Engagement Rings (merged)

hieveryone

I can't remember where it's from I had it saved on my computer, which then went bust but I had saved it to an external hardrive... I take it a jeweller could probably make it to order for someone if they wanted it... i.e me at some point hopefully!

skin27

Hello. me and the fiancee are now looking together for her ring and I was wondering if any of you with useful diamond knowledge could please help me out.

We are currently in southern France and been to a jewellers here who has given us a quote for a diamond ring that he would make for us. It is a solitaire on a white gold ring, details I have of the diamond are 0.43 ct, round brilliant cut, he said its E or F colour and was on one of the higher levels of clarity, but sorry can't remember exactly. We saw the diamond and it looks pretty stunning and he could put it in the setting she likes. The total price he quoted, would be (converted into pounds) approx. £1600.


I would really appreciate if anyone can give us any opinions on that. The thing is, we will be going to London for a few days soon and I don't know if its best to look for something there in Hatton Gardens, if it would be better value...

The french jeweller also said if we went for a similar quality diamond but a 0.30ct (ish), which he could order, would cost us about £1300.

Thanks for any tips/info...

isabella26

Hey!

Thanks everyone! I kinda secretly hoped number 1 would be most popular, and it is!

Thanks folks!

Bella.;)

TrenthamDave

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a ring for my girlfriend.
We're going to Prague next month and i plan to propose over there. I have around £2000-£2800 to spend on a ring. i have looked at your suggestions of samara james and it seems great. I also have been looking on https://www.bluenile.co.uk which seems pretty good. Does anyone know what the delivery times are like for these websites?
I've asked my girlfriends' friend to quiz her gently on the style of ring she would like without trying to give much away.

LADY_A_5

hi guys, not hijacking the thread!! just a question....do you HAVE to have an engagement/ring??? would it be 'ok' to skip that and go straight for the wedding??
thanks x

hieveryone

If I was with someone and I didn't get an engagement ring (like the one above!) lol, I would be very annoyed.. that sounds very materialistic but I like the 'look' of engagament ring, wedding ring then eventually eternity ring.. so for me, no, it wouldn't be ok to 'skip' it, but others I know have.

paddingtondoo

You don't have to have an engagement ring it's up to you and your OH. I had an engagement ring as we wanted to show some form of commitment but weren't really bothered about getting married (and we got it in India so it was great value and unique). I now wear it on my right hand as it doesn't sit well alongside the wedding ring that we chose as OH wanted us to have matching rings.

My wedding ring is far more important to me than my engagement ring.

retepetsir

Hey all,

Well I proposed to my g/f on Christmas Day with a platinum diamond solitaire ring from Blue Nile and she said yes (and loves the ring!). It took me ages to choose but the site was fantastic as I could find the exact diamond I was after. I've already had it valued for the contents insurance and its been valued at 20% more than I paid for it so I'm very happy .

TediousPhoenix

This thread was a great source of help to me (and my now fiance), so I thought I'd post a bit about our experiences.

We decided after much reading that we'd take a trip to Hatton Garden to find the engagement ring. We figured that it’d probably be busy on Saturday so we took Monday and Tuesday off work and go-a-looking. We only needed the Monday in hindsight, but I think it would have been more stressful knowing we only had one day to do it.

We'd done research before we went so we knew about our 4 Cs - although by the end of the day we were quite expert in the field!

Ironically, we bought the ring from the first shop we went into after going knowing we'd look at loads and loads. There are some good places in Hatton Garden, but equally there are some bad ones - like the bloke that tried to flog us a 1ct chipped and very included princess diamond ring, and the woman who showed us two only rings, told us to decide which one we like and then pick a diamond. I didn't like either ring!

There are some places that seem to be fronted by sales people, but others who are fronted by jewellers. And it's the jewellers who know that a good diamond will sell itself. We started one end of the street and worked our way up, and I must say it took us some courage to go into the first place but we were glad we picked it - could have gone into a number of places first. We thought it'd be a 'feeler' place, but the man who served us was excellent.

I had looked at many websites before we went and *thought* I knew practically what I wanted. That wasn't the case. I thought I would end up with a solitaire princess, but, personally, after trying quite a lot on I couldn't get worked up about them; they were just 'same-ie'.

In the first place we visited - A&S - one of the many he showed us was a princess solitaire with a baggett either side. I tried it on with the attitude that I wouldn't like it because it wasn't the image I had in my head, but it was beautiful. And not only that, the diamond was absolutely gorgeous. We both fell in love with it. But of course we wanted to look at others, lots of others. So we went to many places, but nothing came close to that ring, and with every place we looked at it just confirmed that that was the ring for us. I've read on here that when you find the right ring you know - and we knew; it was the only one that made us smile.

And the diamond. It honestly was the most beautiful in our price range... or rather a little above our price range! It was a GIA certificated 0.64ct D VVS2. And it sparkles so much!

So, here's the platinum ring (which cost £2,500 - I didn't want to post the price, but I hope it may help other MSEs), and a photo of me wearing it shortly after OH proposed in Hampton Court Palace Gardens.

jonny_power

Hi all,

Firstly, would just like to say thanks to everyone who has posted in this thread, I've spent the past day reading it and getting clued up! I'm planning to propose to my girlfriend of 5 years in the next couple of months (I highly doubt she'll read this but better be safe!!).

This thread has been really useful and I feel a bit more happy about getting a ring sorted out. I need to find a way to sneakily measure her finger (any advice!?), and I want to speak to a couple of her friends who I trust who might be able to give me some more tips on what kind of ring she would like.

She's mentioned a few times that she would like ring with 3 diamonds, but most of the posts on here seem to mention solitare diamond rings (apart from the ring directly above, which is really nice BTW!). Browsing the shops and web, I have yet to really see a 3-diamond ring that really leaps out at me. Also they're expensive, and with my budget (c.£2k) I don't really want to skimp, and want three diamonds that look nice and sparkly, but also well balanced and don't look like a knuckle-duster! I am definitely erring towards quality, not quantity! She's quite petite and so a huge ring would look a bit daft.

The websites recommended on here have been useful, but haven't yet to see a setting that jumps out at me. Also on the web it's a bit hard to get an idea of how it will actually look if you change the diamonds. If anyone has any tips/advice/experience about 3-diamond rings, or has bought one before, then please let me know as this is a bit of a nightmare (in an exciting way!!).

Also, I hope to get down to birmingham jewellery quarter (or maybe Hatton square) to get it sorted. If anyone has any ideas on jewellers I should definitely check out, again, that would be really useful!

Cheers!