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Engagement rings (merged)

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FCollinsBuckeye said:
Damn, you're friends with some high rollers.

That old __% of your salary or one month's salary or whatever is bullshit. I'd say it depends completely on her and what you think she'll like. Plus, you don't want to set the bar too high for some bling in the future...

I dropped 2g on my sweetie's platinum/.75c diamond ring. She thought it was too much, but she's worth it. :)
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I started with the 2-months' salary rule-of-thumb deal, and worked from there. I could have afforded more, but I also didn't see the reason to waste money on something she wouldn't like. Maybe I'm lucky, but my wife isn't and wasn't the type who wanted a big, fancy ring. I think she felt embarassed to be wearing a real diamond, at all. I ended up buying a small diamond (something like .3c - .35c), but I bought that fancy "Leo" diamond. Maybe a rip-off, but it looked a lot fancier than the "normal" diamond they had to show me in the store. I didn't spend 2-months' salary on it in the end.

If you have a girlfriend who is competitive with her friends or sisters, you might be in trouble. She'll want a bigger diamond than any of her friends have, and her happiness will only continue until another friend gets a bigger diamond than she gets. Then, her wedding will have to be at least as big (big = expensive) as any of her friends. Maybe that part is OK if her parents can afford it. But you may be stuck paying for that, too.

I'm not saying to run away. I'm just saying that you need to be ready to dish out some hard-earned beer and stripper money on stuff that isn't beer or strippers.
 
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Or you can get real lucky and find out that her parents have an engagement ring that belonged to her Great grand mother that she is named after. antique ring ( which is supposedly "in" right now). Nice big diamond. Cost me couple hundred to have it re-pronged and I was good to go :)
 
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I went to the Diamond Cellar in Columbus. Great place but a little pricey. I spent about 2 months salary. She didn't care if the ring came from a cracker jack box. That's why I spent the money I did on it. If she would have asked for a 3 ct. ring I would never have got married.

Biggest thing I looked at is "cut" and color. If the diamond is cut to flat it won't sparkle and if it is cut to deep the light will get trapped inside. Color is important because it is what will stand out in the sun.
 
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The clarity is the part where you can let the quality slide a bit. Mine is a VS2, I think, which is technically the worst rating, but I cannot see any blemishes at all with the naked eye. Cut and color are definitely much more important.
 
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OSUsushichic said:
The clarity is the part where you can let the quality slide a bit. Mine is a VS2, I think, which is technically the worst rating, but I cannot see any blemishes at all with the naked eye. Cut and color are definitely much more important.
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VS2 isn't bad at all... a vs2 is actually "perfect" to the "trained" naked eye (read: a jewler cannot tell the difference from a VS2 and a Flawless ring without a loop). Clarity rankings are Flawless, Internally flawless, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, I1, I2, etc. (I have close family friends in the business and they say the vast majority of engagement rings are SI1 or SI2 for the wealther folks, and I1 for the not as wealthy)... for whatever reason folks don't purchase the really good clarity marks (with that said, most jewlers try to push the SI1 or SI2 because they are cheaper).

I noticed you live in Chicago... there's a ton of wholesalers on "diamond ave.", I'm sure you know somebody that can get you an appointment. You will spend half what the retail outlets charge (read diamond celler, etc.) for the same spec'd ring.

It is imperative that you get a zero make (a perfect cut). If it isn't cut perfectly it will not reflect the light properly. Each style of cut has it's perfect cut (called a zero make). Do not buy anything that isn't a perfect cut (dropping down will save a chunk of change, you are however buying junk.... cut corners anywhere except the cut).

The naked eye cannot tell a VS2 and above. Unless you put the diamond against bleach white paper a D-F (corsidered colorless) color is similar to a G (very difficult to tell the difference, you can drop down to G to save some money)... fwif, color starts with "D" not "A")
 
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gbearbuck said:
VS2 isn't bad at all... a vs2 is actually "perfect" to the "trained" naked eye (read: a jewler cannot tell the difference from a VS2 and a Flawless ring without a loop). Clarity rankings are Flawless, Internally flawless, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, I1, I2, etc. (I have close family friends in the business and they say the vast majority of engagement rings are SI1 or SI2 for the wealther folks, and I1 for the not as wealthy)... for whatever reason folks don't purchase the really good clarity marks (with that said, most jewlers try to push the SI1 or SI2 because they are cheaper).

I noticed you live in Chicago... there's a ton of wholesalers on "diamond ave.", I'm sure you know somebody that can get you an appointment. You will spend half what the retail outlets charge (read diamond celler, etc.) for the same spec'd ring.

It is imperative that you get a zero make (a perfect cut). If it isn't cut perfectly it will not reflect the light properly. Each style of cut has it's perfect cut (called a zero make). Do not buy anything that isn't a perfect cut (dropping down will save a chunk of change, you are however buying junk.... cut corners anywhere except the cut).

The naked eye cannot tell a VS2 and above. Unless you put the diamond against bleach white paper a D-F (corsidered colorless) color is similar to a G (very difficult to tell the difference, you can drop down to G to save some money)... fwif, color starts with "D" not "A")
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Thanks for the clarification, Gbear. Now that I think about it, VS2 was the lowest that my fiance was willing to go on clarity. I agree with you on the color. Mine happens to be a C color, but yes, it's extremely hard to tell the difference between "A" and "E".
 
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OSUsushichic said:
Thanks for the clarification, Gbear. Now that I think about it, VS2 was the lowest that my fiance was willing to go on clarity. I agree with you on the color. Mine happens to be a C color, but yes, it's extremely hard to tell the difference between "A" and "E".
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Not to be picky, but there is no such color as "C"... colorless (the perfect color) is "D" (actually to get technical the colorless range is D, E, and F).
 
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I'm going to post and make everyone mad :)

My father works in the jewerly biz

4 year ago, got engaged
Bought a .65 caret VVS1 F color Princess Cut Diamond

Mounted it in a Tiffany Tulip mounting
White Gold
Kinda like this but slightly different
15720043.jpg


Paid $695
 
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OSUsushichic said:
Crap, now I'm all confused! I'm just going to shut up and act like I don't know anything. :)

(Mine is an "F" color, my fiance just told me. :biggrin:)
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F, G, H, and I are the four that are most prominent... anything higher is throwing dollars at a tiny improvement, anything lower begins to show a bit of yellow... If your ring is yellow gold, it can pick up a bit of that color, so you can actually get away with a bit lower in the color (on the same note, you shouldn't put a D or E in yellow gold, because it will show as if it were lower)... just some helpful hints... (can you tell I spent too many hours when doing my research?:tongue2: )
 
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I know the setting that I am going to purchase, I just need the diamond. I have been doing a lot of reading and looking at your suggestions. Here is my next question that I have ran into. What about certification? GIA, AGS or EGL? EGL diamonds are much cheaper than the first two but I read that EGL lets some of their ratings "slide".
 
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gbearbuck said:
F, G, H, and I are the four that are most prominent... anything higher is throwing dollars at a tiny improvement, anything lower begins to show a bit of yellow... If your ring is yellow gold, it can pick up a bit of that color, so you can actually get away with a bit lower in the color (on the same note, you shouldn't put a D or E in yellow gold, because it will show as if it were lower)... just some helpful hints... (can you tell I spent too many hours when doing my research?:tongue2: )
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My fiance was really picky about the color, so we went with a slightly lower clarity to get a better grade of color. It was fun shopping (maybe slightly less for Manfred!), but I'm glad I only have to do this once!
 
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