Engagement Rings (merged)

frannyann

smegy9 wrote: »

she wants something silver, apart from that she has said nothing, its going to be a suprise. I am off to the maldives at the end of may with her and plan to wack it out then.

Any suggestions would be nice.

Honestly?? Don't spend 2.5K on one ring, the wedding will cost and you can have big blow out with that kind of cash, how about this
http://www.ernestjones.co.uk/webstore/detail/R/8121524/

1/4 carat, 18ct White Gold and better still very MSE at half price £499!

Toothfairy4

Have you ANY idea of what she would like? It's just some people aren't fond or square stones, whereas others may prefer it to round... Has she any other rings/jewellery you could get ideas from? In my opinion large stones can sometimes look a bit too 'blingy' and often dont sprakle as well as smaller ones

Stephb1986_2

I wouldn't go to a high street jewler try the jewlery quarter at birmingham or hatton gardens in london depending on where in the country you are.

If you can't manage any of them try Samara James http://www.samarajames.com/acatalog/certified-diamond-princess-cut-engagement-rings.html

Mine came from here it's stunning. My H2B paid £506 for it and the insurers have valued it at £1500 so you will get value for money.

Mine is white gold too

Steph xx

Toothfairy4

Stephb1986 wrote: »

I wouldn't go to a high street jewler try the jewlery quarter at birmingham or hatton gardens in london depending on where in the country you are.

If you can't manage any of them try Samara James http://www.samarajames.com/acatalog/certified-diamond-princess-cut-engagement-rings.html

Mine came from here it's stunning. My H2B paid £506 for it and the insurers have valued it at £1500 so you will get value for money.

Mine is white gold too

Steph xx

I second the not going to high street, we bought mine from a lovely local jewellers (similar to the shops you'd find in the jewellery quarter) who make their own, was valued about 30% higher than what OH paid xx

TediousPhoenix

My engagement ring cost £2500 (last year) and we got it from A&S in Hatton Garden (I posted a picture of it on this thread a few pages back, I think).

I would second the advise and stay clear of the highstreet shops - Hatton Garden in London and Birmingham Quarter are very good and will have much better quality diamonds for half the price - if you can get there.

Definitely go for platinum, and have a read of the 4Cs. If you Google it there will be a wealth of information about it. Then you can decide what is important to you and where you can make savings. For a diamond to sparkle and have fire you'll need an excellent cut (Whiteflash do some amazing cuts and if I were to go through the process again I'd probably buy a diamond from there lose then have a ring designed in Hatton Garden). Then decide on what colour is acceptable for you. Most people say G and up. D-F are classed as 'white'. Depends on what you want and what you want to sacrifice. I've got a D VVS2 0.62c and it sparkles lots and looks very white (doubt I'd notice if wasn't pure white if I had a G, but you notice it being a D, iyswim). And go for a VS2 and above. And once all that is taken into consideration, you finally get to decide what size come into budget!

Some people want to spend 'a lot' on an engagement ring, others don't. We decided to spend on the rings and have a cheap wedding - we wear the rings every day of our lives, the wedding is just one day.

samarajames

I'd second going online - we have a lot of rings valued for customers independently at safeguard (google safeguard assay office) and the values usually are around double what the customer pays us....

Thanks for the recommendation Stephb :T

samarajames

smegy9 - avoid that ernest jones ring! it is a P2 which means very visible inclusions.... it is also J colour and will look yellowish in good light. You would be better going better in colour and clarity ....

if you like the style of the diamond then look for a "rectangular modified brilliant" or "rectangular princess" we can do them for you....
samara james

smegy9

no special discounts on at the minute as could be swayed to go samara james way?

cookiesandmilk

Hi, I'm brand new to posting on forums generally, but I wondered if I could get some advice from you guys?

My girlfriend and have been together nearly 8 years and have talked about getting engaged. As we are a same-sex couple, we both would like rings. I'm much more girly than her and really like the way traditional-style rings look (she would be looking for something much more simple, maybe even without a stone). We are not fussed about owning really expensive jewellery, which is a good thing because we are not able to spend very much at all (starting a business, existing financial committments etc etc).

I haven't got a budget in mind at the moment because I don't really have much idea of where to start looking. Basically, we are looking for rings that will last (not need endless repairs). I would like a diamond-like stone, but I don't feel very comfortable about diamond mining/conflict diamonds etc (totally respect everyone's choices though - so no offence meant to anyone who has a proper diamond). So I guess that reduces us to two options:

- An antique ring (effectively 'recycling it' so only mined once but owned by at least two people). Does anyone know how these compare to 'new' rings in terms of price?

- I have heard that you can get 'lab-grown' diamonds that ARE real (not fake like 'diamonque' etc) but just not 'naturally occuring'. Does anyone have any experience of these or know a company in the uk that makes them? I guess we would also need to get the rings and then a jeweller to put the whole thing together.

I have looked a bit on the internet and we definately can't afford to pay thousands of pounds for a ring each. We don't really care about how much they are worth as items of jewellery (if you see what I mean) because the sentimental value of them will be enough.

Thanks very much for your thoughts

scottiepaul

samarajones - what a website!

been trecking through there for a couple of days playing with the 3d on finger view, and have narrowed it down to 4 (it was five, but after much tooing and froing decided against the Stephanie style!) potential choices:

Anne
Sarah
Tiffany (had to ask them for a quote as don't provide online and no 3d image)
Olivia

Was thinking of getting the setting that matched my girlfriends name but I didn't like it lol.

Going to go out at lunch and have a look to see if I prefer round or princess, and whether I like twist settings when I see it in person, so I can narrow it down to just the 2 options and get samples sent out of one ring together with the pear shaped Tiffany setting.

I know my girlfriend is keen for a quite a 'neat' setting, so trying to avoid ones which are a bit thicker or impose two much on the stone where they "claw" on. Sometimes I think you look at a ring and notice the metal before the stone!

Really happy with the prices of samarajones, and excited to get it all sorted!