Reply With QuoteSpeak to Kev or Alex. If I did it again (hypothetically you understand) I'd be buying the stone loose and getting it set. Blue nile I think is a decent place to start for stones.
Looking at buying an engagement ring, and literally haven't a clue what is good and what isn't - need help please. Budget wise around £1,500 I guess. I have seen an 18ct white diamond 70 pts ring at £1,250 locally which I know my partner is keen on. Does this sound like it's on the money or not?
I guess the fact she likes it means I should probably buy it anyway regardless if it's £1,499 over priced
Speak to Kev or Alex. If I did it again (hypothetically you understand) I'd be buying the stone loose and getting it set. Blue nile I think is a decent place to start for stones.
Been a while since I looked/bought, but that sounds well on the low side to me.Originally Posted by NickMSM
Looking at buying an engagement ring, and literally haven't a clue what is good and what isn't - need help please. Budget wise around £1,500 I guess. I have seen an 18ct white diamond 70 pts ring at £1,250 locally which I know my partner is keen on. Does this sound like it's on the money or not?
I guess the fact she likes it means I should probably buy it anyway regardless if it's £1,499 over priced
Rob.
I got Dom Hackett to sort mine, we selected the stones then he had it made, it's stunning.
If she's happy why not. As I once said to a mate who was getting engaged - unless she throws it back at you when she dumps you - don't think how much it cost ever again.Looking at buying an engagement ring, and literally haven't a clue what is good and what isn't - need help please. Budget wise around £1,500 I guess. I have seen an 18ct white diamond 70 pts ring at £1,250 locally which I know my partner is keen on. Does this sound like it's on the money or not?
I guess the fact she likes it means I should probably buy it anyway regardless if it's £1,499 over priced
Good luck and a long and happy marriage!
I got hers (twenty years after the day!) from Alex (alexaff) - superb bloke to deal with and she was over the moon. I even got to design it.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
A diamond that size at that price sounds a decent bargain. As long as it's not a lump of coal then I think you've already got your ring!
Ask the jeweller for a rough grading on the diamond, for that price I reckon H colour (bottom end of the "white" spectrum) and an SI1 or SI2 clarity should be achievable. I have a couple of diamonds in that sort of size and grade around the £1500 mark, but they are in yellow gold.
If the diamond is tinted (I colour or down) or heavily included with carbon specks or feathering, then I advise you to walk away. It's simple to make another ring identical to it but with a good stone.
At that price the one you've seen is obviously a second hand refurbished one, which is absolutely fine, someone else has paid your VAT! Just check the quality of the diamond first.
Bespoke is always an option but budget an absolute minimum £1500 for the diamond and another £500 for the shank and setting.
Trouble is, she has fallen in love with the one you've already seen so I suspect all you'll do if you go the bespoke route is replicate that, so it seems silly paying more money. The diamond market is quite buoyant at the moment but EVERYONE is trying to boost their Christmas numbers. Go and slap £1000 in front of the shop manager and I can see you walking out with that ring in a fancy gift box.
A few points to consider:
White gold itself isn't actually that white - it's normally rhodium plated, which wears off over time (the alloy underneath is pale yellow). Not a problem in itself but you may find that it needs replating every 2-3 years to restore the "whiteness". This isn't desperately expensive but does mean sending the ring away every time.
Platinum is a white metal by nature and although it will patinate (it's quite soft, and will mark easily causing it to lose its shine) it won't change colour, and can be re-polished easily. There isn't that much difference between the cost of a platinum or gold setting these days.
A bit sneaky - diamonds get significantly more expensive the whiter they are - D, the whitest of all, command a premium. If you go for a yellow gold setting and the diamond has a faint colour this will be less noticeable.
Diamonds are basically lumps of carbon and there may be lumps of the black stuff inside (all Kev alludes to above, called inclusions). If the clarity of the diamond is around VS2/SI1, these should be invisible to the naked eye and you'll need to use a loupe to see them. As with colour, the better quality diamond the more expensive it will be - IF (internally flawless, i.e. zero inclusions) are sought after and again, command a big premium.
Cut, I think, is one of the most important parameters when choosing a stone. A well cut diamond will reflect most of the light that hits it back out the way it came and give it the "sparkle" that really notices. A poorly cut diamond won't as the light will be reflect sideways, downwards, whatever.
Diamond certificates - worth paying the extra? Yes, with a caveat IME - I couldn't grade a stone myself, so could have ended up with a lump of glass or a cubic zirconia, but not all certificates are equal. Anyone with a laser printer and an eye for design can come up with an impressive looking piece of paper, but for peace of mind I'd recommend GIA, HRD or IGI certification based on my research.
So what did I actually put my own money into, when I got down on one knee? A diamond trilogy (0.34/0.36/0.34), all stones E/VS2 and premium cut, in a platinum setting. I bought the stones from a dealer in Hatton Garden and they all came with GIA certificates. The cost wasn't excessive, I'd been looking on the high street but couldn't find what I was looking for - I think buying from HG worked out no more expensive apart from having to put in some leg work.
Christmas Day, it'll be 9 years since I proposed. Definitely one of my better decisions - good luck, OP!
Cheers,
Plug
When all is said and done it's your fiancée who will be wearing the ring and she has had years to plan what she wants, so you really need to know that before you buy.
I loved the idea of buying a loose diamond and having a ring made around it.
But I bottled it, and I'm glad I did.
I ended up buying a zirconium diamond ring from Argos, correctly sized, and proposing with that. Then telling my wife I wanted the ring to be her choice so the ring she was wearing was a fake but lets go find the ring she wanted. I was honest about budget and we worked from there.
All the research I'd done about loose diamonds helped hugely when choosing the actual ring, though as it turned out my decision to bottle it was the right one because the ring my wife chose isn't something I would have considered.
Food for thought, and I guess you're right that you should buy the one you've already seen because it has approval.
Good luck with your search and congratulations on your impending engagement.
Last edited by barreti; 20th December 2017 at 23:50.
Thank you very much for the helpful replies - much appreciated. As I thought it seems a minefield. I am going to pop in to the jewellers later to have another look and ask some of the questions mentioned on here. There isn't a huge rush, want to make sure I/we get the right ring!
I got the wife's ring from Blue Nile. Designed it myself and was able to get a much bigger/better ring that equivalent I saw in the jeweler's.
Great service all round. would recommend.
Same here, plus got a little cashback using Quidco
I got my wife's ring in Cartier. For the same setting and quality of stone it was withing a couple of hundred which was worth it for the red box, flowers and champagne they regularly sent round.
I did spend a lot more money though, but don't write off the big names and think you're getting a much better deal elsewhere
Ended up buying an 18 ct white gold princess set 75 pts ring yesterday. It wasn't the one we originally spotted, she tried it on and didn't like the way it sat. Typically this one was quite a bit more expensive but we're both happy with it. I think off the top of my head it's an H graded IS1. Thanks for all the help, definitely made it easier for me to understand what I was actually looking at/for.
Now I just have to pop the question..
Posting Permissions
