UberClaire
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- May 28, 2012
- Messages
- 267
My boyfriend and I are starting to talk about engagement. He asked me to give him an idea about my preferences, and in researching different shapes and cuts, I think I've fallen down the rabbit hole. I originally thought that I wanted a princess cut or an emerald cut, but after seeing pictures and videos of radiant cut diamonds, I thought I had found the best of both worlds: a diamond that could be cut to a length/width ratio similar to an emerald with the sparkle of a princess. However, I've been watching GoG videos (which are SO helpful -- many thanks to Rhino!), and I've found that I'm not a big fan of the "crushed ice" look, while I love the sparkle of a chunky cushion and their August Vintage cushions. I prefer the more straight-edged shape of the radiant, but the chunky cushion faceting is gorgeous. I've seen a few videos of radiants with chunky faceting, but I understand that they're essentially one in a million (I love the radiant that was custom cut for a Pricescope member).
The boyfriend and I live in the Midwest, so there aren't a lot of high quality diamond retailers nearby. Last weekend, we drove 4.5 hours to a ShaneCo to get an idea of what we like. It wasn't the most enlightening trip -- the store was fairly busy and I think since they knew that we didn't intend to buy that day, they didn't spend a lot of time with us. I know ShaneCo isn't on par with the quality of Pricescope-recommended retailers, but this was the closest brick and mortar store close to us, so we thought we could get a general idea of our preferences. We decided we really liked the 2mm platinum solitaire setting, but we only got to see one diamond up close while we were there -- a 0.74 carat rectangular radiant. It was actually a fairly beautiful stone, but I don't know what the quality would be for similar stones ordered through them. I asked to see a cushion with a higher length/width ratio and was told that ShaneCo does not stock cushion cuts like that as they consider them to be of "inferior quality."
To make a long story short, I've been searching for some candidate stones and have just gotten overwhelmed with the process. I know that for both cushion and radiant cuts it is recommended to see the stones in person, but I don't know if that will be an option for us based on where we live. There actually is a retail store carrying Original Radiant Cut diamonds about a mile away from my house, so I think we'll check that out, but right now I think we're both leaning more toward a non-modified, chunky-style cushion that we think may be easier to find than a chunkier radiant.
We've been looking at:
Carat: between 0.7 and 1
Color: anything J/K and above
Clarity: anything that is eye clean from the top down (probably VS1 or better)
Shape: more rectangular
I'm willing to compromise on color to get a bigger stone, especially since most of the videos I've seen of chunkier-style faceted stones have looked whiter than their actual grade. However, I'm willing to compromise on size if we can find a stone with a better cut/more sparkle. I love the AVCs, but I haven't seen a more rectangular one and I'm not sure if that style would be in our budget.
As far as budget goes, we're trying to keep the entire ring under $4000, although I think he'd be grateful if we could go lower than that. As I mentioned, we're planning on a solitaire setting, so the diamond itself will be the vast majority of what we plan to spend.
Sorry for the TL/DR post! Does anyone have any recommendations?
The boyfriend and I live in the Midwest, so there aren't a lot of high quality diamond retailers nearby. Last weekend, we drove 4.5 hours to a ShaneCo to get an idea of what we like. It wasn't the most enlightening trip -- the store was fairly busy and I think since they knew that we didn't intend to buy that day, they didn't spend a lot of time with us. I know ShaneCo isn't on par with the quality of Pricescope-recommended retailers, but this was the closest brick and mortar store close to us, so we thought we could get a general idea of our preferences. We decided we really liked the 2mm platinum solitaire setting, but we only got to see one diamond up close while we were there -- a 0.74 carat rectangular radiant. It was actually a fairly beautiful stone, but I don't know what the quality would be for similar stones ordered through them. I asked to see a cushion with a higher length/width ratio and was told that ShaneCo does not stock cushion cuts like that as they consider them to be of "inferior quality."
To make a long story short, I've been searching for some candidate stones and have just gotten overwhelmed with the process. I know that for both cushion and radiant cuts it is recommended to see the stones in person, but I don't know if that will be an option for us based on where we live. There actually is a retail store carrying Original Radiant Cut diamonds about a mile away from my house, so I think we'll check that out, but right now I think we're both leaning more toward a non-modified, chunky-style cushion that we think may be easier to find than a chunkier radiant.
We've been looking at:
Carat: between 0.7 and 1
Color: anything J/K and above
Clarity: anything that is eye clean from the top down (probably VS1 or better)
Shape: more rectangular
I'm willing to compromise on color to get a bigger stone, especially since most of the videos I've seen of chunkier-style faceted stones have looked whiter than their actual grade. However, I'm willing to compromise on size if we can find a stone with a better cut/more sparkle. I love the AVCs, but I haven't seen a more rectangular one and I'm not sure if that style would be in our budget.
As far as budget goes, we're trying to keep the entire ring under $4000, although I think he'd be grateful if we could go lower than that. As I mentioned, we're planning on a solitaire setting, so the diamond itself will be the vast majority of what we plan to spend.
Sorry for the TL/DR post! Does anyone have any recommendations?
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