do you see many women wearing big diamonds in your area,like in the shopping malls? ...

[sba771]

I am a 22 NY girl with a round brilliant 2.35 carat ring which is about average I think. I am moving to Germany and a little worried now that I will get weird looks

 

[MMMD]

I live in a NYC suburb and I see some pretty big diamonds. My 2 carat is pretty much the norm. It seems in my area that women either upgrade from their original (when I got engaged in 1986 we all had 3/4 carat pears or marquise) or they no longer wear their original diamond and have replaced it with a sizable eternity band. I also see a great deal of young women in my area with stones in the 3 to 5 carat range. My mother, sister, and I were discussing this one day and my sister felt that a lot more women have good careers now and may help pay for their engagement rings. I''m going to ask my jeweler his opinion on this subject next time I see him.

 

[jewelerman]

Hey FABCRAB,
Its great to see another Utahn on the forum!Are you in the jewelry trade?Did you get your ring here in Utah?

 

[Mediterranean]

Date: 6/2/2008 2:26:06 PM
Author: MMMD
I live in a NYC suburb and I see some pretty big diamonds.

Ha ha! I live down here in the "Sixth Borough" (AKA Miami Beach, FL) LOL!

I''m 34, my guy is 42.

This is my first ring (heck, it was my first "real" piece of jewelry, period!)

My ring has a 3.12ct. princess cut center with tapered baguettes on either side (.20ct each or so for those)

Where we live, it runs the whole spectrum. There are lots and lots of young couples just graduating from college who have .50 to .75 carat solitaires.

There are also lots and lots of retired "Noo Yawkahs" (or general northern East Coast matrons and matriarchs "of certain age") who have eye-popper-super-whoppers: I mean, like, 6+ carat rings....

Generally speaking, late-20''s, 2-income couples marrying for the first time who haven''t got any children tend to go for 1.5ct - 2.0ct centers, and halos are wildly popular with that demographic.

Then we''ve got whom I call "The Fellas" and "The Gals." Those guys are our GLBT community, and although they can''t legally marry in Florida, they tend to have some BANGERS, too! One pair of guys I know sport more masculine versions of Eva Longoria''s wedding ring as their Commitment Rings. The emerald cut diamonds on those things are huge! I have to work up the guts to ask how big, because those suckers go all the way around, too! Two girls who live in my building have matching 4ct ovals set east-west style in pink gold micropave settings. VERY pretty!!

 

[Lynnchee]

I don''t really see women wearing big diamonds at shopping malls, but at the place I work, there''s a Filipina lady that comes in every week. She wears a 4 carat emerald cut diamond on her ring. It would have been absolutely lovely if it wasn''t for this big black spot floating in the middle of it. She took it off to let me try it. So I thought it was dirty. Nope, it was a black mineral or or something the size of a pin head floating in it. I guess she was more about size than quality because after I handed it back to her and told her it was lovely, she said "don''t worry, you''ll get a big one someday". hee hee

 

[Gem Queen]

Hi, I live in Orange County and there are huge rings everywhere. I myself have a 3 ct. center stone. I wear it a lot of places. During the holiday season I do not wear my jewels and when I vacation I do not where my jewels. I was in Hollywood this weekend and did. It just depends on what I''m doing.

Date: 5/25/2008 3:42:45 PM
Author:Dancing Fire
my guess.... NYC girl''s avg E-ring is about 2.75 ct?

and couple of cities in so.Ca might avg 2.5 ct.

Date: 5/25/2008 3:42:45 PM
Author:Dancing Fire
my guess.... NYC girl''s avg E-ring is about 2.75 ct?

and couple of cities in so.Ca might avg 2.5 ct.

 

[elle_chris]

Date: 5/25/2008 3:42:45 PM
Author:Dancing Fire
my guess.... NYC girl''s avg E-ring is about 2.75 ct?

and couple of cities in so.Ca might avg 2.5 ct.

I used to think the average in NYC- but only Manhattan was around 2cts. Now i''m not so sure. I can''t exactly determine carat size on someones hand.
Their finger size, the type of setting, and cut (square, round) makes it impossible, at least for me. So i''m not even certain it''s anywhere near 2 carats.

If i take all of NYC into consideration (outer boroughs) I don''t believe it''s more than .75-1.00 for the center stone.

Very rare that you''re going to see a lady from Bensonhurt, Brooklyn or Middle Village, Queens wear a large diamond.

And uh, all 5 boroughs make up NYC so the average is nowhere near 2.75 cts.

 

[Harriet]

Date: 6/2/2008 5:53:28 PM
Author: Mediterranean
Ha ha! I live down here in the ''Sixth Borough'' (AKA Miami Beach, FL) LOL!

Good one! We live in NY but would love to have a weekend place in Miami Beach. Btw, do you know of "Mr. Miami Beach?"

 

[absolut_blonde]

I live in Alberta... I would say the average around here is 0.4 ct to just under 1 ct. I think most people would consider anything in the 1.5 ct + range quite large (if it was a solitaire).

Some of this may depend on your social circle, too, though. I''m 24 so most people I know who are married, married quite young and thus do tend to have smaller rings. Whenever I see a larger ring, it''s on someone who''s 30+.

Even so, I personally can''t recall seeing anything in the 2ct + range on anyone here, IRL. And I have been paying a lot of attention to bling since finding PS!

 

[designchica]

I live in Colorado. I''m an interior designer and most of my clients are very well off but none of them have diamonds bigger than mine which is 2ct. I guess they are spending all of their money on their homes instead of diamond upgrades!!

My mom lives in Florida in a retirement area and there are A LOT of large diamonds there.

 

[icefern]

i lived in several countries so far. my general impression is that in new zealand, most women do not upgrade, so that some rich older ladies would be wearing under 1 ct diamond engagement rings and fondly remembered how they were what their fiances could afford just after the war. it was nice to see a sense of history there. their larger diamonds would be on the right hand. 2 ct is considered ginormous. in indonesia, which was once called the dutch east indies, the european tradition of wearing their plain band on the left during engagement and move them to the right after they are married seemed to have survived. so it is very much like in germany and some other places in europe. the concept of diamond engagement rings did not exist until recently. as for carats, depends on which circle you travel in. generally 2 ct is considered substantial. in singapore, which was colonized by the british, and is now rather (if not very) americanized (like a lot of places in asia), it seems that the tradition of the diamond engagement ring is also recent, but wedding bands are worn on the left, anglo style. looks like they upgrade like crazy in singapore too. hardly anyone wear their original engagement rings. and some wear only the ugraded solitaire, chucking the plain original wedding band altogether, or add diamonds to it. generally 2 cts seems to be considered as a sign that one has "arrived" (or at least, starting to!). while in NYC, i saw that 2 ct seems to be the norm. anything larger than that were considered a bit ostentatious. but that was 6 years ago. i heard they are having size inflation over there!

just for perspective, her masjesty's own engagement ring, queen elizabeth II of england that is, from what i heard, is about 3 ct...

by the by, i don't think the lack of spending in marking an engagement is a sign of lack of commitment or intensity of emotion as mentioned somewhere in a previous post. i heard that the idea of a diamond engagement ring and the 2-3 months wage rule was constructed by the brilliant marketing strategists at de beers diamond around the 40s and 50s through the cooperation of hollywood!! seriously!

 

[UCLABelle]

In my circle of friends right now, they are about .75ct-1.5ct---all of the gals are younger professionals (25-30, most lawyers). We all live in Orange County in a small nice area near Laguna Beach.

When I am at the mall, South Coast Plaza, I see larger stones, probably about 1.5-2ct.

 

[LuckyTexan]

Date: 5/25/2008 4:15:27 PM
Author: NeverEndingUpgrade
Yes. I live in North Dallas, Texas, and most of the moms at my son''s private school live in Plano and Frisco. These ladies wear BIG diamonds. They also live in BIG houses, drive BIG SUVs and carry BIG Louis Vuitton handbags. I guess if you can afford it, do it.

I literally laughed out loud at your post!!! haha!

We live just south of Houston in Sugar Land, and I have noticed it is quite the trend in Texas to go ''big''.

My house is huge... I need help. My SUV is huge. What can I say? I''m tall. I have 2 kids... I needed the room!

I do not, however, have, nor want, a Louis Vuitton bag. I''ve yet to see them make anything that is even starting to be unique, or even slightly stylish. Plus, they are EVERYwhere... how do you even tell if the one''s you see are real?

 

[diamondfan]

Lucky, some of LV''s design are great. I think that it is personal taste but I do like a lot of them. I only buy from the boutique or department stores so I know mine is real. As for anyone else''s bag I do not really care either way...as long as they did not think they were getting real and paid for it but did not get it. Buying through legit retailers is one way to ensure you do not get ripped off.

 

[Tuckins1]

Yes!!! I grew up in and live near Birmingham, MI. It''s a very wealthy and up-scale area, and most of the women around there have pretty large rings! (Like the kind that blind you all the way on the other side of Nieman Marcus!) My poor little .70ct just can''t compete with those monsters... But I love her anyways!!

 

[Lauren8211]

Date: 7/29/2008 10:42:53 AM
Author: Tuckins1
Yes!!! I grew up in and live near Birmingham, MI. It''s a very wealthy and up-scale area, and most of the women around there have pretty large rings! (Like the kind that blind you all the way on the other side of Nieman Marcus!) My poor little .70ct just can''t compete with those monsters... But I love her anyways!!

LOL. Yeah, I grew up in West Bloomfield. I can''t go to Somerset Mall without feeling a bit inadquate!

 

[AGBF]

Date: 5/25/2008 9:18:25 PM

Author: elrohwen

I live in Fairfield county, Connecticut (home to Greenwich - one of the most ridiculously rich towns I've ever seen) and women wear huge rocks alll the time.

After a foray in Virginia, where my house and husband still are, I am back in my hometown of Greenwich. (Don't ask why. It's a long, sad story.) The truth is that Greenwich now is not really Greenwwich, it is New York City. New York moved into what used to be Greenwich. I grew up on the same street on which I am now living. When I was young, it was a dirt road that ended in some woods. There was a farm with a white horse near the local elementary school (where now there are houses) and a driving range (where now there are houses). All the children in my neighborhood knew each other and went into each others' houses. People used to let their dogs free at the beach and no one complained. We used to make blueberry pancakes down there for breakfast on the grills and let our spaniels run free. Now the town is overpopulated, regulated, and full of ostentatious wealth. If people had money before one never knew it. At least not in Old Greenwich and Riverside. Maybe in back country Greenwich people did...but I didn't hang out there since I lived in the eastern part of town near the beach. End of rant.

Oh...my father was wrong. When my parents bought their house in Riverside my father told my mother they'd never get their $15,000 back .

PS-Some of us don't wear truly huge diamonds. One of my best friends and I agreed that 1.25 carats was ideal for both of us. I later broke down and got a bigger stone: 1.67 carats. When I tried a stone over 2 carats, though, I had to turn it into a pendant. I felt I couldn't carry off a ring with a stone that size. It just wasn't me.

Deborah

 

[louisvgirl]

I work in Ventura County, California, in the fitness industry. Most of my clients do not work out with their rings on, so it was hard for me to see what they wore. We had an event, where my clients were "dressed as civilians" and I nearly passed out when I saw their rings. They were anywhere between 3-4cts, CENTER STONE ONLY! I had another client who would work out with her 3ct center, with 1ct pears flanked on the sides. On average these ladies do wear anywhere between 2.5- 5cts.

 

[pennquaker09]

I live in Bergen County which is basically full of people who work in New York City. My sister in law''s ring is an Asscher that is like 4 cts and with her wedding band, I think it totals about 4.5. We go out to lunch together and she''s introduced me to a lot of her friends and they all have pretty good sized rings. I haven''t seen one under 2. Whenever I go over to Paramus and Riverside, I see big rings. More so at Riverside.

When I lived in the Philly burbs, I also saw some pretty big rings, especially among my neighbors, but a lot of the women where I lived were not really young girls. They were in their late 30s and early 40s and some had traded up. Where I lived wasn''t as wealthy as DF, but still very above average. My uncle lives in one of the Main Line communities and as DF said, a lot of the ladies have pretty big rings.

In Birmingham (AL), I think one can pretty much point out the wife of a doctor or banking executive. Healthcare pretty much rules the greater Birmingham are. I know that my mom''s ring actually belonged to my great great grandmother, and ironically, my parents saved it for me to give my "future wife." (I''m laughing, you all should be laughing too.

)

Anyway, I recall my stepmothers friends having rings that ranged from 1 to over 7. My stepmom has a cushion, but I don''t know how many carats it is definitively. My guess is around 7.

 

[bee*]

Date: 5/26/2008 1:42:45 PM
Author: Delster

Date: 5/25/2008 4:26:16 PM

Author: bee*

Date: 5/25/2008 4:06:59 PM

Author: Delster

Like bee, I''m in Ireland. In everyday life I never see big diamonds. My mother has by far the biggest diamond of anyone I know and hers is .80ct. Most rings I see on a daily basis are around .30ct to .50ct. At work I regularly see larger diamonds but nothing over 1.5ct. I took a course in uni with a minor Irish celebrity and her diamond was the biggest I''ve ever seen on someone''s hand here, maybe 3cts.

Oooh who?....I''m so nosy! We have a friday night talk show host''s wife come into our clinic quite a lot and even her ring isn''t extremely large.

It would give away where I went to uni hon! But I''ll tell you in person

For those who mentioned Germany, I was in Munich recently and I was struck by how different the window displays were to here. They were showing off very few diamonds, usually just one small tray of diamonds all under .50ct. The ring styles were all very modern - tension settings and bezels. And it was all very expensive.

Ok I can wait

Looking forward to a meet up when you move to Dublin!

 

[Elmorton]

Around where I live (Eastern Iowa), I really don''t see big rings that often - you''ll see a 1ct set uber high so it looks bigger, but that''s usually the extent of the eye candy.

I loooove DH and my annual trip to a Cub''s game in Chicago, though. Even in the bleachers or on the shuttle back to our car, I''ll be surrounded by 2,3,4 ct-ers! I have a hard time paying attention to the game.

 

[dani13]

Absolutely. I live in northern NJ, and if you go to the really nice mall in our area (Short Hills), you are going to see some honkin' rocks, for sure!!!

Anyone who's ever been there will agree!!!!

 

[autumngems]

I live on the coast of North Carolina and there is a lot of old money here. I see a lot of old 3-5 ct rings, however, on base where I work for USMC I see most .5 to 1.0 ct rings.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Nope. Seeing something about 2ct or over is a rarity. Typically about .75 or smaller.

ETA: Guess I should have specified where I am. I am in VA.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

I see lots of large diamonds where I live.

 

[HollyS]

I live in the middle of the state (TX), not a large metro area like Dallas or Houston. Huge rings are just not done outside of the major cities in this state. Even in Austin, it would be unusual, rather than the norm, to see 2+ carat rings. Unless you''re talking the dot.com crowd (those that haven''t gone belly-up, anyway).

 

[gemgirl]

There are women with some big rocks where I live. I''m on the North Shore of Long Island. They wear them everywhere, the Mall, the supermarket, even to play tennis.

Another thing that is very common here is wearing a good strand of pearls for every day life. Even with a white tee and a pair of jeans, an awful lot of women wear Mikimoto pearls. Even when I get dressed up, I have a hard time wearing my good pearls during the summer because I don''t want perspiration to damage them. These women wear them everywhere with everything.

 

[MonkeyPie]

In New Mexico, the biggest I have ever seen is my own, which is one carat. The vast majority here don''t have that kind of money/places to buy them from, and they are usually pretty tiny. Around .25-.75.

Needless to say, most people''s eyes get real big when they see mine, and it isn''t even that big. Imagine how it will be when I go BIGGER!

 

[princesss]

The people I work with all seem to have between .25 - 1 ct. diamonds, but when I went to get my hair done yesterday I started to pay attention, and HOLY COW were some of the diamonds big. It was fun trying to sneak looks at all of the sparklies.

 

[trinity911]

Like a couple of the other posters, I live in London (that''s London, England

) and the norm is to have a lot of metal (mainly gold but some platinum / white gold these days) and not much diamond - typically .3 - .5. I don''t think pave bands or even side stones are seen much here.

My 2ct pave oval is quite unusual (and I''m under 30) especially working in the healthcare system but having said that, a couple of colleagues didn''t notice I was engaged for months so either my ring doesn''t stand out enough or they just don''t clock jewellery. If that was me, I''d be in like a heat seeking missile, asking all sorts of questions!

but that''s just me, I think my FI thinks I''m somewhat crazy. He''s from Ireland and they don''t care much for big diamonds there either altho his sis has a 1ct, the biggest in their area.

I think Londoners notice designer handbags and expensive cars more than jewellery. Plus, there are so many B&M stores trying to flog awful quality diamonds for huge ££s. It makes me want to stick a pricescope banner over their windows to avoid more poor unsuspecting people being conned!