Marv--You mean the setting I posted from MM or my actual setting which is somewhat of a solitaire but the band is eternity stone set. I don't know about the MM setting as kayla noted his prices seemed a little steep for a non custom job, and for my setting, it was $2k custom built..so you may be able to get a better deal elsewhere.
I know that
WhiteFlash sells .02c
ACA melee stones for I think $30-40 each. I have 26 stones in my ring, so this means that would have cost us around $700-800 for the stones. Do I think that my custom ring in plat without the stones cost $1200 to do? Who knows. But I think from the pricing I have seen elsewhere, you could get a custom job for under $2k.
Check out www.tradeshop.com. They do custom jobs and their pieces are gorgeous. They have an online design gallery where you can see recent projects and the like and get ideas of your own. They also have an online email quote whree you can attach pictures and the like and ask for a quote. I got mine back in 24 hours when I was looking at diamond bracelets.
Anyway..good luck. Also I wanted to note that a well cut 1c stone should have a diameter of around 6.5mm and 4mm depth. A well cut 1.25c stone will have a diamter of *around* 7mm and depth of around 4.20mm or similar. The numbers may be a little more or less depending, but when you noted that a 1.25 stone aka 6mm looks best..in reality that 6mm should be more like a .80c well cut stone. Because you were looking at maul stones, the cuts were most likely pretty horrible, meaning that a 6mm 1.25c stone does not match up. If the stone you saw had a 6mm diameter, that's more along the lines of a .80c or so well cut stone (say
ACA or H&A). So keep that in mind while shopping, as if you get a 1.25 H&A excelellently cut stone, the diameter will be around 7mm and that may be too big for her hands as you noted 6 was better.
Just something to note!!
Have fun! Off to Milkwaukee for the day..we are visiting friends in Wisconsin right now and boy is this place laid back!