Overwhelmed by new engagement ring shopping

[the_map_guy]

Hi everyone. So I am a poor guy with a big heart. I make maps and have drawn my way to save $2,000 USD for an engagement ring. I am in Dallas, TX. I may be able to spend $3,000 if I finance the remaining amount. Her mother tells me that she is hoping for 1 ct, square or round stone, with a thin silver, white gold, or platinum band. I literally know nothing about this and when I have visited stores feel like its a pack of wolves. The guy starts the chat and the the young sexy co-ed trys to seal the deal by flirting and telling me that this ring wont be here in an hour. I am paranoid that I will mess this up, flush all of this hard earned money down the drain and end up with a ring that my bride is embarrassed to show her friends. Please help. If you had $2,000 USD to spend what would you buy and where? Thank you very much!

Kind Regards-
Aaron

 

[JulieN]

Hi, Aaron!

Would she rather have a J/K/L color, SI2-I1 clarity in the .9 ct range, or an H/I/J SI1/SI2 stone in the .7 ct range?

 

[tonyc2387]

hi Aaron and welcome to PS!

Date: 11/28/2009 1:06:17 AM
Author:the_map_guy
... when I have visited stores feel like its a pack of wolves. The guy starts the chat and the the young sexy co-ed trys to seal the deal by flirting and telling me that this ring wont be here in an hour....

Don''t listen to their crap. See what I said here... maul SA''s advice just isn''t worth your time, especially if you''re on a budget.

Date: 11/28/2009 1:06:17 AM
Author:the_map_guy
I am paranoid that I will mess this up, flush all of this hard earned money down the drain and end up with a ring that my bride is embarrassed to show her friends.

heh, you''ve come to the right place. that will not happen due to advice given here.

Date: 11/28/2009 1:06:17 AM
Author:the_map_guy
Her mother tells me that she is hoping for 1 ct, square or round stone, with a thin silver, white gold, or platinum band.

Please help. If you had $2,000 USD to spend what would you buy and where? Thank you very much!

So here at PS the folks are a little biased towards cut quality, and readily sacrifice weight in order to make sure the cut quality is top-notch. This is because the cut quality is the single most important factor in determining the appearance of a diamond. The maul SA might have mentioned this when they classified diamonds into three groups, "ideal, shallow, or deep" ... but I think it''s safe to say analysis is taken up a notch here, where many people routinely analyze diamond cuts to the tenth of the degree. But this matters... and folks'' standards here are higher than 99% of the stuff carried by B&M stores. Picky, yes, but again you''ll never find a bad diamond in the bunch.

Anyway, my point is, you probably won''t get recommended a 1ct stone in that budget around here. It would have to sacrifice too much. However, there are attractive stones in the 1/2-3/4ct range with such a great cut quality that they will shine and sparkle so well that size won''t matter as much. I''ll point you towards a few in a second, but first, I''d like to point you to some background reading that will really help you start to get a grasp on diamond basics, advanced cut info (more here), and some info on Idealscope, the go-to analysis tool. Pop some popcorn, read up, and you''ll have a much better understanding of what to look for (and why I said not to listen to the store salesmen''s crap!).

Also, to get you started on shopping, let''s say a classic 4-prong tiffany-style solitaire thin white-gold band, and we''ll budget about $300 for it. Every jeweler stocks them, they''re beautiful, and most importantly, they''re pretty cheap. I know you said $2k, but if it''s possible to do $2500, it allows you to look in the .75ct range so you aren''t sacrificing too much in weight but will still get a gorgeous diamond. You can use the cut search tool to look through more diamonds, but here are a couple that might be interesting as first-round picks:

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-VS1-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1253675.asp?b=16&a=12&c=77&cid=131
http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/Whiteflash-ACA-cut-diamond-22260.htm (verify eye-clean)
http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/I-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1236883.asp?b=16&a=12&c=77&cid=131
http://www.whiteflash.com/hearts_arrows/Whiteflash-ACA-cut-diamond-2213219.htm (allows you to stay under $2k with a fancier band, little less weight though)

hope this helps! best of luck in your search

 

[Lorelei]

I would personally look at this one for the budget

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/5345/

With this one it has grade setting clouds so you would need to ask for one of the gemologists to check the clouds aren't impacting brilliance and if the diamond is eyeclean.

http://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/G-SI2-Ideal-Cut-Round-Diamond-1271898.asp

 

[tonyc2387]

man, every single time.....

lorelei, i bow to your diamond-searching prowess. that GOG diamond is pretty awesome for the price.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 11/28/2009 11:32:51 AM
Author: tonyc2387
man, every single time.....

lorelei, i bow to your diamond-searching prowess. that GOG diamond is pretty awesome for the price.

Awwww...shucks.....

Thanks Tony!!!

You are doing great yourself, good to have such helpful new members like you!

 

[tonyc2387]

Date: 11/28/2009 12:14:48 PM
Author: Lorelei
You are doing great yourself, good to have such helpful new members like you!

Thanks Lorelei, that means a ton coming from you.

I''ve said before though, I''m only trying to give back some fraction of the help I got. I even thought I had a pretty good idea of what was what before I stumbled upon PS... heh heh heh. Nooooope, not by a long shot. Then I went to Tiffany''s and sat down with their SA and he was going over one of their cert''s and he admitted "yeah, I couldn''t even tell you what any of those numbers mean" while pointing at the diamond drawing... yyeeaaahh, it was about that time I realized I was converted by PS. And it''s fantastic.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 11/28/2009 12:45:41 PM
Author: tonyc2387

Date: 11/28/2009 12:14:48 PM
Author: Lorelei
You are doing great yourself, good to have such helpful new members like you!

Thanks Lorelei, that means a ton coming from you.

I've said before though, I'm only trying to give back some fraction of the help I got. I even thought I had a pretty good idea of what was what before I stumbled upon PS... heh heh heh. Nooooope, not by a long shot. Then I went to Tiffany's and sat down with their SA and he was going over one of their cert's and he admitted 'yeah, I couldn't even tell you what any of those numbers mean' while pointing at the diamond drawing... yyeeaaahh, it was about that time I realized I was converted by PS. And it's fantastic.

Thats so kind of you Tony - thank you! And I meant every word, it is great to see new members in RT doing such a great job!!! You are doing really well, hope you stick around!

 

[tonyc2387]

Date: 11/28/2009 12:54:16 PM
Author: Lorelei
Thats so kind of you Tony - thank you! And I meant every word...

right back at you, Lorelei!

Date: 11/28/2009 12:54:16 PM
Author: Lorelei
...it is great to see new members in RT doing such a great job!!! You are doing really well, hope you stick around!

now you''ve got me going aww, shucks... thanks! I plan to. It''s been a long, long time since I''ve joined a really good forum (the last one I really participated in self-destructed due to a bad admin

), and I''ve missed it... plus the whole community here is just top-notch, and it''s fun to really help folks with such a big decision

anyway, sorry aaron, I promise we''ll get back to the topic at hand... what are your thoughts so far on the diamonds suggested?

 

[swingirl]

Date: 11/28/2009 4:47:16 AM
Author: Lorelei
I would personally look at this one for the budget
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/5345/

Nice!