That is sooo cute! Congrats!

9/20/2011 9:18:19 PM

Anyone have a synthetic diamond?

9/20/2011 9:20:04 PM

thank you all! and yes, bmel, he did!


and I'm so tickled I think I'll repost!







[Edited on September 20, 2011 at 9:23 PM. Reason : ]

9/20/2011 9:22:46 PM

Congrats!!!!

9/20/2011 10:08:00 PM

That ring would be good for my woman.

9/28/2011 5:57:04 PM

go see sylvia at diamonds direct! she will hook you up!

9/28/2011 10:56:26 PM

i also used diamonds direct. idk enough about those damn rocks to know if i got fucked or not, but she liked it and i didn't feel like i was getting raped too hard so whatever.

9/28/2011 11:31:27 PM

he says mine appraised for over 2k what he paid for it!


he was very happy

9/29/2011 7:24:41 AM

V apparently I got the story wrong

[Edited on September 29, 2011 at 8:45 AM. Reason : ]

9/29/2011 8:16:36 AM

Who did? The diamond store doesn't have anything to do with the insurance, assuming you just use whoever you have homeowners/auto/etc through.

9/29/2011 8:30:34 AM

I dunno, whoever appraised it? We had to get an outsde appraisal to put it on homeowner.


All I know is that diamonds direct had excellent customer service and apparently gave him great deal.

9/29/2011 3:21:45 PM

Quote :

"he says mine appraised for over 2k what he paid for it!"

everyone i've ever talked to had a higher insurance appraisal than purchase price.

pretty much a standard from what i can tell.

9/29/2011 3:48:22 PM

ah, I see. Oh well. Still awesome, and still had a great experience with DD.

9/29/2011 3:56:41 PM

congrats though

9/29/2011 4:02:41 PM

Quote :

"go see sylvia at diamonds direct! she will hook you up!"

Lisa will too! can't reveal details yet as my s/o might stumble upon this thread

9/29/2011 4:11:22 PM

2^thank you!

1^woo! congratulations!

9/29/2011 4:15:03 PM

who's the best and most reputable jeweler around Raleigh? Need a new band/setting and for the gems to be cleaned on a highly valuable ring.

9/29/2011 4:16:43 PM

my bf was reading me this article this morning

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/diamond-prices-latest-frontier-in-industry-battle-2011-09-30?dist=beforebell

WORDS but if you're interested in this stuff it is a neat read

Quote :

"TEL AVIV (MarketWatch) — Diamonds, coveted by millions of people around the world, undertake a convoluted journey from the earth’s interior to a prized consumer object capable of holding deep emotional meaning. For many, the diamond industry is synonymous with the enormous influence that the De Beers family of companies traditionally exercised over the entire market. The mining firm founded by Cecil John Rhodes still does — through its London-based Diamond Trading Company unit — sort, value and sell the lion’s share of the world’s rough diamonds in terms of value. The other thing that often comes to mind is the moral Pandora’s box opened up by blood or conflict diamonds. Less well-known is that, for an industry that employs over 10 million people around the world and generates jewelry revenues in excess of $70 billion year after year, the pricing of polished diamonds, the key part of the diamond pipeline that directly affects the prices of our rings, earrings and watches, is a contested practice going through a period of reexamination. Since the late 1970s, one man, Martin Rapaport, and his firm, The Rapaport Group, has largely been responsible for setting the prices of the polished diamonds that thousands of manufacturers, dealers, wholesalers and eventually retailers around the world rely on to conduct their transactions, and to make sure they get a fair price. Now, there are moves afoot to break that dominance, partly as a result of an unwritten desire to democratize what has been a far from transparent enterprise, but also as the case is increasingly made — most forcefully, it’s worth noting, by Rapaport himself — to treat diamonds just like any other successfully traded commodity, such as oil or gold. Throughout August and September, for example, Rapaport, in his widely-read Rapaport Price List, the industry’s standard bearer and chief pricing tool, cut the prices of polished diamonds, citing increased economic uncertainty and Indian suppliers that faced tighter liquidity conditions, while some traders, based on their own observations of the market, could not detect significant price pressures. People want to know why polished diamond prices are going up and down and Martin Rapaport can’t really provide a satisfactory answer to that question, said one industry participant, who did not want to be identified for fear of potential legal reprisals or damage either to his own or his company’s reputation. Rapaport is a divisive though still hugely popular figure in the diamond business. He transformed the industry several decades ago; first, when he introduced, through his price sheet, a degree of price transparency amid a commodities boom; later, by being an early backer of the Kimberly Process, a certification program whereby diamonds that are linked to war zones or originate in areas where there are ongoing human rights abuses are prevented from entering the diamond supply chain. More recently, Rapaport has said the Kimberley Process does not go far enough. It doesn’t help that diamonds are nothing if not complicated. By the time they are ready to be traded, diamonds have travelled through several distinct phases and time zones. They’ve been explored for and mined in far-flung places like Botswana and Namibia; sorted, valued and certified into “rough” categories; drilled, cut and polished in Tel Aviv or Mumbai; and traded in Antwerp or Johannesburg. Jewelry manufacture then awaits. Finally the consumer, raised on the De Beers marketing mantra that diamonds are forever, digs in. In an interview in London earlier this month, Rapaport said: “Diamonds are like a ping-pong ball on the financial ocean. There is a certain amount of luxury demand for them, as you have for gold, but the challenge, and why they are so confusing and very much not like gold,” mostly reflects the lack of standardization in terms of quality. Yet some industry insiders — confusingly, Rapaport himself, at times — say that the problem with diamond pricing at the polished level is not due to the lack of an orderly, collectivized notion of objective quality. With diamonds, there are, after all, the four Cs: color, carat, clarity and cut. Characteristics that allow organizations such as the Gemological Institute of America to independently certify and endorse a stone’s distinguishing and value-adding traits. Rather, some say, the problem lies distinctly with Rapaport. In particular, his highly influential Rapaport Price List. The Rapaport Group’s website, Diamonds.net, describes this price sheet as “the international standard used by dealers to establish diamond prices in all the major markets.” Although the sheet has now spider-webbed into several different and seemingly overlapping print and online formats. The Rapaport Group’s interests today include, for example — in addition to the Rapaport Price List — The Rapaport Magazine and RapNet, an online diamond trading network. And a diamond investment fund open to institutional investors, and targeting a $100 million kitty, is also said to be in the works. In London, Rapaport said that neither he, nor his company, own any diamonds and that his price list merely reflects The Rapaport’s Group’s opinion. He also said that he does not set the prices for diamonds, but simply reports on them. “It should come as no surprise to anyone in the industry if, for example, over the last 6-8 weeks diamond prices have declined,” he said, in early September. “You’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind not to see prices coming down when the S&P 500 and other financial indexes around the world are also moving up and down.” Still, what is less clear for some in the business, is if Rapaport’s pricing methodology is predicated on anything beyond his own nous, studied sense of the market and sheer longevity — he has, he said, been providing price indications for over 30 years. At best, one industry observer who did not wish to be identified said, the Rapaport Price List has failed to move with the times. While at worst, another person familiar with the matter said, the price list amounts to deception. The person familiar with the matter said that true market prices for diamonds are constantly changing and that The Rapaport List list will occasionally show across the board price increases or decreases that don’t accurately reflect what is happening in the observable market. And that this can create unfair opportunities for retailers to capitalize on the differences between the published prices they show to their customers while trying to entice a sale, and the actual price offerings of wholesalers. The person familiar with the matter said that Rapaport’s price list is sent to thousands of retailers and that from a consumer perspective, it’s terrible. The Truth About Diamonds website has written that The Rapaport Price List is only the beginning stage of pricing a diamond and that, to an extent, figuring out accurate prices for diamonds is about figuring out the discount or premium to Rapaport’s published prices. As a consumer, that’s not something that is easily undertaken. IDEX, an online diamond trading platform and source of industry news and analysis that competes directly with The Rapaport Group’s various offerings, and which is based in Israel, is one company that is pushing an alternative pricing model. In mid-September, it launched the IDEX Diamond Price Report. The IDEX price report is a shot across the bow of the pricing situation in its current form. “Responding to growing calls from within the global diamond industry, the IDEX Diamond Price Report is an analysis of asking prices for higher-quality diamonds in the international wholesale markets,” IDEX said in its September press release. This price sheet, IDEX said, “will provide the global polished diamond industry with a reliable, transparent and unbiased pricing report that is updated based on price changes in the market.” Ehud Cohen, IDEX’s co-founder, in the release, said: “It is high time the industry receives a price tool that reflects the market objectively.” The offstage implication here is that the Rapaport Price List is not based on prices changes in the market — on actual transactions between buyers and sellers — but on the changes Rapaport imposes on the market. If Rapaport wants to cut prices, he cuts prices. If he wants to raise them, he raises them. The background economic picture is simply his justification. Another industry analyst, who also did not wish to be identified, said that if Rapaport says polished prices are expected to go down, then he will put them down. He will not go against his own predictions, the analyst said. Rapaport’s price list does not reflect the market, the analyst said, it sets the market. Which is not illegal, but it means he has the morally questionable ability to turn a positive market into a negative one, the analyst said. .....more in the link "

9/30/2011 3:44:25 PM

My dad gave this ring to my mom for one of their anniversaries many years ago. It had a broken band and some of the filigree scroll work was damaged. We got it fixed and now it's my engagement ring.

9/30/2011 5:04:34 PM

Any recommendations for where to get a ring appraised? I need to get my fiance's ring insured but I would imagine I need an appraisal first

10/2/2011 7:46:57 PM

^I'd like to know this as well.

10/3/2011 8:01:06 AM

my boyfriend proposed last night!

10/6/2011 8:11:37 AM

congrats!

10/6/2011 8:12:47 AM

10/6/2011 12:53:49 PM

Is that a yellow diamond?

10/6/2011 1:19:46 PM

no it's a white diamond - i think it's the light from where we took it.

10/6/2011 1:21:47 PM

So pretty!!! Congrats!!

10/6/2011 2:50:50 PM

^^We need details!!

10/6/2011 3:13:49 PM

it's beautiful! congratulations!

10/6/2011 3:49:05 PM

gorgeous! congrats

10/6/2011 6:01:06 PM

I wish I could afford one of these things. I love my gf

10/6/2011 9:25:32 PM

^Diamonds direct, dude.

10/6/2011 9:49:23 PM

I want to go to check it out. I just hate how jewelry store employees are so annoying. it's like a car dealership but harder to avoid them.

10/6/2011 9:59:54 PM

I'm still trying to get my vision back after being blinded by Cassie's ring...

10/6/2011 10:00:45 PM

Quote :

"^Diamonds direct, dude."

Seriously, THIS.

[Edited on October 6, 2011 at 10:36 PM. Reason : Sylvia was my person, too!]

10/6/2011 10:35:44 PM

sylvia rocks my socks off!

10/6/2011 10:54:45 PM

^^^ lolz.

My fiancé (okay that's weird) got my ring at Baileys because the designer I found is only carried there in this area. The designer is MaeVona and my ring is the Eorsa style.

http://www.maevona.com/bridal/3/Eorsa
(this setting is without the diamonds on the side - mine had some small diamonds on the side and under the stone)

I love it and have received a lot of compliments on it.

We went out for a nice dinner to the place we went out on our second date. My boyfriend said he wanted to propose there but the box wouldn't fit in his jeans without it being obvious so he proposed when we got home.

[Edited on October 7, 2011 at 12:10 AM. Reason : Edit]

10/7/2011 12:09:23 AM

this has probably been asked before, but:

wtf is up with that Diamonds Direct? I keep hearing ads for that, but is it legit?

10/7/2011 12:40:59 AM

^Yes. Just go check it out. The pricing system is cut and dry. They show you how they price their diamonds so you know how much you're going to pay before walking out.

10/7/2011 12:51:34 AM

Quote :

"They show you how they price their diamonds so you know how much you're going to pay before walking out."

The idea that this is not normal kind of scares me.

10/7/2011 12:54:34 AM

^ You could also try Bailey's.. great people

10/7/2011 1:22:53 AM

we loved Baileys! Kitty was our sales lady and i met her the first time we went in to look at rings. she is extremely knowledgeable and friendly.

you could also talk to QTPie. i believe she works for Finks in the area and has helped out a lot of twwers in the past. Also G.O.D is a jewelry designer and you can talk with her as well.

10/7/2011 9:44:58 AM

Any recommendations for where to get a ring appraised? I need to get my fiance's ring insured but I would imagine I need an appraisal first

10/12/2011 8:31:48 PM

baileys

10/12/2011 8:51:43 PM

Anyone have or seen in person the MiaDonna diamonds? My gf and I have talked about rings and such, and even though I'd be the one to go buy a real diamond she wants a MiaDonna diamond. She said she has a job (large animal vet) that she'd be scared of wearing a $5000 ring on her finger the entire day and would rather me put that money towards a house or vacation.

I'm not totally sold as I'd rather not buy a simulated diamond for an engagement ring, but I am curious enough to ask if anyone has seen one in person. The stones from MiaDonna have great reviews online and may people say they like the looks of these stones more than a real diamond, just for lower cost (for a 1.25ct is like $500 for the stone).

Any opinions? Like I said I'm not totally sold on the stone yet, but am curious enough to ask.

10/18/2011 12:00:25 PM

My girlfriend is moving in with me after the holidays. But her parents aren't keen on the idea of her living with a man unless that are at least engaged. She is going to move in anyway, so I plan on proposing next month in the Bahamas beforehand. I am pretty sure she will say yes.

Anyway, In the past, my mom has offered to give me one of her old wedding rings to give her as an engagement ring, but I don't know it I like the idea of a used ring and I've never ran it past my gf to see what she thought. I know right away that it isn't the style she would prefer, but I wouldn't mind not spending $20k on a new ring.

What stories do you all have? Ladies, did you pick your own ring out? Or was it a surprise? What would you do if you got a ring that wasn't to your tastes? Did you pay all cash upfront for it? How much can you barter?

11/2/2011 1:27:51 PM

Quote :

"my mom has offered to give me one of her old wedding rings to give her as an engagement ring"

Are these rings from when she got divorced? That's just kind of weird imo. You could always use the stone from her ring and get it in a setting your girlfriend would prefer.

11/2/2011 1:36:25 PM

My dad buys her a new ring ever ten years.

11/2/2011 1:40:26 PM

Baller Dad!

haha but no then I think that would be fine, use the stone get a new setting though.

11/2/2011 2:31:08 PM

If you know her well enough to propose you should be able to pick out the ring. Some girls are control freaks and will tell the guy exactly what they want, just depends on the girl. I would definitely recommend getting the stone out of your mom's older rings and getting it reset based on what she likes.

11/2/2011 2:55:28 PM