Hello there diamond lovers and experts, I'm looking for some help with my engagement ring and was hoping some of you have suggestions and expertise to share with me. I'm a newbie on this forum but have been reading and researching for weeks already. Besides pricescope, I've spent a lot of time on Blue Nile and James Allen.
So here's the deal: I have my heart set on a marquise diamond, 1 ct, can go a bit lower (prefer higher). I'd like to maximize size without compromising too much on quality (like most people from what I can tell!). So I need help with both picking the diamond and the setting and I'm humbly hoping some of you have some time to spare and share your knowledge.
For the diamond, I'm looking for:
- marquise cut
- approx 1 carat
- will go as low as SI1 ("eyeclean" unless an inclusion can be hidden by a prong. I have some flexibility here. I can even deal with small visible imperfections, like a tiny spot or two but am freaked out by things like "clouds")
- G or H in colour (I would go lower but I don't like it when you can see yellowing concentrated at the tips of the diamond which you can sometimes clearly see in pictures of I and lower colour diamonds)
- minimal, or no bowtie (this one is hard, I know. My understanding is that bowtie effect is often caused by elements of depth and is really just a reflection. How can I determine how much of a bowtie a diamond will have without seeing it in person?)
- a length to width ratio that makes for a fatter stone (around 1.7-1.85ish)
For the setting, I prefer platinum but will go with white gold to save $. I like solitaires (again mostly as a way to save $. If I'm honest, I love lots of bling-y sidetones but I'd rather focus my budget on the center stone). I would like a channel set wedding band to sit flush with my ring (so a channel set ER would be nice too, there are some nice matching sets on BN and JA but again, more $). My priority with the ER setting is to allow it to sit flush with the wedding band. I've analyzed BN and JA solitaire settings to death and am worried that the majority of them wouldn't sit flush with a channel set wedding band. Should this be a separate posting?
Budget: $7-8K Canadian for everything (ER and WB), so about 5-6K USD (could maybe go a tiny bit higher, say 6.5K).
I would be so super appreciative if anyone has any advice or would like to help me out
I'll try to find a couple pics of what I like and post them below if that would help.
Thank you!!
So here's the deal: I have my heart set on a marquise diamond, 1 ct, can go a bit lower (prefer higher). I'd like to maximize size without compromising too much on quality (like most people from what I can tell!). So I need help with both picking the diamond and the setting and I'm humbly hoping some of you have some time to spare and share your knowledge.
For the diamond, I'm looking for:
- marquise cut
- approx 1 carat
- will go as low as SI1 ("eyeclean" unless an inclusion can be hidden by a prong. I have some flexibility here. I can even deal with small visible imperfections, like a tiny spot or two but am freaked out by things like "clouds")
- G or H in colour (I would go lower but I don't like it when you can see yellowing concentrated at the tips of the diamond which you can sometimes clearly see in pictures of I and lower colour diamonds)
- minimal, or no bowtie (this one is hard, I know. My understanding is that bowtie effect is often caused by elements of depth and is really just a reflection. How can I determine how much of a bowtie a diamond will have without seeing it in person?)
- a length to width ratio that makes for a fatter stone (around 1.7-1.85ish)
For the setting, I prefer platinum but will go with white gold to save $. I like solitaires (again mostly as a way to save $. If I'm honest, I love lots of bling-y sidetones but I'd rather focus my budget on the center stone). I would like a channel set wedding band to sit flush with my ring (so a channel set ER would be nice too, there are some nice matching sets on BN and JA but again, more $). My priority with the ER setting is to allow it to sit flush with the wedding band. I've analyzed BN and JA solitaire settings to death and am worried that the majority of them wouldn't sit flush with a channel set wedding band. Should this be a separate posting?
Budget: $7-8K Canadian for everything (ER and WB), so about 5-6K USD (could maybe go a tiny bit higher, say 6.5K).
I would be so super appreciative if anyone has any advice or would like to help me out
I'll try to find a couple pics of what I like and post them below if that would help.
Thank you!!
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