Hi everyone,
I''ve been lurking on this board for a few days and have learned so much in the short time I''ve been reading. Just wanted to say "thanks" and also ask for some help/pointers.
A quick background first...A short 4 1/2 months ago, my wife gave birth to our first baby (a girl). I remember reading about a "push present" (present for the wife for going through the ordeal of childbirth) and always thought it was kind of a dumb idea. Little did I know that this was much more common than I thought - heck, my dad bought my mom jewellery after me and my sisters were each born.
Things would have been probably ok with my lack of a present, but I decided to trade in my motorcycle for a new one a few weeks ago. This got my wife thinking that if I had the money to buy a new bike, that she probably should have gotten a present as well....can''t really argue with her there. Thus why I''m here on this board.
I''m in Toronto, Ontario so I stopped in at Linda Penwarden Jewellery the other day and spoke to a few of the salespeople. The style my wife seems to gravitate towards is in the attached picture from Linda''s website (maybe not the split band, but definitely the top). I''ve asked them to bring in a few sapphires - blue and some blue-greens, cushion cut (rectangular or square) to see what will look nice. She has red hair and fair skin so they suggested that blue-greens might be a good fit (they seem to be MUCH cheaper as well - at least online).
After reading thorough a bunch of posts, I got to checking some of the online dealers - Natural Sapphire Company, Jeff White, Wildfish Gems to name a few and the prices don''t seem too bad. Linda''s people haven''t brought the stones in yet, so I don''t have a comparison, but I''m expecting them to be quite a bit higher than what can be found online.
The question is, should I buy online and bring the stone in to Linda''s (knowing that they don''t prefer this route), do I do the whole thing with their store (knowing that I''ll probably pay a lot more), or do I just go somewhere else? I know from reading that Linda is highly regarded around here, but there must be others as well.
Thanks in advance.
I''ve been lurking on this board for a few days and have learned so much in the short time I''ve been reading. Just wanted to say "thanks" and also ask for some help/pointers.
A quick background first...A short 4 1/2 months ago, my wife gave birth to our first baby (a girl). I remember reading about a "push present" (present for the wife for going through the ordeal of childbirth) and always thought it was kind of a dumb idea. Little did I know that this was much more common than I thought - heck, my dad bought my mom jewellery after me and my sisters were each born.
Things would have been probably ok with my lack of a present, but I decided to trade in my motorcycle for a new one a few weeks ago. This got my wife thinking that if I had the money to buy a new bike, that she probably should have gotten a present as well....can''t really argue with her there. Thus why I''m here on this board.
I''m in Toronto, Ontario so I stopped in at Linda Penwarden Jewellery the other day and spoke to a few of the salespeople. The style my wife seems to gravitate towards is in the attached picture from Linda''s website (maybe not the split band, but definitely the top). I''ve asked them to bring in a few sapphires - blue and some blue-greens, cushion cut (rectangular or square) to see what will look nice. She has red hair and fair skin so they suggested that blue-greens might be a good fit (they seem to be MUCH cheaper as well - at least online).
After reading thorough a bunch of posts, I got to checking some of the online dealers - Natural Sapphire Company, Jeff White, Wildfish Gems to name a few and the prices don''t seem too bad. Linda''s people haven''t brought the stones in yet, so I don''t have a comparison, but I''m expecting them to be quite a bit higher than what can be found online.
The question is, should I buy online and bring the stone in to Linda''s (knowing that they don''t prefer this route), do I do the whole thing with their store (knowing that I''ll probably pay a lot more), or do I just go somewhere else? I know from reading that Linda is highly regarded around here, but there must be others as well.
Thanks in advance.
300x240.png)