from 25-50% off the 'sticker' price of a piece just by negotiating. The higher the price the more room for negotiating. Especially these days with the economy in a slump. But this is a lot harder to do if your significant other is standing there oogling over a specific diamond or ring.
Personally I had gone ring shopping with my future wife before hand, though we didn't actually buy anything. You've got to know what sorts of cuts she likes: solitaires, princess cuts, pears, etc. That does make a difference. I returned some weeks later to buy one of the settings & stone she liked and did the whole one-knee-cliche proposal a few days after that. It was a modestly priced ring. Basically all I could reasonably afford at the time. Even though now I could do a lot better on the ring, my wife doesn't want to upgrade it because it's too sentimental. She's still happy and that's all that matters to me.
Best of luck with it, and seriously, congratulations!
Oh, one more thing... If you think she'll want a 'traditional' kind of wedding, prepare thyself. You might want to start learning about the differences between 'cream' and 'ivory' right now.
Get to Work! You will be tested.
After the engagement comes the wedding. And believe me, you will be asked
very important questions as to which colors,patterns, or styles your prefer. Quesitons so significant that your very life may hang in the balance. In the words of the Knight Templar in
Indiana Jones And the Last Crusade, 'choose wisely'. As a married man who went through many months of gift registering, dinner menus, flower choices, seating arrangements, "Whatever you want is fine," is not always an acceptable answer. Also start researching china patterns, silverware, napkins, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.
