affguy
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2011
- Messages
- 119
Looking for some advice on finding the perfect engagement ring, and in exchange for your expertise, I'll try to be more amusing than annoying. 
I was already planning on popping the question to my girlfriend of 5 years, and then she started “applying pressure” (mostly joking) when all of the girls at her work got engaged, like literally 7 of them are currently engaged. I admitted that the thought is at least on my mind, and since the cat is mostly out of the bag, I might as well feel out her preferences on rings. So far we've had several extended discusions and have hit up a couple mall stores just to put something tangible to the four C’s. I’ve got a little time (several weeks) before I could possibly pull the trigger, and awhile (several months) before I absolutely must in order to fit into my proposal schedule. Since she has to wear the ring, it’s important that she love it, but since I have to pay for it, I figure I should at least like it. So what we’ve learned thus far…
• Cut: Must be square-ish or cut-corner square. Princess, radiant, lucida, flanders etc. Many radiants seem to be rectangular, we want length and width to be similar enough to appear square. Searching for that seems to be a manual process, checking dimensions one by one. She doesn’t like emerald or asscher’s cuts, “too geometric”
• Bonus points from both of us for an internal pattern along the lines of hearts & arrows…not required, but certainly pretty.
• You know how some princess cuts seem to have a *lot* of little white sparkles (makes me think of Marilyn Monroe flash) whereas others seem to have fewer, but deeper/stronger and more colorful sparkles? Either seems to work for her, but the latter is preferred by me. The non-princess squares seem more attractive for this reason, but I did see a couple princesses that worked too.
• Size: Hmm…probably somewhere in the 0.9-1.1 range, 0.75 and 1.25 are probably the outside limits with branded and second-hand possibilities on the table. On a quality vs size debate, I’m further in the quality camp, but she’s at least on that side of the fence. Facing up bigger is more important to her, given the number of rings currently surrounding her and the assumption that girls truly dress/accessorize for each other, so I’m guessing VS1-2 and G-H would be good, with SI1 and I at a stretch and the tiniest chance at an underpriced F VVS2.
• Setting: X-prong, or very similar, white gold is fine, platinum is nice too.
• Budget: 5k at a maximum, including setting. Preferred would be 3-4k.
I’ve found a few stones on WF and BG that seemed to be along these lines, square-ish radiants without mention of any patterns, and it’s tough to guess what kind of color/sparkle one would get off these. Do the above criteria sound workable or am I in la-la land for my budget? Where would you look for some of the more “exotic” cut corners, e.g. flanders, H&A, lucida, etc. if you were hoping to find them in a blue-collar price range?
I was already planning on popping the question to my girlfriend of 5 years, and then she started “applying pressure” (mostly joking) when all of the girls at her work got engaged, like literally 7 of them are currently engaged. I admitted that the thought is at least on my mind, and since the cat is mostly out of the bag, I might as well feel out her preferences on rings. So far we've had several extended discusions and have hit up a couple mall stores just to put something tangible to the four C’s. I’ve got a little time (several weeks) before I could possibly pull the trigger, and awhile (several months) before I absolutely must in order to fit into my proposal schedule. Since she has to wear the ring, it’s important that she love it, but since I have to pay for it, I figure I should at least like it. So what we’ve learned thus far…
• Cut: Must be square-ish or cut-corner square. Princess, radiant, lucida, flanders etc. Many radiants seem to be rectangular, we want length and width to be similar enough to appear square. Searching for that seems to be a manual process, checking dimensions one by one. She doesn’t like emerald or asscher’s cuts, “too geometric”
• Bonus points from both of us for an internal pattern along the lines of hearts & arrows…not required, but certainly pretty.
• You know how some princess cuts seem to have a *lot* of little white sparkles (makes me think of Marilyn Monroe flash) whereas others seem to have fewer, but deeper/stronger and more colorful sparkles? Either seems to work for her, but the latter is preferred by me. The non-princess squares seem more attractive for this reason, but I did see a couple princesses that worked too.
• Size: Hmm…probably somewhere in the 0.9-1.1 range, 0.75 and 1.25 are probably the outside limits with branded and second-hand possibilities on the table. On a quality vs size debate, I’m further in the quality camp, but she’s at least on that side of the fence. Facing up bigger is more important to her, given the number of rings currently surrounding her and the assumption that girls truly dress/accessorize for each other, so I’m guessing VS1-2 and G-H would be good, with SI1 and I at a stretch and the tiniest chance at an underpriced F VVS2.
• Setting: X-prong, or very similar, white gold is fine, platinum is nice too.
• Budget: 5k at a maximum, including setting. Preferred would be 3-4k.
I’ve found a few stones on WF and BG that seemed to be along these lines, square-ish radiants without mention of any patterns, and it’s tough to guess what kind of color/sparkle one would get off these. Do the above criteria sound workable or am I in la-la land for my budget? Where would you look for some of the more “exotic” cut corners, e.g. flanders, H&A, lucida, etc. if you were hoping to find them in a blue-collar price range?
Honestly, this might be the key vulnerability in my plan to buy online...I don't have the knowledge to imagine how a set of numbers on a grading sheet will sparkle on her hand. It has to be quite pretty to stand up to the company it'll be travelling with. 
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