After 25 years of being married I want to buy my wife a nice ring ~ £4k but I don’t have the faintest idea what to look for or where to go to buy a nice diamond ring. Anyone have any recommendations?

Share the idea with her, it’ll give her something to look forwards to & take her with you.

Hmmm ask her mates also does she like jewellery if not spend the money on something she does like. There are lots of independant jewellery makers so have s look as £4K will go a fair way.

I did this last year. Just take her to Jewellery qtr in Birmingham and let her pick what she likes. I ended up with change despite having the same budget, I didn’t tell her the budget, just let her have free reign. We got a platinum and diamond eternity ring.

Jewlery quarter in B’ham is where I got my wife’s engagement ring. For the money I spent I got a much better ring than any of the high street jewellery shops.

Take her on a trip to Amsterdam so she can chose the stone, then take her to the jewellery quarter to get it made into something really unique? Beautiful ring and hopefully great memories of the trip too.

I planned sonething similar.
Discussed it with my wife… she spent 5k on a large greenhouse.

She may not want what you think!!!!

We have used platinumjewellers.co.uk in the jq a couple of times for custom bits and got good service.

There was another place just up the road from them we had a nice diamond and sapphire ring made but can’t recall the name.

I didn’t spend anywhere near that. I bought a little gold eternity ring with two slightly larger diamonds, one pink, one blue, and three little blue diamonds (three boys). Matched her wedding ring.

Mrs Zip says make an appointment at the jewellers but tell MrsFlan that you’re going out for a meal. That way you can surprise her with a whole shop not just a ring.
She says bigger isn’t always better.

I didn’t spend anywhere near that. I bought a little gold eternity ring with two slightly larger diamonds, one pink, one blue, and three little blue diamonds (three boys). Matched her wedding ring.

No way. You copycat. 😄
Ok, just three blue diamonds and one pink one.

How about Kate Smith?

*highest of fives to mr_generalist*

My story:

Engagement ring + wedding ring + replacement wedding ring after first one was lost ( but found again 2 yrs later) < £1k

When asked about eternity ring the answer was I’d rather have a really nice holiday

You really need to talk about it, albeit in a roundabout way, before spending the £s

Nice local jewellers and a rubover diamond eternity ring. Metal to suit. Choosing together is a must.

Bought one for Mrs TiRed on birth of first child. She loved it in a shop window, so I bought it the next day and hid it for three months. Took that long to pay for it. She was heartbroken it had gone when we walked past the next time. It’s not been off her finger for about 20 years now.

Mrs Mo settled on an Ungar and Ungar ring after much looking about. Never seen one like it since and 12 years on she still loves it.
Ungarandungar.com

If you want a lovely ring , but at that there London prices, then I can highly recommend David Ashton

They will make anything but will obviously as well

Lovely people;when proposing 20 years ago, got an engagement ring on “Sale or return”.

Fortunately a sale!

If you were financially challenged when you got engaged have the engagement ring re-made with larger stones. (I got engaged as an early 80’s student).

I had one custom designed and made for my wife to replace wedding ring. Used a jewellery maker through a friend of hers in Bristol and between us custom designed and made. Cost will depend on stones etc. We decided on three stones to represent three daughters using ethically sourced stones.

Why wouldn’t you mention this to her seems a lot to spend without a discussion.
I worked for 25 years in the Jewellery Quarter, I have no connection but a company called AA jewellery had a couple of decent guys running it, this was 10 years ago, I’m assuming they’re still going.

Something a bit different. A company in Somerset which is fairly local to us. We had our wedding rings made by them.

You can get materials to them so they can make a ring out of it. So a piece of wood from somewhere special etc.

https://ecowoodrings.co.uk

Niessing. Element in Hebden Bridge work with them. Their tension ring is a design classic.

https://niessing.com/en/

I did this last year. Just take her to Jewellery qtr in Birmingham and let her pick what she likes.

+1 I did this when our wee one was born

Mine was made for me by a small company in Kinsale in 1997. We were out on the Dingle peninsula windsurfing. We had a discussion about what I wanted and decided on diamonds and emeralds. It was ready for me to collect on the way home.
Still don’t know what it cost.