If you could do it all again....

[FireGoddess]

Windowshopper, that is quite a compliment, especially coming from you! The pear is 1.5 cts, D VS2.

 

[windowshopper]

Date: 5/10/2006 11:04:21 AM
Author: FireGoddess
Windowshopper, that is quite a compliment, especially coming from you! The pear is 1.5 cts, D VS2.

well--the ring is just the right shape pear (pears need just the right ratio you know) and the setting is divine. mine is D vs2 as well.............i love the whiteness of the D (I am addicted to D color) and the cost effectiveness of VS2! (i am actually looking for a larger stone--but i dont know if i can part with my stone........)

anyhoo--i LOVE yours--i stare at the little picture of your ring constantly........i love mine but it somehow lacks the softness and feminity of yours as well as all that delicious pave!

 

[cutey TT]

Date: 5/10/2006 8:08:47 AM
Author: mrssalvo
I''ve been thinking along these lines as I prepare for my own upgrade. I found PS while searching for a new setting and look where it''s talken me

. Anyway, I know what I choose now is going to have to tide me over for a loooooooong time. Hubby''s actually come around and said this doesn''t have to be it if I want to change again sometime down the road but I know there are so many other things I want to do in life than save up a bunch more $$ for a bigger/better e-ring. So, I trying to get exactly what i want so I wil hopefully be very content. It also seems the grass is always greener, that no matter what you have there is always going to be something else out there that you like or want. Every time a new Leon ring, or MM, or latest 3-stone, or antique setting shows up on here, I start second guess my choices.

mrssalvo - I hear ya. I am in the same boat as you...with regard to wanting an upgrade (and not being able to finalize exactly what I want)...and DH has made it very clear that I''d better "choose well" because no more e-rings for me. BTW, I love Michael B. My friend''s e-ring is a Michael B and the pave sparkles like crazy!

As for my original e-ring stone, if I had known about PS back then, I would''ve downgraded a little in clarity and maybe color, but gone for an AGS000 or GIA EX EX and larger size. I really love my new Ritani setting so I can''t complain...but I never would''ve gotten that original Scott Kay tension setting that I initially had.

There are so many beautiful settings and styles out there that I have a hard time picking the "perfect" and "final" setting. Like mrssalvo, everytime someone posts pics, I change my mind on what it is I love and hope to have next...

 

[diamondfan]

Date: 5/10/2006 11:04:21 AM
Author: FireGoddess
Windowshopper, that is quite a compliment, especially coming from you! The pear is 1.5 cts, D VS2.

Firegoddess, I agree your ring is gorgeous. I sometimes suffer a bit, even with my stone, that it might be a bit deep or something, and COULD look bigger. I know emerald cuts are tricky because they, like an asscher, can look smaller than the carat size would indicate. Also, I have good sized hands, not gigantic but not dainty...that can play a role. I think often times we have a grass is greener thing going on, there are sooo many lovely settings and rings etc...hard not to see someone''s ring and go OOOHHHH how pretty...and get the wheels rolling...

 

[Lynn B]

Date: 5/10/2006 8:21:23 AM
Author: Gonzodogg

I would have waited to find a higher color and lower clarity.

Mike,
Are you a little unhappy with the color of your beautiful diamond?

Lynn

 

[widget]

Date: 5/10/2006 12:20:24 PM
Author: diamondfan

I think often times we have a grass is greener thing going on, there are sooo many lovely settings and rings etc...hard not to see someone''s ring and go OOOHHHH how pretty...and get the wheels rolling...

LOL...I agree, DF...watch out for those ''rolling wheels''!

I shudder to think how clueless I was when I had my Mom''s diamond remounted years ago. I already had the sidestones, took them into a designer, and said: "Mount ''em!"

She asked for no input, and I didn''t offer any! The result was a ring with stones mounted so high that you could drive a truck underneath them!

Oh, well....
widget

 

[codex57]

I would have tried to find a stone with lower clarity, allowing me to bump up in size a little bit. Maybe. A bunch of people have commented on how nice a stone it is since it''s up in the VVS range instead of just VS. Plus, since my wife''s got small fingers, everyone''s just said how big the stone looks. Maybe I wouldn''t change anything about the stone.

For the setting, I wish they polished the insides of the prongs a little better. It''s not bad, just not quite as shiny as the rest of the ring.

 

[Mara]

i would have taken the same $$ we spent and gotten a much bigger diamond from an online vendor in lower color and clarity. we had a 1.23 G VS1 and i would have been able to get something like a 1.75 H SI2 for the same money. or an even larger J SI. now prices have gone up so much that it's insane what we could have started with at the time had we known then what we knew now for diamonds.

in terms of settings, it's a tough call. i do love my setting in general, and have since day one. but sometimes i wish we had gone with something more simple like a cathedral solitaire and then gotten an eternity ring for a w-ring; or i think well maybe we could have spent 1/2 of what we did on the setting and gotten something like that AJaffe 1/2 eternity one which is so much thinner and it would have made the diamond look bigger and i could have staved off an upgrade for a longer period of time. i think i waffle around alot on 'what if' with the setting....so for the most part we are pretty happy with it.

however, other setting options aside, i think that if i had to keep the same setting, things i would do differently about it would be use smaller melee, aka 2 pointers rather than 3 pointers for the e-ring so that the width of the band was more like 2.4mm and not 2.8mm. then gotten 1 pointers for the w-ring as opposed to 2 pointers so the ring would have been thinner, aka ~2mm, and then i could have enough room on the other side of the e-ring for a 3rd band. also i would have maybe gotten cathedral sides on the e-ring with diamonds going up them (makes the diamond look bigger IMO) and also done more creative work with the head of the ring so i wouldn't have had to look at a 4 prong boring unmodified stuller for 3+ years. hehee. i would have had someone like WF do the work for the e-ring because i think they did a slightly more precise job on my w-ring than the other jeweler did on my e-ring. lastly, i would have worked with a jeweler who listened more to what i wanted than what THEY wanted to do. my offline jeweler's designer kind of did whatever he wanted and a few of the things i mentioned here were things i had requested (aka good looking head; thinner band) and didn't get. but que sera sera!!

 

[diamondfan]

Date: 5/10/2006 12:49:47 PM
Author: widget

Date: 5/10/2006 12:20:24 PM
Author: diamondfan

I think often times we have a grass is greener thing going on, there are sooo many lovely settings and rings etc...hard not to see someone''s ring and go OOOHHHH how pretty...and get the wheels rolling...

LOL...I agree, DF...watch out for those ''rolling wheels''!

I shudder to think how clueless I was when I had my Mom''s diamond remounted years ago. I already had the sidestones, took them into a designer, and said: ''Mount ''em!''

She asked for no input, and I didn''t offer any! The result was a ring with stones mounted so high that you could drive a truck underneath them!

Oh, well....
widget

Widget, I think "live and learn" applies here. Even in an emotionally laden issue like an e ring, one does have to pull back sometimes and be a just a little analytical...but that assumes the knowledge going in. PS serves as such a great resource, and I just get the sense from so many people "If only I had known about it BEFORE I bought". At the end of the day, though, thankfully, stones can be traded in and reset, it is RESOLVABLE, with $ or time or ingenuity and an understanding or accepting dh, so a mistake need not be life long!!!!

 

[dbgaap]

As far as the original stone went, we did really well to get a 1 carat J I1 for so little money. It was a B+ cut, I guess, but it was a very pretty stone.

Where I would have changed is that I would have insisted on a simple tiffany mounting and continued my search for just the right setting.

I recently upgraded the stone to a 1.20 G SI1 AGS0 and it is perfect for me.
The color is just warm enough, the clarity is exceptional and the cut is lovely.

There is a chance I will add sidestones to this, but if not,
I think this is the solitaire I'd most like to have:

 

[Gemoholic]

I would get a purrrrfect cut round rather than my Marquise. I would drop the color-presently E, and drop the clarity-presently VSI, Maybe up the size a tad if budget permited.
The setting would remain the same A MM Sunburst solitaire in Plat.

 

[dbgaap]

oooooh, gemaholic, can you post a pic of you MM starburst?

I guess I should add that, if I had it all to do over again, I''d probably get platinum.
But my DH loves yellow gold and I went along with his prefernece.
At this point, I like it just fine.

Either one is nice.

I''d LOVE to see a pic of your MM solitaire!!

 

[Julian]

I would go lower in clarity and go bigger in size.

If I can''t see it without a loupe, it doesn''t exist to me!

 

[CJS924]

Ring stats: 0.5 carat oval/E/SI2 tension-set in 18K white gold

If I could go back and change things, I''d want a larger stone with a better cut. I''s *super* white and sparkly but it doesn''t quite have the fire I''d like. I''d probably also have it set on an eternity band...and have an eternity wedding band as well.

Funny though...my *new* diamond is currently being shipped from Antwerp as we speak. My original diamond actually chipped (a small chunk off of the girdle) and so, it''s being replaced. The salesperson assured me that my new diamond will be of the same quality as my old one or better. Anyway, I''m hoping that the new one is just a wee bit bigger and more fiery.