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I just stuck a lump of coal on a brass curtain ring with superglue.
Mrs carlos has had 2 engagement rings the first cost me £30 in a second hand shop in Whitby , but it was what she wanted (we later found out it has a large ruby in it not a garnet as advertised), after 6 years this ring was almost on it's last legs being old so I bought her a new ring which is a heavy silver band (she's allergic to gold , even 24K)set with a single diamond and cost me £400. Our wedding rings cost £115 for the pair and are simple heavy silver bands, they were made by this bloke->
http://www.amulet.co.uk/amuletop.htm
Do women all love diamonds?
Is it a bit presumptious to assume that's what they'll want or am I just abnormal?
Diamonds, gold, silver etc. mean nothing to me so I don't think you're abnormal. But I'd hope that someone about to get engaged would know enough about their future wife that they'd vaguely know whether diamonds would be well received or not.
family heirloom..... GET IN!
It's all getting a bit materialistic.
The ring should be for you alone and not something to just be showy offy for your friends.
My friends are all outdoorsy types, so big bling rings would get in the way of their activities, outdoors or otherwise.
Spend what you can afford, simple as that. If you want something custom designed and hand made then drop me an email and we'll talk about what we can do, will work out cheaper than shopping around. 🙂
Thanks for everyone's thoughts on this thread. It's been very interesting...
Just been back to Goldsmiths to have a look at the ring she liked, I managed to knock the bloke down 10% without even trying, so I suspect there is a more saving to be made there with a bit of umming and ahhing and air being sucked through teeth.
That said, I think the can pretty much the same setting, with a nicer diamond (I am now fully knowledgeable of clouds, the 4Cs and a load of other stuff!) from Blue Nile for half the amount. Even better, having just gone my my companies 'corporate discounts' site, I've noticed I can get another 10% off. Organic - thanks for the extra info.
I suspect goldsmiths will not be getting my cash.... the ring I was looking at has a 0.33 carat, H colour, SI1, diamond in it. According to blue nile I can get one of those for 300 quid. Certainly eye opening to know the mark up.
Family heirloom here as well, not that I've asked yet.
When she mentions engagement rings I ask her if she'll buy me an engagement bike. The whole ring thing seems very one sided.
My advice would be to buy something that she is likely to wear. So unless you know exactly what she wants I'd get some costume jewellery for the moment and take her to a jewellers after. THe other consideration is would you like to walk around with a ring worth a month's salary on your finger?
Having just bought an engagement ring for my missus I got a very nice platinum, diamond solataire for £2k. We had it made by a jeweller who only does bespoke rings (and actually it worked out cheaper than many high street ones we looked at).
I would have spent more, but that is exactly what she wanted. I find it odd that people begrudge buying their missus a decent ring yet most likely have some very expensive bike bling in their shed.
In 30 yrs time I won't be riding the same bike, but she will have the same ring.
Plus they do go up in value (an investment?) and I also like the idea of an heirloom for the kids.
If your near Winchester I can recommend a really good guy. The whole process of designing and buying was something we both enjoyed.
Oh I did try on 'do I get an engagement watch' ??? But so far have been unsuccessful!
I do live quite near Winchester actually... can you give me the details?
Personally i'm hoping for an 'engaugement EOS7D' but I suspect I may be left to whistle for it!
Bear in mind people saying that their ring has a 'value' or is an 'investment', that there is no real resale market for them, meaning that if you resell it you will only get about 10% or something silly of the supposed (insurance) value. The 'value' you get calculated is only the amount it'd cost you as a punter to get it replaced, not a value you could sell it for.
Can't see your details to email you - my mail is in my profile if you drop me a line I'll respond.
I take joe's point on board as I did say to the missus that infact it was worthless as we would never ever sell it.
Spend what you can afford on something you know she will like and wear. What kind of ring are you thinking about getting?
Back from the dead... went to hatton garden in the end. Got a good deal. Now know much more about chunks of carbon than I ever expected to!
Cheers for all the help people.
just for reference.
Blue Nile is a very large company, origonaly started in the US, but now has a UK website.
All the stones listed on their website, bar their 'Blue Nile Signature Ideals' are not in house stones, but they are part of the virtual lists.
This list is available to virtually all jewelers which sign up to the list. (see qualitydiamonds, diamondgeezer) plus alot of high street retailers. so prices for the same stone can be compared.
The problem is because the retailer doesn't have the stone in house, they can't tell you much about it, other than the info they have from the list. The diamonds can be called in for a short period.
Blue Nile do whats called 'drop shipping' they take your order, which is passed onto the warehouse which has the stone, which ships it to the setter, which sets the stone in the ring, then it is sent on to the purchaser.
I prefer to work with vendors which have their stones in stock, in house - this avoids the occasional problem where 2 different vendors have sold the same stone, from the same list (but because the list isnt updated immediately) you run into a problem where one person will be disappointed.
Plus the guys i work with alot also have exclusive rights with cutting houses in Antwerp which produce diamonds cut to their specification. By which i mean get the top marks from the Grading Labs.
I work alot with a chap called Brian Gavin, who is a 5th generation diamond cutter,
this is one of his stones:
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Vendors like Brian, Whiteflash.com, Good Old Gold.com, all have a policy of a life time buy back on their branded stones - of around 70% of the original price of the stone should you have need to sell it, and because of the US culture of trading up your engagement ring over a couples lifetime, they also have 100% trade in price against a new stone.
oh and my experience of Goldsmiths is the sales reps know more about the finance package than they do about the diamonds they are selling. 😆
The whole drop shipping thing is what put me off bluenile - it was mentioned on a few finance blogs of all places. I was quite surprised I could tell the difference between different diamonds at hatton garden... i went for the keep going up in quality until I couldn't tell the difference approach (E, VS2 as it happened).
doesnt suprise me 🙂 above SI1 it starts to get very hard to see inclusions, unless your in the habit of carrying around a loupe. 🙂
SI1/VS2 is a good comprise between not having visible inclusions, and the increase in the cost of the stone.
With colour, alot of times, it comes down to how well its cut as to how well it hides it colour.
poorly cut stones dont reflect as much light back to the viewer so they look darker, and as a consequence show the colour of the stone up more.
I've seen J colour stones that are cut like the one above, look less coloured than a G graded stone that wasnt well cut.
The great thing about going to a store is being able to have that selection in front of you to compare.
In the real word, greasy finger prints and dust/dirt on the diamond will make the diamond duller
The guy asked me what I was looking for, and I said 'something sparkly'. Que silence. Then I pretended to grow up and exercise my newly gained diamond knowledge!
Even though I bought my now wife the ring she wanted, I still occasionally find it laying around on the bathroom floor. I'm sure it's only a matter of time until the dog eats it!