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She said YES! Details and pics of the rock inside...

Anonymous6

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Nov 30, 2010
Messages
169
(kind of long :mrgreen:)

Background:

My gf and I are fairly young (early twenties) and have been best friends since high school. Even before we dated, every year during the holiday season we would drive around and look at Christmas lights. She absolutely loves the season, the weather, and everything about Christmas. We'd drive around and look at lights, listen to Christmas music, and drink hot chocolate... and after a while, it became a tradition. I asked her to our Senior Prom by leading her up to her doorway with candles and having a sign that said "try the backyard"... and I had put Christmas lights all over her backyard and I was standing there asking her to prom. She loved it and still talks about it today...
Well, 2 years of that tradition of looking at Xmas lights as best friends and another 5 years as boyfriend and girlfriend... this year I wanted to make our night of Christmas lights memorable.
Step one was to throw her off the idea of getting engaged this Christmas. We had been ring shopping, but I told her there's no way any jeweler can finish a ring before Christmas now (this was on Dec 12 or so)... so Christmas day is approaching and we're back in our hometown with family and all our friends are in town. I plan a fake appointment with Brian Gavin and other vendors in Houston for Monday and Tuesday Dec 27 and 28th... to throw her off any idea of me proposing on Christmas night. She says, "That sounds great."
Having her friends in town was awesome, as I wanted for there to be a surprise after the proposal and celebration with all family and friends. I sent a detailed email out to everyone who was in town (all of these girls will be in her party and the guys wil be in mine... then there were parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, and close family friends).

Proposal:

So, on the night of Christmas, she planned for us to do our annual trip with Xmas music, hot chocolate, and Christmas lights around the area... I go and pick her up (her entire family is already there they just ate dinner and everyone knows but her). I've already picked out the perfect park all lit up and a little private... very pretty. Christmas lights on the trees... a little area that's just all lit up and beautiful. We're driving around for a while enjoying our night and I eventually end up driving past this area... friends and family are meeting at their location which is a huge Christmas tree and a gazebo in a separate park down the street in about 15 minutes. So, my gf sees the lights to my prepared area and says "hey let's go out and take pictures! This place is gorgeous!" So, my plan has worked. I grab the ring from the side panel of my car door, and we get out and take pics in front of the lights and take a little walk around the park all lit up. We start walking back to our car and in this one section on the walk back is a little pathway with lit up trees overhead. I pull her aside and tell her I brought her here for a reason and tell her how much I love her and give my speech and get on one knee and propose to her under the Christmas lights.... reminiscent of my high school prom "proposal"... and she said yes.
She absolutely LOVED the ring and wouldn't stop looking at it during our car ride back "home". She's taking pics of it and asking me who knows and I tell her just her parents and mine... she's screaming about "can't wait to tell everyone!!!"... as I'm driving down the street to the waiting place with all our family and friends. She says "why are you pulling into this parking lot?" I said, "Trust me"... and we get out and walk around the corner to the lit up Christmas tree and gazebo in the park and our friends and family are there for a surprise with a banner and our dog is there and she just absolutely melts in enjoyment and happiness with all of them. Pictures are taken and celebration ensues. It's a cold winter night with Christmas lights everywhere. We then go to the nearest place that was open and just have drinks and celebrate the rest of the night and everyone just adoring the story and the ring on her finger.

The Ring:

Brian Gavin Signature H&A Round Cut H color 1.582 carats... details in my other posts of course. Thankful again for everyone here at PS for helping me in my decision. The moment I was on my knee and opened the box, her eyes just lit up. Like "O...M...G" It was stunning. When I picked it up and saw it for the first time, the sparkle and brilliance were just amazing. When we arrived at the park with friends and family, everyone was just saying "OMG the ring is gorgeous!!! Look at it sparkle! How is it sparkling so much???" Then the next few days were filled with the same statements and the sunlight just makes it look incredible. I love it and am so proud and happy of my purchase :)

Excuse the dirty diamond and dim lit pictures, it makes it look dull I know but trust me, it's brilliant!.... I'll try and take better brighter ones and post them but these will do for now. Been so busy busy, but I really wanted to post back! I got so much help from everyone here and this forum/website is just absolutely amazing.

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Great proposal.... so much thought!
Ring is gorgeous - well done.
 
Congrats!!


The ring looks lovely on her finger :appl: does not look dull or dim at all! :sun:
 
Great proposal story. The ring is gorgeous!
 
Gorgeous ring! Congratulations on your engagement. I love your proposal.
 
Congratulations! Lovely ring and story!
 
Great job on both the ring and the proposal! They are both brilliant!
 
What a lovely proposal and a gorgeous ring! Congrats!
 
What a wonderful plan/ring/story/proposal/couple/celebration/holiday/season/memory etc etc etc etc! You did good Anon6! Congrats! Wishing you both a lifetime of fairy lights & sparkles.
 
Congratulations on your engagement and the ring is beautiful!

I am so impressed how easily the arrows are seen in the stone.

I will be going through a similar route in the coming months and your posts are very helpful.

I am also looking for an H color stone. I saw some people have advised you to get a G. Any thoughts on color you could share now that your "search" is over?
 
Just lovely!!! Congrats!
 
beautiful proposal and ring :love: congratulations on being enfianced!
 
Such a wonderful proposal and beautiful ring. Congrats! :appl:
 
Thanks everyone!

As far as the color went, after I found out I was strongly considering this H color stone, I started comparing I, H, G, F at every vendor I went to.... I played the game where I'd rank them. I NEVER got it right... I even put the F as the last place once. It was honestly hardly noticeable to me. But keep in mind these are all hearts and arrows diamonds I'm comparing. The cut helps the color significantly. It just wasn't noticeable enough for me considering the price jump especially when you got the F color range.

G and H compared almost identically. Again, the price difference here wasn't worth it to me. Perhaps I wasn't as color sensitive as I thought, but I honestly did a lot of research in this color range and chose the H.

An excellent triple Ideal0 hearts and arrows cut will look stunning no matter what.. yes you can see some differences from F to H... but I could not justify the price jump. If I wanted an F, I would not have been able to get a signature H&A stone at all.. and after seeing all these H&A diamonds, that decision was basically made.


These pictures are of a dirty diamond of people including myself just touching it all night and you can still see the arrows in there. In the sunlight, it's just gorgeous!

Thank you again pricescope!
 
Thanks for your response. It is very helpful.

I feel like I am in exactly the same boat as you and will be going with H color especially that I simply won't be able to afford the same ct weight in G or F.

Again, congratulations and I'm sure your fiance is ecstatic!
 
Congratualtions! The ring is beauuuutiful and your proposal was wonderful. What a lucky couple you are! :appl: :love:

MyDiamondSparkles
 
What a great proposal! The ring is stunning, and you obviously put a LOT of thought into the whole thing, which is fantastic! Congratulations!!!
 
Congratulations on the engagement! :appl:
The ring is beautiful. Great job on the ring and the proposal. I love hearing romantic engagement stories!
 
First off CONGRATULATIONS!!!! How exciting :appl: I loved reading your story it was soo sweet & the personal touches you added really made it so memorable! I think it's really special that you two keep certain traditions and you made her day so special even thought you have been together for 5 yrs. The ring you picked is stunning :love:
 
Gorgeous, Anonymous6! The stone you picked is EXACTLY what I am looking for, and my concerns over cut, clarity, H&A etc are also exactly the same as yours! So you feel you made the right choice though as far as color, clarity and cut go, right? I am currently looking at some similar stones on WF and GOG. May I ask what made you choose to buy from BGD in the end? Do you know if they have an upgrade policy like GOG and WF do? I couldn't find anything about it on their site. Thanks!

ETA: What is your fiance's ring size?
 
decodelighted|1293548867|2807864 said:
What a wonderful plan/ring/story/proposal/couple/celebration/holiday/season/memory etc etc etc etc! You did good Anon6! Congrats! Wishing you both a lifetime of fairy lights & sparkles.

Ditto!! It was great seeing your journey here on PS! Congrats :D
 
kal2021|1293576447|2808265 said:
Gorgeous, Anonymous6! The stone you picked is EXACTLY what I am looking for, and my concerns over cut, clarity, H&A etc are also exactly the same as yours! So you feel you made the right choice though as far as color, clarity and cut go, right? I am currently looking at some similar stones on WF and GOG. May I ask what made you choose to buy from BGD in the end? Do you know if they have an upgrade policy like GOG and WF do? I couldn't find anything about it on their site. Thanks!

ETA: What is your fiance's ring size?


They do have a similar upgrade policy. So goes HighPerformanceDiamonds. :wavey:
 
Awesome, thanks Gypsy! You have been such a big help to me, btw!

Just found the info I was looking for under FAQ's. :)
 
Congratulations! I'm glad she loves it! It's an awesome ring - your taste is impeccable! :naughty:

Joking aside, what a very good ruse to completely surprise her! Best of luck!
 
Does anyone know if BGD gives a discount to Pricescopers?
 
Yes, BGD gives a pricescope discount. Actually, most of PS preferred vendors do. There's also a cash discount as well.

I chose BGD because they had my perfect stone... 1.5ct+, signature H&A, H to G color, SI1 (mainly for price concerns as long as it was 100% eye clean).... for my price range.

Other vendors had similar but it was either too expensive for the color grade to G or F... or the clarity was a VS1 or better which adds a lot to the $ as well... and just other factors. This ring was perfect for what I was searching for.

BGD spent so much time educating me and just chatting with me about everything, he was great to work with. Lesley and Jamie were basically on call at ALL times whenever I had a question or concern they were available via email.

I got VERY lucky with my situation... As I said I called on like Dec 12 when things were getting finalized and I was fortunate enough for BG to have a Novela setting in his shop. He said he could get it done before Xmas... It was like meant to be. I'll forever be grateful for that and lucky and fortunate.

So, if anyone from BGD reads PS... please know you guys are awesome and I will forever recommend your services.
 
Anonymous, it looks fantastic!!! :bigsmile: Congratulations on your engagement and best of luck for the future. I hope you'll stick around and post from time to time! Please post more pictures if you can.
 
Congrats on the proposal, and the ring is stunning.
 
What a beautiful ring and a great proposal. Congratulations!
 
Aww, you did such a lovely job on your proposal! The ring is beautiful, and the way you planned everything was so thoughtful and sweet. No wonder she was thrilled! Congratulations and best wishes to you!
 
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