I know many of you are recently engaged or married and would appreciate your opinions/experiences with ring shopping. My gf and I have already been to the jewelers a few times and we are having a ring custom made. We agreed on the design fairly easily, but are having a little trouble deciding on the center stone. She wants bigger and I want quality. While it would be great if I could afford both, that's not an option right now. I don't want to get her something so perfect that the diamond doesn't stand out, but I also don't want to get her a large piece of crap.

What did you guys end up with - quality or size?

If you want to give stone details, that would be great, but it's not expected.

 

quality...no question about it.
Hmm she want's bigger huh? Watch her man.

 

dont skimp on the cut - this is what will make it shimmer and shine. Then get a decent color rating and you should be fine. Take it down a couple notches in clarity to save some money and make the rock bigger.

 

The jeweler said that almost always the guy wants quality and the women want size. We already decided on a minimum color and will be getting a stone with proper proportions, but now have to adjust the clarity and size to fall within budget.

 

moe, just my but unless you plan on having people staring at the rock through a microscope , dont bother getting VSx quality if your budget doesnt allow for it. SI1, or Si2 is good enough if it means getting a bigger rock that will make your fiance happy. And to the naked eye it will shimmer and sparkle just as much as the vs's as long as the cut is very good.

 

Get her what she wants, or you will hear about it for the rest of your short marriage.

 

Probably very true.

 

every .1 carat = 1 year of marriage.

 

Then this will be the best six months of my life

If that were true, then Hollywood marriages would last so much longer.

 

in hollywood the formula changes and the decimal moves over one place.

 

Bigger and Better.

 

Cz

 

Get her what she wants. This way you won't have to get her another one later. When you think about though what is an engagement ring anyway except for the down payment for the divorce lawyer.

 

Depends on the size ... my GF was shopping in the 2-3.5 carat range ... ... if you go SI1, SI2 ... you WILL SEE imperfections with the naked eye (size magnifies flaws). It's all about compromise. I would rather she buy a 1.5 ct with a good color (let's say "G"), good cut and decent inclusions (say, "VS2") than go with a 2.2 ct with an "I" color, good cut and "SI2", if they were the same price.

But I guess all women want a giant rock to show their other GFs. I've seen my share of horrible stones among my friends but don't want to sound like a jerk to say how crappy the ring as if they bought it at a shopping mall ...

 

Derrick, i doubt you will see imperfections in a SI1 with the naked eye. Even on a really big stone you'd have to stare at the rock up close for a while, and who is going to do that? Then again there are good SI1s and bad SI1s'. It all depends on what type of inclusions and where they are. in your 1.5c example, i would go SI1 and get an ever better cut

 

Here is tidbit---For every 1 million diamonds they cut, they cut one perfect carat= 1.00. Most Advertised 1 cararts are .99 or 1.01. I found a very nice quality 1.00 carat. My wife told me the above tidbit. She thinks I did it on purpose and loves it.

I told her she was one in a million.

 

 

Meh...Id get her whatever she wants. Im not the one whose gonna be wearing it.

 

You guys all bring up good points. I know she is the one who's going to be wearing it, but it also reflects on me. I guess as long as she is happy with it, I shouldn't care too much.

 

i chose quality, i was 23 and got a very high quality stone. I could have gotten a bigger stone but her rock blings like a rappers teeth

 

 

Quality of a ring is very important. If you are going to do it, do it right. Dont put a cloudy, yellow/greenish stone on your gilrs hand. It will look fake and once someone says something she hate the ring. A jewler friend of mine said that he gets good results for people when they give him their budget. Lets say youhave 10 grand to spend. he sees whats the biggest size rock for 10 grand, and he also sees whats the best clarity and colol for 10 grand. Then he works his way doen from there, until you get a ring that is a decent size and decent quality to match your budget. Also dont forget the cut. if you are going to get a larger ring with ok quality, get a cut that doesnt have mutch top flat surface. If you are going for clarity, but want a ring that has the illusion of a bigger rock, go with something like an ascher cut.

 

I would look for something in the middle.

I think its ridiculous if you're just going for size when the quality is shit. Pretty embarrassing if anyone asks you about the quality...

 

Thanks for the additional input. We are definitely not getting crap, but still not as good as I would prefer. I wanted to go SI1 or better, but she is happy with SI2. The color is going to be "near colorless" or better. The thing is, when you are at SI2, going up in color doesn't kill the cost as much as it does when you're at SI1. Also, if we can get a stone where the major inclusion(s) is(are) near the edges, it's very possible to hide them with the prongs.

TO make us both happy, I might just have to raise the budget a little

 

In terms of quality vs Quantity(size), it's definitely quality. Take your time and shop for the right ring, don't rush into things especially when it comes to diamond rings.
A diamond is forever

 

buy cubic zirconium, most women can't tell the difference. Then take the $4500 you saved and buy something nice for yourself but make sure it isn't flammable, just in case she DOES find out.

 

G color is not a good color really and I color is horrendous to anyone who knows decent color stones...DEF is the ONLY way to go here, even if that means a 1 carat ring vs. the 2 - 3.5 like the bish wants...and if you have a woman bishing about how big the stone is, she's not worth keeping anyway...if she REALLY loved you, she'll take whatever you give her, unless it's a cubic zarconium, which she will be able to tell, and you'll be in the dog house which you deserve to be at that point!!!

bottom line is quality is the way to go...i know plenty of women who's diamond rings vary greatly in size, and ALL of them are so incredibly happy b/c it's a gesture of love, not just to shut them up

 

www.bluenile.com is a great place to get an idea of how badly the mall store is ripping you off.

Nena's Jewelry in manchester, Vermont, is famous for putting the price that THEY paid for the diamond right on your receipt, and they claim to never charge more than 33% profit on their diamonds.