Mara
Super_Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2002
- Messages
- 31,003
in my engagement ring!!!
yep...I bit the bullet and did the 2005 upgrade early this year.
For those interested in something other than just the sparkly bling bling pics of the new amazing stone (and it is amazing!), here is the saga..be forewarned, it is very long and rambling....just the way I like to speak!
As many of you already knew…my goal for 2005 was to get a diamond upgrade on my engagement ring. The hope was that I could jump to something like a 1.80c H SI2 later this fall, and had already started putting out feelers for WF to stay alert in case the elusive creature found itself available. I already knew that it could take a while to find a stone in that size with that color and clarity—as I have only seen about 2 stones in that SIZE in the last 2 months on vendors websites…nevermind the H SI2 designation I was looking for.
However, this year for us is also a ‘recovery’ year in terms of getting our finances back in order after the new house, the wedding, the dog, etc etc! No big trips planned this year, a lot of saving…so it became apparent to me that even though we had talked about and Greg had ‘pre-approved’ an upgrade this year…it would not be the grand 1.80 H SI2 that I was hoping for..should it even become AVAILABLE.
BUT denial ain’t just a river in Egypt and I am a believer in the impossible..so I figured I could make it happen. This is…until the day my best diamond pal Aljdewey dropped me an email in her usual manner, with the subject line something along the lines of ‘OH MY GOD’ and the body holding only a link to a stone…ahh the mark of the truly diamond obsessed.
I checked out the link, it was an amazing 1.79 I SI ES stone..which was absolutely fabulous and seriously drool-worth EXCEPT that it was about $6k over my trade-in value for my stone..almost double the entire amount!! I started surfing around checking out the other new stones on the WF site (which by the way, these had all just gone up less than a day before)......and happened upon a few ~1.6 J SI stones.
Now up until this point I was strictly an H SI girl. I was not sure about I’s, though maybe with fluor, and certainly not J’s though maybe for earrings. This color snobbery was not because I had seen anything in person that I disliked, but rather just the ‘rule’ of thumb that is always bandied about that ‘I’ is where people begin to see color. However, it was at this point that I realized that these ~1.6 J SI stones were far closer to my available budget this year than the 1.79 I SI would be, even if I waited until later this year.
I decided to at least look into the J stones, they had good numbers...so I spoke to Brian about them the next day. We discussed the 1.6 J SI2 ES and the 1.64 J SI1 ACA stone. Amazingly enough, he seemed to prefer the 1.6 J SI2 to the 1.64 J SI1 for me..he noted that the inclusions in the J SI2 seemed better in terms of color and placement. He also noted that the 1.6 J SI2 had a more steely color to it and almost thought it had some fluor in it (it does not according to the GIA cert). He told me, rightly so, that he could not say ‘Mara, you should without a doubt get this stone’ but that it was a fabulous, beautiful, faces-up-well stone with an exceptional price.
So I mulled it over for a weekend. I had Lesley put the stone on hold in case it grew legs, and then started thinking it over.
I really wanted to think about the color, not necessarily the clarity…but rather the color. Would it bother me? I kept coming back to this previous history…Before I found PS, Greg and I happened upon an old European cut stone that was I VS. We thought it was fabulous, looked beautiful, white ? I can’t recall but I loved it. It certainly wasn’t shooting off horrible color to us. We were all set to buy it! So I don’t think my eyes are that sensitive, and I certainly can’t pick out differences in color between Greg’s E and my H. My I SI ACA earrings, while much smaller, are so blindingly white, especially when set against my skin tone, that I think that the fact that my skin tone is slightly warmer may work in our favor for a near-colorless stone.
Also, as many of you know, I am a chronic upgrader. I won’t rest until I have my 3c honker. So this is just a baby step along the way, a very affordable step that could get me a beautifully cut stone for relatively little extra money. It’s perfect for this year, gets me an additional 0.5mm which is a huge amount in terms of visuals, and works for the budget. We have other priorities this year, but it was great to be able to still get what I really wanted....aka a slightly bigger diamond without breaking the bank or even denting it.
Lucky for me....Greg was more than happy to pay a ‘tiny’ amount for me to be happy for another year (or so!) without having to fork over the $6k or so that a bigger and higher color upgrade would take. Note to other gals, approaching hubby saying…’I’d rather spend under $1k this year than $6k on a diamond…what do you think?’ is almost always guaranteed to work! HEE!
Fast forward a few weeks…I had to wait because we had guests from out of town, I was traveling etc…so it was not until the first week of March that I was able to focus on sending out the ring. Remember my ‘USPS Priority Registered Mail’? thread..well I wasn’t checking it out for a friend…it was me researching the best way to send the ring. In the past I’d sent it FedEx to WF overnight, didn’t worry because it was insured through Chubb. However, I let the Chubb policy lapse a few months back, so the ring is not insured right now. No way was I sending it through FedEx with no insurance. But it also went against my grain to send it slow boat USPS Registered Insured even though everyone was saying it was the only way.
Long story short, you can actually send JEWELRY via UPS and they will insure it. Not a loose stone, but they will insure jewelry. So I did the deed, insured the ring and sent it via UPS. It cost about $75.00 to send it overnight next AM delivery with insurance on it, but it was not much to pay for peace of mind and to know it would be in WF’s hot little hands by 10:30am the next morning. Much better than thinking about it floating around out in the wilderness for 6 days via USPS!
I asked WF also if they could use the original head from the ring, and also if possible, shave down some of the ring width. This second request was just an idea…my e-ring is very sturdy and heavy, and as I have noted previously many times, I would have preferred for it to be a bit thinner than the 2.9mm we ended up with, my max request for the designer had been 2.5mm. I see a huge difference between my w-ring at 2.3mm and my e-ring at 2.9mm, so I was hoping to get it down to a 2.7mm or something to maybe bridge the difference slightly and to also make the new diamond look bigger of course...isn't that what it's about?! So they were able to take the ring down a tiny amount, how much I don't yet know, but anything helps I guess!
So the bottom line is that the ring is done! They used the same head and stretched it a bit which I hope looks fabulous since I like my head...and the pictures look absolutely breathtakingly amazing! The diamond looks HUGE!!!
It's on it's way and will be here tomorrow AM by 10:30, I will pick it up at FedEx. I am SO EXCITED to see this new stone for various reasons, of course the size but I want to see the cut, check out the color, etc. I have neve seen an ideal cut J in person before so I think I will be surprised. From the looks of the pictures, it's fabulously white, with only a small tinge of any color from the bottom side picture, but I think in reality it won't even be an issue.
Oh and for those who were wondering...that "J Colored Stones in Platinum" thread I started helped me out IMMENSELY...some people know me too well, aka those who were going 'hmm what is Mara up to?'...but I really loved seeing all those amazing J stones in rings, it really helped me make my decision on the stone, and now I also will be part of the club!
Lastly, and never least...thanks so much to WhiteFlash for putting up with my very detailed requests of X or Y or Z and making sure I got what I asked for...alj for her patience, pq for helping me see the wisdom in a J stone, and of course my dear husband Greg for tolerating the madness yet again! It's only just begun....
Enjoy the pictures...I know I did!!!
yep...I bit the bullet and did the 2005 upgrade early this year.
As many of you already knew…my goal for 2005 was to get a diamond upgrade on my engagement ring. The hope was that I could jump to something like a 1.80c H SI2 later this fall, and had already started putting out feelers for WF to stay alert in case the elusive creature found itself available. I already knew that it could take a while to find a stone in that size with that color and clarity—as I have only seen about 2 stones in that SIZE in the last 2 months on vendors websites…nevermind the H SI2 designation I was looking for.
However, this year for us is also a ‘recovery’ year in terms of getting our finances back in order after the new house, the wedding, the dog, etc etc! No big trips planned this year, a lot of saving…so it became apparent to me that even though we had talked about and Greg had ‘pre-approved’ an upgrade this year…it would not be the grand 1.80 H SI2 that I was hoping for..should it even become AVAILABLE.
BUT denial ain’t just a river in Egypt and I am a believer in the impossible..so I figured I could make it happen. This is…until the day my best diamond pal Aljdewey dropped me an email in her usual manner, with the subject line something along the lines of ‘OH MY GOD’ and the body holding only a link to a stone…ahh the mark of the truly diamond obsessed.
I checked out the link, it was an amazing 1.79 I SI ES stone..which was absolutely fabulous and seriously drool-worth EXCEPT that it was about $6k over my trade-in value for my stone..almost double the entire amount!! I started surfing around checking out the other new stones on the WF site (which by the way, these had all just gone up less than a day before)......and happened upon a few ~1.6 J SI stones.
Now up until this point I was strictly an H SI girl. I was not sure about I’s, though maybe with fluor, and certainly not J’s though maybe for earrings. This color snobbery was not because I had seen anything in person that I disliked, but rather just the ‘rule’ of thumb that is always bandied about that ‘I’ is where people begin to see color. However, it was at this point that I realized that these ~1.6 J SI stones were far closer to my available budget this year than the 1.79 I SI would be, even if I waited until later this year.
I decided to at least look into the J stones, they had good numbers...so I spoke to Brian about them the next day. We discussed the 1.6 J SI2 ES and the 1.64 J SI1 ACA stone. Amazingly enough, he seemed to prefer the 1.6 J SI2 to the 1.64 J SI1 for me..he noted that the inclusions in the J SI2 seemed better in terms of color and placement. He also noted that the 1.6 J SI2 had a more steely color to it and almost thought it had some fluor in it (it does not according to the GIA cert). He told me, rightly so, that he could not say ‘Mara, you should without a doubt get this stone’ but that it was a fabulous, beautiful, faces-up-well stone with an exceptional price.
So I mulled it over for a weekend. I had Lesley put the stone on hold in case it grew legs, and then started thinking it over.
I really wanted to think about the color, not necessarily the clarity…but rather the color. Would it bother me? I kept coming back to this previous history…Before I found PS, Greg and I happened upon an old European cut stone that was I VS. We thought it was fabulous, looked beautiful, white ? I can’t recall but I loved it. It certainly wasn’t shooting off horrible color to us. We were all set to buy it! So I don’t think my eyes are that sensitive, and I certainly can’t pick out differences in color between Greg’s E and my H. My I SI ACA earrings, while much smaller, are so blindingly white, especially when set against my skin tone, that I think that the fact that my skin tone is slightly warmer may work in our favor for a near-colorless stone.
Also, as many of you know, I am a chronic upgrader. I won’t rest until I have my 3c honker. So this is just a baby step along the way, a very affordable step that could get me a beautifully cut stone for relatively little extra money. It’s perfect for this year, gets me an additional 0.5mm which is a huge amount in terms of visuals, and works for the budget. We have other priorities this year, but it was great to be able to still get what I really wanted....aka a slightly bigger diamond without breaking the bank or even denting it.
Lucky for me....Greg was more than happy to pay a ‘tiny’ amount for me to be happy for another year (or so!) without having to fork over the $6k or so that a bigger and higher color upgrade would take. Note to other gals, approaching hubby saying…’I’d rather spend under $1k this year than $6k on a diamond…what do you think?’ is almost always guaranteed to work! HEE!
Fast forward a few weeks…I had to wait because we had guests from out of town, I was traveling etc…so it was not until the first week of March that I was able to focus on sending out the ring. Remember my ‘USPS Priority Registered Mail’? thread..well I wasn’t checking it out for a friend…it was me researching the best way to send the ring. In the past I’d sent it FedEx to WF overnight, didn’t worry because it was insured through Chubb. However, I let the Chubb policy lapse a few months back, so the ring is not insured right now. No way was I sending it through FedEx with no insurance. But it also went against my grain to send it slow boat USPS Registered Insured even though everyone was saying it was the only way.
Long story short, you can actually send JEWELRY via UPS and they will insure it. Not a loose stone, but they will insure jewelry. So I did the deed, insured the ring and sent it via UPS. It cost about $75.00 to send it overnight next AM delivery with insurance on it, but it was not much to pay for peace of mind and to know it would be in WF’s hot little hands by 10:30am the next morning. Much better than thinking about it floating around out in the wilderness for 6 days via USPS!
I asked WF also if they could use the original head from the ring, and also if possible, shave down some of the ring width. This second request was just an idea…my e-ring is very sturdy and heavy, and as I have noted previously many times, I would have preferred for it to be a bit thinner than the 2.9mm we ended up with, my max request for the designer had been 2.5mm. I see a huge difference between my w-ring at 2.3mm and my e-ring at 2.9mm, so I was hoping to get it down to a 2.7mm or something to maybe bridge the difference slightly and to also make the new diamond look bigger of course...isn't that what it's about?! So they were able to take the ring down a tiny amount, how much I don't yet know, but anything helps I guess!
So the bottom line is that the ring is done! They used the same head and stretched it a bit which I hope looks fabulous since I like my head...and the pictures look absolutely breathtakingly amazing! The diamond looks HUGE!!!
It's on it's way and will be here tomorrow AM by 10:30, I will pick it up at FedEx. I am SO EXCITED to see this new stone for various reasons, of course the size but I want to see the cut, check out the color, etc. I have neve seen an ideal cut J in person before so I think I will be surprised. From the looks of the pictures, it's fabulously white, with only a small tinge of any color from the bottom side picture, but I think in reality it won't even be an issue.
Oh and for those who were wondering...that "J Colored Stones in Platinum" thread I started helped me out IMMENSELY...some people know me too well, aka those who were going 'hmm what is Mara up to?'...but I really loved seeing all those amazing J stones in rings, it really helped me make my decision on the stone, and now I also will be part of the club!
Lastly, and never least...thanks so much to WhiteFlash for putting up with my very detailed requests of X or Y or Z and making sure I got what I asked for...alj for her patience, pq for helping me see the wisdom in a J stone, and of course my dear husband Greg for tolerating the madness yet again! It's only just begun....
Enjoy the pictures...I know I did!!!
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