How long did it take you to find your ideal

[soocool]

diamond and setting? Did you have the diamond first and then decide on the setting or vice versa?

I am still somewhat undecided as to what I exactly want. I either want an oval halo or an emerald or radiant with side baguettes. I even bought a fake emerald cut ring to wear to see how much I really like it (in fact I have recived many compliments--I can''t wait for the reaction when I get the real thing!)

 

[blastdoor]

took me 2 months (3 if you count the 1 month of educating myself first on the fundamentals)...

and I did it concurrently... was supposed to be a surprise for my FW so I spent some time sounding her out in terms of both diamond (size, gradings, shapes, cuts etc) and ring (style, materials etc) preferences...

throughout that 9 weeks of searching I must''ve looked at hundreds of diamonds online, no less than a few dozens in B&Ms, asked for multiple GIA / AGS certs, punched in the HCA so many times that I actually have a huge 1-and-a-half page excel file documenting all the stats and information of my potential finds (scoring 1.9 or less). Finally settled for a 0.84 carat D-IF RB...

I must''ve also looked at hundreds of ring designs, from solitaires, to 3, 5 stones, to side stones paved or channeled rings, from designers to customs, antiques to moderns etc, of which I short-listed 38 initially, then narrowed down to 6, eventuall 2 and finally chose the 18k WG Royal Windsor Solitaire...

I got the ring about 2 weeks ago.. was supposed to keep it a secret and spring a surprise proposal on my FW on Valentine''s day... ended up weak and telling her all about it the very next day... now I gotta start thinking of a new surprise.. haha...

And that''s my story, what will yours be? looking forward to hear it too...

 

[ButterBean]

I looked at, and tried on settings for a little over year, changing my mind a number of times on what I "thought" I wanted. But looking back, I do see now that there were a few things I always admired on other PSers settings and searched for, (millegrain, a split shank, two-toned look, nature inspired design, and soft rounded curves) but never found all of those elements together in a ring that really shouted "this is THE ONE!"

Just recently I did find that and FF put it on order.

I heard it might be here in time for Valentine's Day, our anniversary, but have to wait and see since it is being hand made and I would not want him to rush it.

Edited to add: I have gone from number 130-something
to #13 on the Ladies-in-Waiting List!! Yeah, it took a while....