Well, it''s official. She said YES!! A big thanks goes out to everyone on the forum for helping find the perfect stone.
Here is my story (for those that want to hear it) I started out not even thinking of buying on the internet. I went to every B&M store here in the city. Asking friends where they got their rings etc.... I was looking for a 0.5 princess cut (I know, not as big as other people''s that are getting their erings). Every store I went to tought me the 4 C''s. These stones range from $3000 - $3500. And since I didn''t have a budget to begin with (didn''t know how much these things cost) I thought $3000 was great!!! The quality of these stones were between vs2 - si2 and color e - H which just fit into the $3000 range.
After looking at some stones, I knew I wanted an E color and nothing less (I know, I know, picky) and around a vs2 - si1. So off I went again. This time I told these B&M stores what I wanted. But to my surprise most of these tried to sell me a G-H, si1 - si2 saying there were almost no difference (by the way none of these stores mentioned CUT, which I didn''t even think was important at the time
. Frustrated, I jumped on the internet again, but this time did a search for diamond shops. I found the regular sites, blue nile, tiffany''s etc... but I also came to a site called diamonds.com I saw a stone (.56 princess) and it was for about 1500. I thought WOW saved my self 1500 bucks. But it had other information listed, such as table, depth etc... which I didn''t know anything about (which I later realized that it was the cut) and each had a price difference. So off I went again on the net to find out more about this new information. I found a forum (can''t remember the name now, is it called diamondtalk.com?) but they wanted my credit card in order to post messages. I back off right there.....it always makes me nervous that someone wants my CC number, but just to post messages??? That was outrageous. So anyway, it gave me the idea to look for forums (since I wasn''t finding the info that I wanted). but for some reason, I was having trouble finding that...but I did find diamondchitchat.com (great place by the way, but they were just starting out and not much people on that forum) and found the information that I wanted.
So I went back to the diamonds.com site and whipped out my CC and placed an order. But I was still not sure about the cut....and then I found this form, pricescope.com. It had a search engine, a form with lots of people and dealers. So I spent about 4 - 5 hours reading all the messages and tried to learn as much as I could. The research paid off, I found out that the stone I purchased was not a great cut. So I quickly called diamonds.com and cancelled my order. Then I searched again on their site (forgot about the search engine on pricescope.com after 5 hours of reading) and found a stone that I thought was perfect (0.50 Princess. the exact measurements I can''t remember, but I think the depth was 67 and table was 63, E color, VVS2) and after looking at Dave Atlus''s princess cut guide (THANKS DAVE!!!!!) it put my mind at ease. So again, I pulled my CC out and placed an order. The cost was around 1800.
At this time I was beginning to relax, so I thought I''d read some more messages and ask questions about the stone I just bought....and then I remembered the search engine...doh!!!
So I did a quick search and found out that other companies had the exact same stone and at a lower price! http://www.usacerteddiamonds.com had the exact stone for 1600!! So again, I called diamonds.com but this time, due to a technical glitch, my order was delayed. Great!! So I cancelled it promptly and called http://www.usacerteddiamonds.com.
These guys are great!!! Kim was the one that helped me. I told her the stone I wanted. She told me she would check and call me back to let me know if the stone was still available. It was!!! I ordered the stone, but through out the order process, Kim kept me informed from the tracking number to the delivery. And all this from an online retailer which I thought would never happen. It just put more peace into my mind about an internet purchase of this kind.
Anyway, to cut my story short at this point (I talk to much
) I saved my self 1400 and had a diamond that was better then I thought I could afford. The proposal story I''ll leave for another day. But here are some pictures of the ring & pendant (yes I got a pendant too).
Here is my story (for those that want to hear it) I started out not even thinking of buying on the internet. I went to every B&M store here in the city. Asking friends where they got their rings etc.... I was looking for a 0.5 princess cut (I know, not as big as other people''s that are getting their erings). Every store I went to tought me the 4 C''s. These stones range from $3000 - $3500. And since I didn''t have a budget to begin with (didn''t know how much these things cost) I thought $3000 was great!!! The quality of these stones were between vs2 - si2 and color e - H which just fit into the $3000 range.
After looking at some stones, I knew I wanted an E color and nothing less (I know, I know, picky) and around a vs2 - si1. So off I went again. This time I told these B&M stores what I wanted. But to my surprise most of these tried to sell me a G-H, si1 - si2 saying there were almost no difference (by the way none of these stores mentioned CUT, which I didn''t even think was important at the time
So I went back to the diamonds.com site and whipped out my CC and placed an order. But I was still not sure about the cut....and then I found this form, pricescope.com. It had a search engine, a form with lots of people and dealers. So I spent about 4 - 5 hours reading all the messages and tried to learn as much as I could. The research paid off, I found out that the stone I purchased was not a great cut. So I quickly called diamonds.com and cancelled my order. Then I searched again on their site (forgot about the search engine on pricescope.com after 5 hours of reading) and found a stone that I thought was perfect (0.50 Princess. the exact measurements I can''t remember, but I think the depth was 67 and table was 63, E color, VVS2) and after looking at Dave Atlus''s princess cut guide (THANKS DAVE!!!!!) it put my mind at ease. So again, I pulled my CC out and placed an order. The cost was around 1800.
At this time I was beginning to relax, so I thought I''d read some more messages and ask questions about the stone I just bought....and then I remembered the search engine...doh!!!
These guys are great!!! Kim was the one that helped me. I told her the stone I wanted. She told me she would check and call me back to let me know if the stone was still available. It was!!! I ordered the stone, but through out the order process, Kim kept me informed from the tracking number to the delivery. And all this from an online retailer which I thought would never happen. It just put more peace into my mind about an internet purchase of this kind.
Anyway, to cut my story short at this point (I talk to much
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