Rokomotion
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2014
- Messages
- 1
Hi all! First of all, thanks in advance to everyone who dedicates their time to helping us newbies. This forum has been amazing as I've browsed through a number of threads and learned many, many things. Luckily, we decide to go through the process together so that she would be able to give input since I was pretty clueless at the start. After a couple weekends of ering shopping (we live in NYC), we decided that big name stores like De Beers and Cartier are very expensive, but the diamond district seemed way too shady/sketchy. It's comforting to hear that there are reputable jewelers that PSers trust and have used. With that, please help us with the process.
Here is what we're looking for:
1. Budget: $30K. This budget is for the total cost, so would include the center stone and setting (setting for a halo and pave band we're assuming would be around $5K). Any other costs I'm forgetting? We are fortunate to have a some flexibility on the budget. Of course, we wan to spend less, but what lady doesn't want better specs? It's like buying a TV... always thinking about getting a slightly larger screen.
2. Carat: We tried on a range of sizes. 2-2.25 carats is our ideal. Finger size is 5.75 or 6-- two diff stores gave us diff #.
3. Shape: Round diamond
4. Setting: Round with a single halo and pave (or micropave, not sure which one yet) band. Like a high setting diamond (kind of that floating look, if that makes sense). Platinum metal. Don't know much about # of prongs or anything like that. Don't like channel setting, and we want minimal metal between all the diamonds for a seamless look. We like the VC halo setting, HW halo setting, or De Beers's destinee. A few PSers who have posted beautiful rings that we're looking to do are: BHMom (done by VC), MadisonGirl (HW ring), rockguy (from GOG), frankiexhah (who did an amazing comparison btw VC, SK and LM-- we don't like LM bc of all the gapping. VC looked really beautifully seamless; and the SK pix was a bit shaded so hard to tell).
4. Cut: We want the best. After reading and talking to sales associates, it seems like cut is the #1 factor in sparkliness.
5. Color: We are flexible and looking at G/H. We want to avoid I color, because when we looked at an I color in-store, we weer able to see the yellow. With the H, it was not obvious to us.
6. Clarity: We've been told that VS2/SI1 is fine since those would be clean. We're shying away from SI2 since we wouldn't know whether an SI2 diamond would be "eye clean".
What is the best way to go about this? How does one choose which jeweler to go with? Looks like SK, JA, GOG are all in NY and we can easily get to them. Seems like JA is not held in as high regard, but we'd still try it. So, maybe start with the NY jewelers? If so, any others whom we should consider? Should we look at WF, Brian Gavin, or any of the Texan jewelers since we wouldn't be able to see anything in person? We are a bit apprehensive to do everything online, but the Texas jewelers seem very popular!
We did a diamond search on PS. How come some vendorsl ike B2C or Solomon are cheaper than others by a signfiicant amount?
How does setting work? The VC setting is beautiful. Hard to tell in picture about the SK or GOG settings. I read that some jewelers give discounts if we both buy and set the ring with them. Do all the jewelers have access to some of the same diamonds? I'm confused as to how that works.
How long does it take for a jeweler to pull the diamonds? How long does it take for the setting to be done? I guess from the time of when we finally choose a diamond to getting the completed ering, how long can the process be?
Can you suggest a few diamonds for us? We'd like to go on a weekend to one or more of the jewelers. Thanks in advance!
Here is what we're looking for:
1. Budget: $30K. This budget is for the total cost, so would include the center stone and setting (setting for a halo and pave band we're assuming would be around $5K). Any other costs I'm forgetting? We are fortunate to have a some flexibility on the budget. Of course, we wan to spend less, but what lady doesn't want better specs? It's like buying a TV... always thinking about getting a slightly larger screen.
2. Carat: We tried on a range of sizes. 2-2.25 carats is our ideal. Finger size is 5.75 or 6-- two diff stores gave us diff #.
3. Shape: Round diamond
4. Setting: Round with a single halo and pave (or micropave, not sure which one yet) band. Like a high setting diamond (kind of that floating look, if that makes sense). Platinum metal. Don't know much about # of prongs or anything like that. Don't like channel setting, and we want minimal metal between all the diamonds for a seamless look. We like the VC halo setting, HW halo setting, or De Beers's destinee. A few PSers who have posted beautiful rings that we're looking to do are: BHMom (done by VC), MadisonGirl (HW ring), rockguy (from GOG), frankiexhah (who did an amazing comparison btw VC, SK and LM-- we don't like LM bc of all the gapping. VC looked really beautifully seamless; and the SK pix was a bit shaded so hard to tell).
4. Cut: We want the best. After reading and talking to sales associates, it seems like cut is the #1 factor in sparkliness.
5. Color: We are flexible and looking at G/H. We want to avoid I color, because when we looked at an I color in-store, we weer able to see the yellow. With the H, it was not obvious to us.
6. Clarity: We've been told that VS2/SI1 is fine since those would be clean. We're shying away from SI2 since we wouldn't know whether an SI2 diamond would be "eye clean".
What is the best way to go about this? How does one choose which jeweler to go with? Looks like SK, JA, GOG are all in NY and we can easily get to them. Seems like JA is not held in as high regard, but we'd still try it. So, maybe start with the NY jewelers? If so, any others whom we should consider? Should we look at WF, Brian Gavin, or any of the Texan jewelers since we wouldn't be able to see anything in person? We are a bit apprehensive to do everything online, but the Texas jewelers seem very popular!
We did a diamond search on PS. How come some vendorsl ike B2C or Solomon are cheaper than others by a signfiicant amount?
How does setting work? The VC setting is beautiful. Hard to tell in picture about the SK or GOG settings. I read that some jewelers give discounts if we both buy and set the ring with them. Do all the jewelers have access to some of the same diamonds? I'm confused as to how that works.
How long does it take for a jeweler to pull the diamonds? How long does it take for the setting to be done? I guess from the time of when we finally choose a diamond to getting the completed ering, how long can the process be?
Can you suggest a few diamonds for us? We'd like to go on a weekend to one or more of the jewelers. Thanks in advance!
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