[Closed] Engagement Rings

try http://www.martingotrel.co.uk/

while i got my diamond from a good friend of mine in the US, the ring was made by stuart sivvery in bury.
he's just next door to the East Lancs Railway station on Bolton Road.

But otherwise i can recommend Brian Gavin (who i got my diamond from) he's a well respected diamond cutter, and his jewellery is brilliant.

http://www.briangavindiamonds.com/

I spent a year or so looking for a ring that was the sort of thing the mrs likes.

I would suggest not going for merely the biggest centre stone you can afford - big, low quality stones look horrible in my opinion.

Get the best cut you can afford, then colour and then clarity (clarity being a slightly mute point as most half decent stones have imperfections only visible under ten times magnification)

This is the advice i got from a qualified diamond grader and the mrs's ring is damn sparkly!

Sold a bike to buy a ring? Nutter.

How do you know what size to get?

I'd rather sell my car than my bike(s).

You're a brave man. She must be one in a million.

Mine is, but she won't marry me.

Just before you shell out for that diamond ring have a read of this 😉

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2524/is-a-diamonds-price-a-true-measure-of-its-value

The Diamond rings as an engagement ring tradition is basically very clever marketing (along with the marketing slogan 'Diamonds are forever"). Not that you will be able to convince your lovely other half of this, but I just thought I would let you know before you went and spent a month or twos wages on a diamond 😉

Christopher Evans in Poynton.. does some really nice stuff. Has a branch in Stockton Heath nr Warrington as well

Don't buy the ring yet. Propose, THEN buy the ring. You will never guess what she really likes and this is a 'rest of life' thing to wear.

Seriously fella - we're not supposed to know how they think - that would make it too easy. She has to be involved in what the ring looks like.

Congrats. Just don't think you're buying a ring to keep her quiet. Once she's got that, she's start pestering for the next step. Be it a house or kids or a bigger house. 😉

Second the comments about stone quality over quantity. I spend about a grand on the stone and got 0.42 carrats due to the high colour and clarity. It was mounted in a titanium ring which we both like but in ring terms cost next to nothing. I went to the trouble of picking out a certified stone and less than six months down the line, she's lost the certificate!

I went down the same route as you bikemonkey for months before i bit the bullet and went into H Samuels (told to avoid my many - but went against the grain to see for myself) to see if they could give me what i wanted. Spent a good few hours in the store looking at what ring styles, diamonds, metals, they had to offer and comparing them with what i had already looked at, the service was brilliant imo. Anyway ended up bagging the bargain of my life, 18ct white gold, 1.00 carat solitaire diamond ring, 50% off the RRP.......popped the question Christmas day 2009 at the side of the twinkling christmas tree, (she said yes) purchased the ring the second week in December, and by the 27th December the ring i had was back upto full RRP and still is today! BONUS!!!!!

You can pick some mega bargains up from high street jewellers, you just have to get lucky!

Anyway congrats & good luck with the BIG Q!

Congrats! I went through all this about 6 months ago (thankfully sucessfully - getting married in a month and a half!)...

Anyway, have a read of this thread which helped me no end when it came to getting a ring.

http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-much-to-spend-on-a-ring

(Ignore the title, it's not really about money). In the end I went to a place in hatton gardens called Diamondrocks, good service and the rock that my fiance got is very very sparkly!

Whatever you do, don't say get whatever ring you want without setting a budget. Custom designed platinum with a flawless diamond is what she chose. Could have bought a VERY nice bike for that.

4 things to keep in mind:

1. The cut of the diamond - it will affect how much it sparkles and how chavvy it looks in a few years

2. The clarity of the diamond - it goes from D (best) all the way down the alphabet until you get to "funnies" which are coloured diamonds. "D" is bright white.

3. The level of imperfection - F = flawless, VVS1 = very very small imperfections 1 then there's VVS2, VS1, VS2 etc.

4. Finally there's the size.

What you want really is the brightest, with the least imperfections and a good "classic" cut.

I bought a D grade, "round-brilliant" cut, flawless diamond solitaire at 1.1 carrots in a platinum setting. That was chuffin expensive, but it's far more sparkly than anyone elses engagement ring.

Comparisson - I could have got a 2.1-2.5 carrot h-j grade diamond in a gold setting for the same price.

Seriously fella - we're not supposed to know how they think

I'd hope you would by the time you got to proposing! Proposing without a ring is just lack of planning.

Thanks guys - some great (and not so great!) comments here.

I'll let you know how I get on.

[i]You're a brave man. She must be one in a million.[/i]

she is, and has a cracking set of norks.

in all the bamboozaling on the 4Cs its worth remembering there isnt alot of difference between the grades, and yes the cut is the most importent - as if it isnt cut well, it doesnt sparkle, and why would you buy a diamond that doesnt sparkle - you might as well buy a Cubic Ziconia from QVC. 🙂

in terms of colour grades - 99% of the population couldnt line up a range of diamonds in order of grade from D to J, and a good rule of thumb i work to is H or higher is fine - it appears just as clear as a D and honestly you couldnt tell a difference.

Diamonds are graded face down, against a white background in controlled light conditions - it is also a graders oppinion, and the same stone sent to the same lab may sometimes come back with a slightly different grading (same for clarity)
But in the real world you will never be in those conditions - and a well cut diamond will reflect alot of the colours around it.
For instance put a D diamond in a yellow gold bezel setting (ie a setting where the edge of the diamond is covered by the rim of the setting) and it will look slightly yellow - where as a K diamond in a platinum 4 prong tiffany setting (the classic style of ring) would look alot white in comparison to the D in gold)

there are other factors that can also effect the face up colour of the stone - mainly the cut of the stone - but thats getting a little deeper into things than perhaps is necessary to the OP (the basis is that on stones over 0.5ct if the pavilion angle, that is the angle of the lower half of the stone, is greater than 41° then the stone will show the body colour of the stone more than a stone which is cut at a slightly shallower angle)

But Colour does not have any bearing on how 'bright' as stone appears - that is how well cut a stone is, tho as a proviso this is for stones in the D-K range - M N O then the yellow colour is alot more noticable, and beyond that we are into fancy yellow - and on differnet scales is the fancy colours blue, red etc. and these stones are cut to enhance the colour of the stone, not hide it.

Clarity - a bit like colour grading - to the naked eye clarity doesnt make much difference, it is only the wallet it makes a difference to.
again my rule of thumb is to look at VS2 and above - while taking SI1 on a stone by stone basis.
the clarity is looking at imperfections within the stone - these can be lots of things - usually specs of other material within the stone. Remember a diamond is formed millions of years ago deep in the earth - the imperfections are unique to each stone, and are its birthmarks.
taking 2 different stones with the same clarity grade you could have one stone with a single black inclusion, and the other with lots of tiny clear inclusion (a cloud) and depending on where that big black inclusion is - it could be in a postition where it can be hiden by a prong of the ring and there for invisable when set in a ring.
when looking - if the diamond is certified, then the cert should have a plot of the inclusions visable in the stone. Hold the diamond close and see if you can find them in the stone - if you cant then, why pay more for a stone with a higher clarity grade?
personally i bought my wife a pair of diamond studs - they are VS clarity - i needed to use my 30x loupe to pick out the clear inclusions in the stones, nothing can be seen with the naked eye.
again clairty is assessed by a grader under magnification in controlled lighting which highlights inclusions - lighting which you dont find in the real world.

So in the end - try to find a stone within budget, my rules of thumb are H+ VS2+ and try to pick the one that sparkles the most (if the store stocks GIA graded stones, the try to pick/look at stones graded 'Excellent' or 'Very Good' for cut) and try to view the stone in different lighting conditions, away from the jewellery store lighting as that can make a lump of coal sparkle!

Congrats btw (found your post interesting)

Have you planned how to do it? on one knee etc or firework display?

How do you know what size to get?

I think you start by measuring the stand-over height...

http://www.bluenile.co.uk/?rf=pd

is all you need. Even better, if you have friend in the USA you can ship to is http://www.bluenile.com/, avoid paying mucho VAT!!!

When you give the ring to her remember to tell her it is a gift that way when she high tails it off with another guy in the years to come you can have it back cash it in and buy another bike 😆

antique jewelers?

I chose a GIA triple X in E (the jeweller tested me and unlike most I could tell the difference between E and H for example) , S1 (feather) and it sparkles like a very sparkly thing indeed!

As he said (up) Cut, cut and cut is what gives a stone fire and general "look at me" ness 🙂

OMG you sold your bike to buy an engagement ring you are mental!!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Heartless-Stone-Journey-Through-Diamonds/dp/0312339704/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275327230&sr=8-1

BTW - I have kept my main bike, the Dawg was 2 of 2 (I'm not completely stupid!)

I surreptitiously tried on one of her rings when she wasn't looking, and found that it just fitted my pinkie. Then sizing in the jewellers was a pretty good guess - perfect as it turns out.

Up to you how you 'do it', but I know that Mrs B loved the fact that I'd chosen a ring without her knowing, and planned the whole thing.

All the best!

Maybe not that close to you, but Form Bespoke, in Leeds is where I went, and very happy I was with them too.
(She said yes, and then bought me a shiny new Scott)!

Spent a months wages on a ring.

Proposed.

Said yes.

Realised I didn't love her.

Left her.

She kept ring.

Should have bought a bike.

from the Daily Mash horoscopes today

Scorpio (24 OCT-21 NOV)
One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them. One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. £24.99 from Elizabeth Duke. Nice one.

Damn - I'm Saggitarius

My Wife refused to let me spend a penny on rings or any of that tat, she wants us to spend money on something usable and tangible. Her wedding dress was 19.99 from monsoon in a sale. She looked awesome in it. In the end I bougfht her a $2 silver ring in NZ whilst on our year long honeymoon/RTW trip, that ring has huge sentimental value and meaning in our lives...

Something tells me not to click that link!

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Mrs FD was lucky enought to get her engagement ring made by a wonderful lady who's husband/partner used to be on this website... not sure if he/they still lurk around here??

Mrs FD got a hand made (designed by me) diamond gold ring. She loves it to bits and people always ask her about it as it looks a bit different to many other rings.

Again go for quality of stone over size. Mrs FD's is quite a small diamond, but boy does it naturaly glisten.

i'm starting to feel lucky reading this thread... the OH keeps pestering me to engage, she's even gone out and bought herself a &4.99 ring that she wears for work... i've been told i dont even need to propose... just throw the ring at her one morning when i'm leaving for work, all that matters is its me giving her the ring (that she's already bought haha)

the idea behind the super cheap ring is that if it gos missing, gets washed down a sink or whatever.. it doesn't matter and we can replace it with whatever argos is shifting for less than a fiver.

i'm refusing to "engage" out of principle at the moment, partly because we dont want an actual wedding ceremony so being engaged seems a bit false, and partly because she's asking. the same with us having a kitten... when she stops asking, thats the time she'll come home to a kitten with a ring hung from its little collar 😀

Mine is, but she won't marry me.

I quite like the whole tradition around marriage, bit out of character, but we all have our nuances... I therefore believe that an engagement ring should cost approx 2x your monthly salary.

I also beleive that I'll only ever propose following redundancy or between changing jobs.

Picked up future Mrs eGn's engagement ring last saturday. Had it designed and made.
Worth every penny to get something that nobody else will have.

Dot the jewelers, Saltaire, West Yorks