Completely confused about what to get for e. ring -not sure where to place this

[ImpressingMyPrincess]

Ok, so I get this idea to go ring shopping with my soon-to-be fiancee, easy enough right? Now mind you, I have never looked at diamonds this closely before nor even pricing. To make things more complicated, we are 5 hours apart currently, but I digress. She wants a white gold single solitaire with no larger than a 3/8 or 1/2 karat round diamond, very simple and elegant, yet she is not sure about a twist in the mounting. Ok, sure, fine. I''m like how many choices could I have? More than I could ever dream. Every store that I visit is perfectly charming and has the manager deal with me, and they all say they want nothing more than to me to be happy. Of course the first ring that made her smile and be in awe was the Hearts on Fire, and I was thinking okay I can pay a tiny bit more for the quality and get the same sparkle as that 1 step up....but to tell you the truth I can''t tell much difference in the rings. On one hand I can get a 3/8 karat for 1700 with band HoF or 1/2 karat Canadia from Ashcroft near me. Does .1 karat difference really that noticeable? Should I consider online? My roommate told me he only paid 1500 for a decent ring and that if I go over 2000 I would have spent too much. I have 11 months before I even propose to her, but I am trying to start the budgeting so that I won''t have to take a loan. Whatever I get I want to be great quality that makes her know how much I truly care for her. I have heard that a good rule of thumb is 1 months salary, is that still even viable today? I found this forum as I was trying to gain information before I cause about 6 different stores to work for my business...I am a very loyal person and want to eliminate it to just one or two and not waste people''s time. If this were a computer or even a car, I swear this process would be so much easier! Thanks to all that respond with advice and suggestions.

 

[mimzy]

welcome!

i know you might feel like you are overwhelmed, but believe me, you are getting off easy! a simple white gold solitaire under .55 - you are probably the envy of most of the guys on this forum looking for erings! consider yourself lucky


as for the cost of the ring, ignore your friend and ignore the rule. you should spend as much as you are comfortable spending - so if that is more or less than one month''s salary, it doesn''t matter. don''t listen to your friend - i have a friend who''s now husband got her a really cheap ring and advised his friend to do also. both girls were slightly put off, and their bragging about what a deal they got (they didn''t) and how easy it was to pick it out wasn''t exactly a testament of their love for their girls. so if your budget can comfortably exceed 2k, don''t feel silly for spending it.

with that said, you can definatly get your girl the ring of her dreams for under 2k. and YES, consider buying online. you can find perfectly cut stones through wonderful, considerate vendors that also want to make you happy . the hearts on fire diamond is just a really really well cut stone, but (most would say) isn''t worth the markup for the name (same goes with most branded diamonds). Other stones can sparkle just as much!

good luck

 

[lyra]

You can *definitely* do well online. You say you don't have to rush into it. You may even be able to save up a little more in the meantime. Start reading the forums and tutorials here (check out the buttons at the top of the page), visit the vendor sites, and start asking some specific questions. Good luck!

 

[angeline]

HoF made her smile because in general they are REALLY well cut. But that''s all. You can find diamonds cut as well if not better online. Seriously. I bought HOF before I found PS and I could kick myself now because I could have gotten just as beautiful a diamond but much BIGGER without the ''name''.

You will need to do your homework though. If you don''t want to spend the time learning then sure HoF is a great stone to buy. Think of it as paying for the time you would have spent on PS absorbing all the knowledge to enable you to buy at least as good a stone but about 40% bigger. (p.s. take my estimates with a grain of salt, they were true numbers for my situation. And please HoF owners don''t hate me, I do think the stones are beautiful, but if you want the most bang for buck....... )

 

[ImpressingMyPrincess]

Thank you all very much for the warm welcome and reassurance...like I said, I have plenty of time to try and figure this stuff out so I''m all for doing as much research as necessary. Let''s start with 3/8 versus 1/2..I saw the jeweler show the two of them to me and I couldn''t tell that much of a difference...does the price difference justify the small increase in size of diamond, or am I better off going with the 3/8? At first I was concerned that 3/8 was hardly noticeable, until I saw it mounted...

 

[lyra]

Okay, one step at a time. Go for the half carat (.50) size.

Most women here (especially here on PS!) will agree that they would sacrifice colour and clarity for size. The most important thing you are going to keep in mind is that you want the best CUT you can possibly get. The better the cut, the more "sparkly", and that is what allows you to go for a lower colour and clarity, in order to fit your end budget. Cut is most important in any size stone. There are other factors, but this is where you are going to start. Okay with that?

 

[fleur-de-lis]

Date: 8/28/2007 1:07:55 PM
Author: mimzy

as for the cost of the ring, ignore your friend and ignore the rule. you should spend as much as you are comfortable spending - so if that is more or less than one month''s salary, it doesn''t matter. don''t listen to your friend - i have a friend who''s now husband got her a really cheap ring and advised his friend to do also. both girls were slightly put off, and their bragging about what a deal they got (they didn''t) and how easy it was to pick it out wasn''t exactly a testament of their love for their girls. so if your budget can comfortably exceed 2k, don''t feel silly for spending it.

with that said, you can definatly get your girl the ring of her dreams for under 2k. and YES, consider buying online. you can find perfectly cut stones through wonderful, considerate vendors that also want to make you happy . the hearts on fire diamond is just a really really well cut stone, but (most would say) isn''t worth the markup for the name (same goes with most branded diamonds). Other stones can sparkle just as much!

good luck

Well said.

Impressingmyprincess, you have plenty of time to look around, read, and learn. If you haven''t done so yet, take a quick look at the box near the top of the page marked "Pricescope your diamond", where you can enter data and see a slew of stones.

Doing so might help with the pricing element; for instance, putting in your inputs of a round diamond in the 1800-2000 dollar range, and looking for "ideal" cut (since you mentioned liking the precision of H&A) revealed quite a few options. Just to give you one result, picking the traditional sweet spot of G/VS2, a search revealed the following ideal cut on BlueNile for a little over $1800... but it''s over .6 carats instead of the .375 you had seen in the stores!: http://www.bluenile.com/diamonds_details.asp?pid=LD01148667