This is actually the first time I've gotten on to read all of the responses, and this is great. I've had about 4 PMs and all this info and it's very very helpful. I'm going to do a bit of research myself over the next few days and then put some more thoughts out in the thread.

2/5/2007 7:38:41 PM

tell me about Canadian diamonds.

2/5/2007 11:49:15 PM

they are from canada

2/6/2007 12:34:30 AM

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Tiffany's:
Great treat for your girl if you have the money.... by that I mean, more money than what you know what to do with.

we went and tried on a one carat in the classic tiffany setting, it was about 18000!!!

You can get something just as nice for about 10k

But if you do have the money, it's a great piece that you can give to your daughter someday...

Most women don't wear it forever and ever. It gets old after a while...

2/6/2007 6:15:16 PM

So the markup on Tiffany's is only +80%?

I had always figured conversations between girls would go like "oh i love your ring!" "thanks, it's from Tiffany's" (*bonus points for her fiancé).

2/6/2007 6:40:09 PM

my woman loves her ring



i need to get a camera that focuses better

Quote :

"it's a great piece that you can give to your daughter someday..."

or grand-daughter

2/6/2007 6:56:36 PM

Or you can just keep it...nobody's getting my jewelry unless they pry it off my cold, dead body.

2/6/2007 8:04:47 PM

^that's pretty much why we said grand-daughter and not daughter. this is her ring & will be passed on when we're gone.

2/6/2007 8:16:47 PM

^ Pretty ring! Where did you get it, if you don't mind me asking?

2/6/2007 9:48:49 PM

thanks
not at all
i got it at fink's

2/6/2007 10:17:40 PM

^ That's my man!

Fabulous Norman Silverman piece, by the way.

2/6/2007 11:03:06 PM

2/6/2007 11:05:37 PM

so just outta curiosity, how do you guys know what kinda ring to get your lady? does one in the couple drag the other into the diamond store in the mall one day, or what?

2/6/2007 11:18:14 PM

couples have conversations - WOAH new concept

2/6/2007 11:19:47 PM

we had talked about it, but he was still unsure, so we went into the store one day to really look

2/6/2007 11:37:59 PM

be sure not to limit yourself to a diamond. My wife made it clear she did not want a diamond and that her favorite stone was a saphaire. She wanted something simple, but elegant.

I got this from Jolly's Jewlers (then in Cameron Village, now at North Point, i think), and she was extremely happy with it. It's much more "her" than any big diamond rock. If you're lucky, one will just jump out at you. I went to a couple places before Jolly's and didn't see anything that really struck me. Then I saw this one at Jolly's and was really captivated by it. I told them I was interested, kept shopping around, then went back to Jolly's a week later, and I knew I had to have this one because nothing else was close to it.



[Edited on February 6, 2007 at 11:49 PM. Reason : .]

2/6/2007 11:48:23 PM

^^^i'm single and haven't ever been near marriage before - it was an honest question, douche.

i was wondering who usually brings it up - if a guy says "hey, let's check out the jewelry store" that's pretty obvious that he's looking for ideas, yes?

[Edited on February 7, 2007 at 1:03 AM. Reason : .]

2/7/2007 1:03:10 AM

i'd say that usually by that point, you both know that's where you're headed. just because you go to look doesn't mean that you're going to necessarily be buying anything in the immediate future

2/7/2007 1:12:57 AM

my only thing is I want something unique and no yellow gold...I am just not a fan of yellow gold...not trying to offend anyone Anyone that knows me knows those two things so I think it would be relatively easy to pick out a ring for me

2/7/2007 1:13:47 AM

My husband asked me to marry him...and then we looked at rings. He wanted to get something I actually liked, and we had actually never talked about the ring thing before (his proposal was literally the absolute last thing I ever thought would happen). I'm really glad that he didn't buy the ring first.

2/7/2007 8:46:46 AM

i really like your ring, agentlion.

i think saphires and diamonds look great together.

[Edited on February 7, 2007 at 8:56 AM. Reason : d]

2/7/2007 8:56:07 AM

Now that I've proposed, I'll also throw in a recommendation for Blue Nile. The purchasing experience was flawless, I even got 10% of the band for using my VISA (and reference code VISAW17), and it shipped quickly and as advertised. There were no problems with the ring and she loved it.

I went with a round brilliant, .61ct, Blue Nile signature ideal cut, VS1 clarity, I color stone on the comfort fit platinum band. I couldn't justify getting anything too much bigger because the stone diameter for the .61 and a .82 carat was 5.5mm and 5.9mm respectively, which didn't justify paying nearly twice as much. I went with the Blue Nile signature ideal cut because I set cut as the priority (as many have established in this thread) and it wasn't really priced much higher than the standard ideal cut. I'm glad I went with the I color, because it drops the price and I couldn't tell a damn difference when I got it. I would have gone with a VS2 or possibly SI1 clarity, but this particular diamond was the best value available around my budget.

If anyone wants me to "Refer a Friend" http://www.bluenile.com/referral_rules.asp for a discount, send me an email at rstruzik@gmail.com.

3/14/2007 3:11:34 PM

Quote :

"does one in the couple drag the other into the diamond store in the mall one day, or what?"

Pretty much.

3/14/2007 3:14:59 PM

that's gorgeous, and a gorgeous pic of the hand, if you took it.

how much was the ring, btw?

3/14/2007 3:15:35 PM

Did you pick out the ring or did she?

That ring is absolutely beautiful!

3/14/2007 3:20:06 PM

^^ The diamond was $1,909 and the band was $450 (or $500 - 10%)

^ I picked it out myself, I'm glad it fits. Actually, no one knew about it because I didn't want the secret to leak. It was pretty stressful trying not to tell anyone since I was so excited.

3/14/2007 3:24:05 PM

i love hearing these ring salesmen trying to pitch their crap. i went to jared's like 2 months ago and the guy was using all kinds of words like GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, keywords like that they clearly would never use in a normal conversation, and which sound forced to me, a guy... but that tell the girl that she really wants the 2 carat diamond, not the .75 carat one that is actually an option. all the while, i'm just sitting there thinking about how much of a douchebag he is for planting this crap in my girl's head

3/14/2007 3:38:09 PM

Haydon & Co.

Or at least anything other than Jared's.

3/14/2007 4:01:52 PM

I heard that blue nile imprinted their name on some of the diamonds and it affected the value, is that true from those of you who use blue nile?

3/14/2007 5:09:36 PM

Quote :

"i heard...."

maybe try looking on their website

they imprint a serial # and the blue nile logo on their signature cut stones - it will not change the value - if anything it helps reassure that the stone is the same after you have a jeweler do anything to the ring

3/14/2007 5:13:32 PM

Question


Say you were getting a 3 stone ring similar to the one sober46an3 posted except.... its a princess cut, and all three stones are diamonds....

what ratio should the size of the small ones be to the large one? If the main stone was 1 ct, what would the other ones be? 0.5 ct? 0.25 ct?

3/14/2007 6:34:06 PM

you have to look at the ratio of the diameters, not the weight.

i guess the side ones should be half the diameter of the main one for it to look good. for that, you would probably have to go to 0.25 ct.

3/14/2007 6:36:43 PM

Can anyone recommend a gem retailer? We have the setting, but are having trouble finding the right ruby to go in it. Or even just a jeweler they really liked.

3/14/2007 7:46:02 PM

bttt

12/31/2007 8:24:13 PM

thanks for the bump, im in the market now and have a few questions ill put up this week (gonna get back to enjoying new years for now )

1/1/2008 1:21:08 AM

If I ever get married, I'd love to have this ring except with pink stones:

1/1/2008 1:43:08 AM

my girl wants a gold band much to my surprise (i personally like the white gold but its her band so i dont mind) after talking about rings recently

[Edited on January 1, 2008 at 2:15 AM. Reason : ]

1/1/2008 2:10:01 AM

^ i like white gold myself... seems to be a bigger trend lately too, but i've bout always favored since i first saw white gold

what my brother just gave his woman last saturday:



tacori, beautiful ring


[Edited on January 1, 2008 at 2:13 AM. Reason : ]

1/1/2008 2:12:09 AM

bought mine at Jared... princess cut diamond with a white gold band.
the guy there was really cool and helpful. He didn't try to push anything and let me mull things over for a good while before deciding on which one i wanted... the white gold band with a .75 princess cut was about $3,000. I told him my price range and he didn't go above it with the diamonds he showed me. I was extremely satisfied.
I would recommend him, but I can't remember his name.

1/1/2008 11:03:48 AM

both nice rings

i think ^ is more like what my GF is looking for just based on what we've kind of looked at together so far.

ive definitely been surprised at the price of rings (higher than what i expected) but i had no previous knowledge in the area previously.

1/1/2008 1:17:05 PM

yeh, i still don't have a feel for how much i should be spending. i don't know what is common or normal or whatever.

1/1/2008 2:46:44 PM

Woohoo! This is mine.





All the rings in this thread are really pretty.

1/1/2008 5:23:34 PM

nice one hope ya doin good it's been a while

1/1/2008 8:07:47 PM

Thats mine, it came from Carlyle and Co. The prettiest ring I've seen lately was one of the doctor's at my office, she had a Tacori one too. The problem she is having with it is that nobody will size it for her because its a Tacori, so she has to send it back to California or something like that. Her's looked very similar to this one:



[Edited on January 1, 2008 at 9:31 PM. Reason : .]

1/1/2008 9:26:37 PM

My engagement ring. The 3 stones came out of a ring that my grandfather gave my grandmother one Christmas. I insisted on those diamonds because of their sentimental value instead of something larger. Not to mention, I have really tiny carny hands that are even more so now that I've lost so much weight. I love my ring and all we paid for was the setting.

1/1/2008 9:41:30 PM

Quote :

"Whiteflash is a very good online retailer"

glad someone brought them up in here. my GF really loves a few rings from there. Anyone actually used them on here before?

1/2/2008 8:13:47 AM

Thats the closest pic I can find to my girls cept hers has oval center stones. I think it was 1.75 karats.

1/2/2008 10:42:52 AM

don't know if that picture will show up but this is mine! It's a bridal set from zales and i absolutely love it!

1/2/2008 12:46:10 PM

too many great rings in this thread! im gettin all antsy now

1/2/2008 12:50:14 PM

for our ring, we took my fiancee's grandma's ring (from the 1920's) and had a jeweler make a custom modern version of it. had to make it slimmer to wear a band with it and took the size down. we think it turned out great.

new ring on left, old on right:

1/2/2008 1:37:35 PM