Two Questions

[J S Machine]

1. Why are rings so inexpensive at walmart as compared to everywhere else?

2. What is the customary thing to do when it comes to buying rings? I have never been married and I don''t know how this goes.
Does the man buy the engagement ring and then later find a wedding band to match, or does he buy a engagement ring and band to match at the same time? Does he also buy the mens band or does the lady buy that?

Pardon my ignorance, I just don''t know how this goes

.

Thanks

 

[Gypsy]

1. Because clear-ISH treated faceted carbon can technically still be called a diamond.

2. It depends on your relationship and your lady. Does she want a say in her ring? Do you want to surprise her with the WHOLE thing? Is she picky about jewelry? Do you know what she wants and likes?

Welcome!!

 

[Lynn B]

Haha, you''re sweet... and such a BOY!

Repeat after me: a diamond is a diamond is a diamond... NOT!!!

Start looking around... you''ll notice that most diamonds "out there" are kinda "dead". A diamond should SPARKLE... and what makes a diamond sparkle is the CUT. Not the color, not the clarity, not the SIZE... although all those are certainly important parts of the whole "diamond" puzzle.

So welcome to PS, we''re glad you''re here. Now... keep reading and learning -- and I promise... you can find a killer diamond that she will ADORE!

 

[peridot83]

1. Adding on to Gypsy''s & LynnB''s take, a diamond is just a rock..most of the time tinged yellow, with lots of marks and scratches. It takes a lot of time and effort to take that rock and cut into it, create a bunch of reflective sides, polish it out etc. The diamonds at Walmart that are cheap, tend to represent rocks, like the shimmery types you can find in your back yard. It''s tinged very warm, and as you tilt it back and forth you see a bit of a shimmery sparkle, but it''s mainly just a solid mass.

A diamond can be much more than this, it can look like a discoball, fireball, reflecting and bouncing light all over the place. If you look at some of the rings, in the Show me the ring forum, they can show you what a diamond can be.

My attitude is if you''re going to spend a lot of money on a rock, instead of towards a car payment or a house etc., it should be a good rock.

The goal of this forum is to get you Tiffany''s (or even better!) quality diamonds at a significant discount from what you see at typical jewelery stores. If you have a Tiffany''s near your area, I would go there and look at their diamonds. If you''d just as rather have Tiffany diamonds as Walmart diamonds, save your money and buy a Walmart diamond.

2. Wedding bands can come in sets w/ an e-ring, or you can purchase one later. The typical pattern around here seems to be, purchase the engagement ring, propose, then pick out wedding bands together. Some couples, have shared money already so the wedding rings are a shared purchase, others the female buys the male his wedding band, and he buys hers. Sometimes she''ll spring for both bands, if he paid for the e-ring. I don''t know if there''s any etiquette on it as it were.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

The diamonds at Walmart are not good quality. Much of their gold jewelry is 10k gold as well. You have found a good place to get advice and knowledge before you make an important purchase!

Unless she has shown you a specific set she wants, my advice is to get the diamond in a simple inexpensive solitaire setting, and then if she finds something later that she loves more, you could reset the stone. I would wait and let her try on wedding bands with the engagement ring so she can find one that she likes. She should buy your wedding band, but you should also try some on and tell her what you like.

Let us know if we can help you futher!

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 12/19/2007 6:10:49 PM
Author:J S Machine
1. Why are rings so inexpensive at walmart as compared to everywhere else?

2. What is the customary thing to do when it comes to buying rings? I have never been married and I don''t know how this goes.
Does the man buy the engagement ring and then later find a wedding band to match, or does he buy a engagement ring and band to match at the same time? Does he also buy the mens band or does the lady buy that?

Pardon my ignorance, I just don''t know how this goes

.

Thanks

These days, I don''t think there are hard and fast rules about this. Anythings goes. But that almost makes things more complex, not less complex!! haha Years ago, there was a clear script: the man bought the ring in secret, paid for the whole thing himself, and then totally suprised his SO with a proposal out of the blue. These days you see all sorts of different stories about how the ring-buying-to-proposal process goes. But even though there are no hard-and-fast rules, I would wager that the majority or women have very strong opinions about how the proposal should go, who should buy what, what input, if any, she wants to have in the process. Some women may never have explicitly formulated these opinions, she may not even know she has strong opinions about various ring and proposal related issues if she has never had a conversation about it, but the proposal and **the ring** (cue swelling music) have such meaning and symbolism in our culture, that even if a woman has never actually thought about it before, she will still have a gut reaction when something isn''t "right," or doesn''t mesh with her implicit theories or scripts about how proposals and engagements should occurr. The whole thing is complicated by the fact that the man may also have his own theories about how things go, and these ideas may or may not gel with his SO''s feelings! Ah the joy of love!

There are quite a few posts on this type of conflict on PS (e.g., "Help I hated my proposal and ring!").

So I think its a good idea that if you are thinking about starting the super fun process of getting a ring and getting engaged that you somehow find a way to "feel out" your SOs opinions about these issues. Maybe you already know what she wants, maybe your opinions are really strong and you have a plan you want to follow already. Whatever you do, there''s no right and wrong, and this is one of the best times in your relationship! Enjoy every moment

DD