Buying engagement ring online?

Purple09

Hi,

Me and OH are due to get married in the next 2 - 3 months and we have started looking around in shops and online for my engagement ring. One thing I have come to notice that the rings offered online offer a significant price reduction due to buying direct from the manufacturer rather than from retailer.

My question basically is that has anyone bought direct from online manufacturers. If so, would you recommend this, are their any pitfulls to avoid ? Any suggestions or advise would be appreciated.

Thanks.

money_maker_3

Got my eternity ring online and the only thing I would suggest is to e-mail the company you are thinking of using and ask them to send you a sizing chart as each company can vary slightly

Nikabella

My OH & I got my engagement ring from Blue Nile which is an internet site selling loose diamonds & jewellery set with diamonds.

I absolutely adore my engagement ring. We were able to choose the diamond ourselves, you get a long list of diamonds at different prices with different grades of cut, clarity, colour etc. We choose one of the top graded diamonds but only a very small one as I don't like big diamonds on engagement rings & then we chose a ring setting from the different options which included diamonds down the side.

We looked in every shop in the high street & asked to see the diamond certificates; not one of the shops could match the quality of diamond we could get online & had we gone to the high end shops that would have been able to match the price. Our ring was very reasonably priced from Blue Nile & when we had our valuation through it was worth a lot more than we had paid.

If you aren't sure what ring size you want it can be a little tricky, however, Blue Nile do offer a resizing service which is free I believe. You can always go into a high street shop to get sized first - I wouldn't recommend H Samuel though as the size they told me fitted best, which I thus ordered from Blue Nile, I now think is probably a 1/2 to 1 size too tight.

You can even call Blue Nile on the phone if you have any questions, the jewellery is made within the stated time scale & the delivery was very fast. All in all I would definetely go back to Blue Nile the next time I wanted to purchase any diamond jewellery.

HTH

A.x

Pollycat

I think you will get a better deal from an online company if you are considering buying a decent diamond.

I'd suggest you do your homework about diamonds (the 4C's - clarity, cut, colour, carat).
Great advice from Nikabella, especially about taking the time to see what high street shops can offer and prices.

I've looked at the Blue Nile website when I was checking prices prior to buying in Goa, although I haven't had the actual experience of Nikabella.

Here's a couple of other sites with some good information about buying diamonds:
http://www.77diamonds.com/index.asp?77tadunit=3c968a94&77tadvert=761714541&77tkeyword=buy%20diamonds&77treferrer=&77tentrytype=s
http://www.diamondgeezer.com/

Note:
I'm not recommending these as somewhere to buy from, but to give you information to make an informed purchase which will hopefully be a good investment.

Mrs-H-

Does it have to be a Diamond engagement ring, when DH and i were looking into upgrading my ring for our 10th anniversary from 1.05ct to around 2ct
we chose to go with a diamond simulant instead of plonking down 1000's for another diamond and ive since bought 3 of these simulated diamond rings, i chose the colour of the stone to match the colour of the diamonds in my engagement ring and wedding band which were H colour and VVS clarity, and more importantly to what DH was able to afford in a natural diamond, we also looked at Moissanite and while i loved it, it can look a bit green under dull lighting, infact i bought a Moissanite Halo ring and had a H colour diamond infused CZ simulant placed in it and no one questions it as it looks as real as my real diamiond and they know my DH could get this for me, TBH, it was more of an ethical decision as lots of the diamonds out there may be conflict diamonds and i didnt want that on my concience, 2 of the simulated rings i have come in all diamond colours and cuts, even the fancy ones, if you are intestested i can post a couple of websites for you to look at.

RoxieW

We used cool diamonds for mine which has a great online facility where u can choose style of the ring, stone size, shape and clarity, coloured stones etc creating an almost bespoke ring at reasonable prices. Their customer service was also fantastic according to my hubby.

never_enough

We searched online, both for jewellers & advice. There is a thread somewhere on MSE all about differant thoughts & advice. I'm too much of a control freak to buy something like that online, although I know several people who have done. Only one had a bad experience, but Blue Nile have exceeded expectations for a couple of my (equally fussy ) friends. We bought mine in a local jeweller, as I was after something very specific he made it up for me & I am thrilled with it. I chose the shape & quality of stone & gave him a budget, he did the rest. It wasn't the cheapest way of doing things, but I have *exactly* what I wanted. We bought wedding rings from him too & got 25% off. No one is buying jewellery at the mo, so haggle like crazy. I'm not good at doing that normally, but when you're spending silly money on a 'bit of bling' don't be at all embarassed.
However if you still want to buy online then do go to lots of real shops first to check out the differences in diamonds, settings etc, so you feel comfortable choosing it. Depending on where you are it may be worth a visit to Hatton Garden in London, or Birminghams jewellery quarter. Some people even head to Amsterdam there are a couple of famous diamond houses that do tours for tourists & you can buy cut or uncut stones from them. Avoid most high street jewellers, they wont be able to tell you anything about the diamonds. You'll want full certification too.
If avoiding conflict diamonds is an issue for you, which obviously it should be, then Canadian diamonds are a good option.
Above all have lots of fun & dont be rushed. You'll be wearing it for a long time!

BillScarab

Where are you in the country Purple09?

My advice would be to take a trip to Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and visit the shops there that make their own. You're buying direct from the manufacturer so the prices are good and they'll resize them to fit perfectly while you wait.

Obviously not so useful if you're in Truro or Aberdeen though.

brownbabygirl

Mrs-H- wrote: »

Does it have to be a Diamond engagement ring, when DH and i were looking into upgrading my ring for our 10th anniversary from 1.05ct to around 2ct
we chose to go with a diamond simulant instead of plonking down 1000's for another diamond and ive since bought 3 of these simulated diamond rings, i chose the colour of the stone to match the colour of the diamonds in my engagement ring and wedding band which were H colour and VVS clarity, and more importantly to what DH was able to afford in a natural diamond, we also looked at Moissanite and while i loved it, it can look a bit green under dull lighting, infact i bought a Moissanite Halo ring and had a H colour diamond infused CZ simulant placed in it and no one questions it as it looks as real as my real diamiond and they know my DH could get this for me, TBH, it was more of an ethical decision as lots of the diamonds out there may be conflict diamonds and i didnt want that on my concience, 2 of the simulated rings i have come in all diamond colours and cuts, even the fancy ones, if you are intestested i can post a couple of websites for you to look at.

yes please post. i would love a simulant. getting engaged soon and looking at getting OH to buy a ring

TediousPhoenix

We got my engagement ring from Haton Garden last week. I just went onto Blue Nile and priced up practically what I have and it came to roughly the same... but then you have to pay VAT on it, so for me it wouldn't have worked out cheaper.

I would say if you can go to Hatton Garden or the Brum Quarter go there. I thought I knew I wanted a solitaire but when I tried them on I realised I liked the princess with baggetts to the side. It's just not the same looking online as it is actually trying it on... and trust me, I looked A LOT online!

I wrote a little piece on my buying experience over in the Weddings & Anniversaries forum the other day - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=17811935#post17811935

Mrs-H-

Brownbabyirl, i got my 2 rings from 2 different places, the 1st 2 i bought from Freecz.com and the last one i got from Moissaniteco.com, the last one i bought had an Asha central stone placed in it, its a CZ infused with Amorphous diamond particles and it looks exactly like my real diamond, TBH i ot loads of help and advice from the forum at Betterthandiamond.com, they are the manufacturers of the Asha brand simulants, it would be a good place to start if you want to have a look at what others have and it will give you an idea of what you like and want if you dont know already.