I don't necessarily mean AGS Ideal, but in the "Ideal" category most jewelers have set out. At Bluenile.com the Ideal class refers to diamonds with a total depth of 60.1-62.8% and a table of 53-57% with at least good polish and symmetry. Is that what I should be looking for? All I want is a completely eye clean diamond that looks as white, sparkly, shiny, and firey as is noticable by the average naked human eye. I want her to say "This is the shiniest, prettiest, and cleanest diamond I've ever seen!", not to mention YES!!!

I want it to look like the best, but its looks under a microscope can be damned as far as I'm concerned. I'm willing to pay money for something I can notice, but don't want to dump thousands into microscope grade qualites.
That being said, what should I look for in a one carat round to be set in six prong yellow gold? What are the minimums (or maximums for that matter) that I should look for here as far as color, clarity, and cut (polish/sym, table/depth %'s, etc.) are concerned? Which is the least important here (ex: Can you tell the difference between Good polish/symmetry and Ideal/Excellent, or should I shoot for at least Very Good in both)? What's worth spending extra money on besides cut? I'm dying here because none of my local jewelers carry any kind of variety of fine grade diamonds (mostly boring standard cut diamonds with SI2/I clarity), so I can't see them for myself! Any and all advice is GREATLY apprecieated here because I'm going nuts trying to find out what to look for in my $4500-$5500 budget. Please help!!!