Rushed wedding, need advice on center stone

[corgitastic]

Hi all,

My brother recently got married and directed me to this forum and site overall. SO and I have been together 5 years but we're procrastinators in things that involve planning with multiple people (weddings). I've been lurking and reading until we found out we needed to rush it (u can probably guess why). So the marriage has sort of been moved up. Like to next week! Other option is just not have an engagement ring for it and keep looking until we have an actual ceremony few months down with friends and family.

Anyway, I think I've decided on the Verragio Coutre ENG-0418R (White Gold 18k color) $1950. This has the solitaire look but a little fanciness going on underneath! I work in a hospital and do want to at least be able to wear my ring for a while so I don't like ones that sit too high or are super fancy and will rip my gloves ;D. It was between this and a $500 Gabriel & Co solitaire cathedral style plain.

The two diamonds I'm looking at are

gia report number 2176938355 (~$5900) 1.03ct, G, SI1, Excellent, Excellent, Excellent, Strong Blue, I believe HCA 2.7
and gia report number 5161792979 ($5552.63) 1.02ct, H, SI1, Excellent, Excellent, Excellent, No fluor, HCA 1.7

I wanted my jeweler to pull in gia report number 2175000132 originally ($5779.80) which is 1.04ct, F, SI1, Excellent, Strong blue, HCA 1.9 but when he called the location they told him that it had already been sent elsewhere and is unavailable. So they offered him the $5900 which he's willing to price match to the $5779 diamond.

In total he's charging $7330 out the door no tax (I have another address out of state lol). Is this a good price? I have a 4.5 ring finger size and he's able to resize the ring (removing the bottom small diamond and pointy part of the ring which I actually didn't like about the ring) and get it ready before the rushed wedding.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Hi all,

My brother recently got married and directed me to this forum and site overall. SO and I have been together 5 years but we're procrastinators in things that involve planning with multiple people (weddings). I've been lurking and reading until we found out we needed to rush it (u can probably guess why). So the marriage has sort of been moved up. Like to next week! Other option is just not have an engagement ring for it and keep looking until we have an actual ceremony few months down with friends and family.

Anyway, I think I've decided on the Verragio Coutre ENG-0418R (White Gold 18k color) $1950. This has the solitaire look but a little fanciness going on underneath! I work in a hospital and do want to at least be able to wear my ring for a while so I don't like ones that sit too high or are super fancy and will rip my gloves ;D. It was between this and a $500 Gabriel & Co solitaire cathedral style plain.

The two diamonds I'm looking at are

gia report number 2176938355 (~$5900) 1.03ct, G, SI1, Excellent, Excellent, Excellent, Strong Blue, I believe HCA 2.7
and gia report number 5161792979 ($5552.63) 1.02ct, H, SI1, Excellent, Excellent, Excellent, No fluor, HCA 1.7

I wanted my jeweler to pull in gia report number 2175000132 originally ($5779.80) which is 1.04ct, F, SI1, Excellent, Strong blue, HCA 1.9 but when he called the location they told him that it had already been sent elsewhere and is unavailable. So they offered him the $5900 which he's willing to price match to the $5779 diamond.

In total he's charging $7330 out the door no tax (I have another address out of state lol). Is this a good price? I have a 4.5 ring finger size and he's able to resize the ring (removing the bottom small diamond and pointy part of the ring which I actually didn't like about the ring) and get it ready before the rushed wedding.

The pros and cons of strong blue fluorescence have been discussed quite a bit here lately. It appears that you are comfortable with it, but it may be something you would like to explore further to make sure you have a balanced understanding and that it is right for you.
Here are a few of the threads you might find interesting where this topic is discussed:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/opinions-please.210212/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/opinions-please.210212/[/URL]

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wish-i-would-have-discovered-ps-sooner.210551/#post-3831342#p3831342']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wish-i-would-have-discovered-ps-sooner.210551/#post-3831342#p3831342[/URL]

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/price-for-round-brilliant.210167/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/price-for-round-brilliant.210167/[/URL]

 

[corgitastic]

The pros and cons of strong blue fluorescence have been discussed quite a bit here lately. It appears that you are comfortable with it, but it may be something you would like to explore further to make sure you have a balanced understanding and that it is right for you.
Here are a few of the threads you might find interesting where this topic is discussed:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/opinions-please.210212/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/opinions-please.210212/[/URL]

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wish-i-would-have-discovered-ps-sooner.210551/#post-3831342#p3831342']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/wish-i-would-have-discovered-ps-sooner.210551/#post-3831342#p3831342[/URL]

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/price-for-round-brilliant.210167/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/price-for-round-brilliant.210167/[/URL]

Thanks a bunch!!

 

[tyty333]

Congratulations (on both accounts)!

Instead of rushing how about just buying the wedding band that you need to go with the Verragio that you like and
then buying when you aren't in such a rush?

 

[corgitastic]

Congratulations (on both accounts)!

Instead of rushing how about just buying the wedding band that you need to go with the Verragio that you like and
then buying when you aren't in such a rush?

Thank you!! We have been thinking about that but then I'm afraid I'm going to change my mind on the setting and then the band is going to be annoying to wear next to the ring. It took maybe 2 years for my SO to find me an amethyst ring (birthday/graduation/multi-purpose gift). He ended up buying it on his own and of course I loved it ;D If I buy now though, then that's the end of that! But other than that, I still would very much like to know if the price my jeweler is asking for is about right for the diamonds. There's a few other stores we're looking at. One is quoting much higher for inferior ones with EGL certs and others we're going to get quotes from this weekend. I just don't know if what they are quoting is about right or if I should attempt to request a lower price/go elsewhere. My mind has been a bit preoccupied with other matters this month ;D

Links to the reports. I realized I forgot to put it in the first post:
http://www.gia.edu/cs/Satellite?pag...&c=Page&cid=1355954554547&reportno=21769383552176938355, 1.03ct, G, SI1, Excellent, Strong Blue, HCA 2.7, $5900
http://www.gia.edu/cs/Satellite?pag...&c=Page&cid=1355954554547&reportno=51617929795161792979, 1.02ct, H, SI1, Excellent, No fluor, HCA 1.7, $5552.63

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Congratulations!

I'll tell you, I wanted to be able to say..oh, go ahead and get the ring! But I just can't recommend either of the diamonds you linked, unfortunately.

With an HCA of 2.7, you'd absolutely need to know if there is leakage (via an idealscope image), and few local jewelers are going to offer that.

I was more optimistic seeing the HCA number of the second stone, but I would not buy that one at any price. It has a large table and very low crown which means you have a pretty flat top stone.

I love that Verragio ring, but the stone actually sits on the high side when you look a the base where the finger would be. I would never recommend trying to size down a sample ring, especially one with the detail of a Verriago. The sample is likely a 6-6.5, and there is NO WAY that it is a good idea to size that down to a 4.5! If you are spending that kind of money on a setting, it needs to be ordered and made in your size and Verragio likely sets the stone as well. Please wait and have your ring ordered in your size. I think it will be a mistake otherwise.

If you'd like an easy solution with an outstanding diamond, WhiteFlash sells Verragio settings and here is their top of the line diamond:

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3236265.htm

If you want your local jeweler to find a stone, then I would recommend using some parameters to make the search more productive:

table: 54-58

depth: 60-62 (up to 62.3 max. The deeper the stone the more you lose in diameter, potentially)

crown angle: 34-35.0

pavilion angle: 40.6-41.0

girdle: thin, medium, slightly thick (or combo of those)

These numbers will usually yield a good HCA score when sifting through GIA XXX stones.

 

[corgitastic]

Congratulations!

I'll tell you, I wanted to be able to say..oh, go ahead and get the ring! But I just can't recommend either of the diamonds you linked, unfortunately.

With an HCA of 2.7, you'd absolutely need to know if there is leakage (via an idealscope image), and few local jewelers are going to offer that.

I was more optimistic seeing the HCA number of the second stone, but I would not buy that one at any price. It has a large table and very low crown which means you have a pretty flat top stone.

I love that Verragio ring, but the stone actually sits on the high side when you look a the base where the finger would be. I would never recommend trying to size down a sample ring, especially one with the detail of a Verriago. The sample is likely a 6-6.5, and there is NO WAY that it is a good idea to size that down to a 4.5! If you are spending that kind of money on a setting, it needs to be ordered and made in your size and Verragio likely sets the stone as well. Please wait and have your ring ordered in your size. I think it will be a mistake otherwise.

If you'd like an easy solution with an outstanding diamond, WhiteFlash sells Verragio settings and here is their top of the line diamond:

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3236265.htm

If you want your local jeweler to find a stone, then I would recommend using some parameters to make the search more productive:

table: 54-58

depth: 60-62 (up to 62.3 max. The deeper the stone the more you lose in diameter, potentially)

crown angle: 34-35.0

pavilion angle: 40.6-41.0

girdle: thin, medium, slightly thick (or combo of those)

These numbers will usually yield a good HCA score when sifting through GIA XXX stones.

Thank you so much!! I just got a call from him and the only one he was able to pull was that 2.7 HCA . I'm gonna go look at it later as he had me put a $100 refundable deposit (to make sure I came back) but I'll hold off on getting the ring. We finally got the other jeweler my SO liked to pull in more stones coming in today. Apparently he's been sick and his co-workers don't like poaching each others sales so they've been holding off on helping us. I'll get all the details of those and report back! The ring that I liked there is attached below. In general I didn't really want a halo ring b/c it kind of took away from the center stone whenever the stone was larger than a carat but this one didn't really. The bling didn't mix

 

[corgitastic]

We went to the other jewelry store on Saturday and looked at some diamonds. There was a I, SI1, Excellent cut that in general was nice, HCA 2.4 but it just did not seem to let light through as I expected. It had a lot of feathering on the edges outside of the table and he had it priced at $6200 before negotiating. He also showed us some "very goods" that were F & H rated but their HCA numbers were 4.7 & 4.3. The H looked good but even though it was a 1.00 carat and the F & I were 1.06 and 1.02, it looked drastically smaller. It only had a feather on the very outer edge that he said you could hide by setting it right. It was as clean as the VS2's we'd seen before except for that one feather. It makes me so confused on grading. Anyway, we left there with him now having more stringent criteria to look for.

The H: http://www.gia.edu/cs/Satellite?pag...&c=Page&cid=1355954554547&reportno=5151687362

The place with the Verragio ring just sent me another diamond to consider.:
http://www.gia.edu/cs/Satellite?pag...&c=Page&cid=1355954554547&reportno=2126185983
HCA is 2.3. Depth 59.1%, Table 63%, Crown angle 33.5, Pavilion angle 40.6. 1.02 carat, H, VS2, Cut Very good, Polish Excellent, Symmetry Very good. Crystal, clouds, and feather right in the center. Price $5880.

Is this one worth pulling in and looking at or should I have him just to keep searching? Not a big rush anymore. I bought a $12.99 gold plated band at Target for the wedding tomorrow lol.