Anyone know much about engagement rings?

ses6jwg

Hi all I am looking for a ring for my girlfriend of 4 years.

I have been around the high street shops etc but I am still at a loss as to whether what is a good price or not?

I know that she wants the following:

- White/ Silver in colour (NOT GOLD)
- Large-ish stone
- Round cut

My budget is up to £500.

I had originally looked at white gold but apparantly it needs dipping all the time?

I know that there is platinum (very expensive) and palladium (new and untested).

Which is the best all round?

I am also struggling to understand the carats and cut etc.

What should I be aiming for, for £500?

0.5 carat diamond?

Any help appreciated.

sneezyboots

well firstly congratulations

i am no expert but have now been wearing an engagement ring for 2 months and have bought the wedding rings ready so here is the advice i have.:

the 4 things to look for with diamonds is cut, clarity, colour and carat. diamonds are rated on these things and graded (it might be worth looking up the gradings) and the diamond actually comes with a mini passport like thing with the gradings on. so basically don't get hung up on the carat side of things, you need a balance of the lot really.

in terms of metals, i was advised to get the wedding ring in the same metal as the engagement ring as if one was harder than the other it would damage it. just something to consider. i don't personaly like yellow gold so all my jewelry is silver or white gold. platinum was out of our price range and i love white gold so that is what we went for. i think they try and tell you it needs treating more often than it does. i have never treated any of my other white gold stuff. i do take my engagement ring off at night though and when i shower etc so that helps. we also got my OHs ring in paladium as we were told it is now recognised by whoever it is in the world that classifies metals and that it was much stronger than the white gold.

i hope that makes sense and helps. like i said i am no expert and may have got some stuff wrong but that's what i have picked up from my experience.

Wardi

White gold does need dipping occasionally but its not really regular. I have a white gold ring which I have worn for on and off for the past 5 years which only really needs re-covering on the bottom side of the ring as thats the bit that rubs the most. Same with my white gold bracelet, the clasp could do with something but the rest is fine.

My engagement ring is white gold with a large aquamarine and 3 little diamonds either side so do not be afraid to look for rings which are a bit different from the norm!

ncv2

Check out this site. http://diamonds.pricescope.com/
Also don't go to the high street you will get much more for your money in Hatton Garden or bluenile.com.

Congratulations and good luck on your search!

diamonds1z

there are many good online stores from where you can find beautiful engagement rings.

Stephb1986_2

Hiya, Well I've just ordered my own ring online (it's my christmas present) and I got it from Samara James, I got this http://www.samarajames.com/acatalog/info_r1_174.html

I'm so excited about it coming. But there are lots of other styles to chose from.

Steph xx

sarah_elton

Diamond prices vary massively depending on each stone's individual colour and clarity. So, yellowy ones are cheaper while the whitest are more expensive. The more internal flaws there are, the cheaper.

I think colour is more important than clarity personally as these 'flaws' aren't really visible unless you look really hard. Colour is far more obvious to the naked eye.

On the High Street, we saw 0.5ct rings ranging from about £700 up to £5,000 for a flawless diamond.

Something else that can make a difference is how many cuts the stone has. The more cuts it has, the more twinkly it is (more sides for the light to bounce off). This applies to round stones too as it's the number of cuts on the top and base.

Personally (and your gf may differ), for a fixed budget I'd prefer a nicer quality diamond that's smaller to a big one that doesn't look as nice. That's always going to be the trade-off.

floss2

White gold needs to be plated on a regular basis, as it is yellow gold with a thin coating of (I think) rhodium.

Palladium is in the same metals 'family' as platinum and has many of its characteristics i.e strength & durability.

Platinum is one of the most expensive metals and is very durable & extremely strong.

picklepick

My ring is white gold and apparently they need dipping about once every 3 years, depending on how much wear it gets etc. it only costs about £25 each time, so not too much problem

you also need to be aware that if u get a white gold engagement ring then your wedding ring should ideally, also be white gold. a combination of 2 different metals will mean that the harder metal will wear down the softer one quickly, so something to bear in mind when budgetting.

also, i notice you said she wants a 'largish' stone. i also wanted a large stone but once id tried some on, they looked ridiculous on my little hands and i hated it! so my diamond is a 0.33 carat and its a perfect size for me. my point is, that you cant always be sure what shes going to like if she hasnt tried any on. have u thought about proposing with a fake ring and then letting her choose her own?

Dinah93

My fiance got my engagement ring from 365diamonds.com, and its this one. I really like this site as it lets you build your own ring, and mine is stunning, really elegant, twinkly and well made. For your budget though I think you'll only get a really poor quality diamond if you aim for a half carat.

Also give up on platinum, I'm buying wedding rings right now, and a completely plain 3mm platinum band is costing £400, thats most of your budget. I think you might have to go with white gold, as its quite hard to get hold of palladium rings. My priority in a ring was once its on my finger I never want to have to take it off, and my friends with white gold wedding rings have to send them off to be recoated once a year. So I was prepared to get a slightly smaller diamond, although we still wanted a good cut and colour as you really can tell a poor diamond from a decent one even to the naked non-jeweller eye!

I've had a play for you, and this is a decent compromise on size to clarity/colour. I picked a random setting, there are loads to choose from. I really, really wouldn't advise dropping any lower on the scale, this is already going to be a bit creamier and a bit less twinkly than the ideal, but not galringly so.

Don't go to the high street, they'll fleece you something rotten, prices online are a lot more reasonable.

Good luck proposing!

isofa

My top recommendation is to go to Hatton Garden in London, really worth a trip, we didn't get our engagement ring there, but paid top dollar for a 0.5ct one in a nice independent jeweller, however for the rings we did go to HG in London - there are hundreds of jewellers there, all competing. We saved 50% of what we were quoted from a good jeweller (independent, not chain) in our home city. If we'd have gone to HG for the engagement ring, the price I paid would have almost bought a 1ct diamond for same quality/clarity similar price!

Make sure you are getting non-conflict diamonds and check the cut, colour, clarity (inclusions) for what you require.

Happy to recommend the jeweller we used in HG, he is amazing, and makes them to order. PM me if you want more info.

For your budget, go for better quality but a smaller stone, perhaps 0.3- 0.35ct, white gold will be the best option pricewise for the metal, (platinum is the "best" metail but the most expensive, twice the price of white gold). There is little point buying a low quality stone with a more expensive metal IMO, as you'll see the difference,

Colour: D, E and F are the best "colours" being colourless, (G-J nearly colourless) etc, higher letters get more yellow.

Clarity: Flawless (F) is the best clarity (but rare and expensive), IF is internally flawless, VVS1, VVS2, extremely small inclusions, VS1, VS2 - very small inclusions, SI1, SI2, SI3: small inclusions, I1, I2, I3: inclusions easily visible to the naked eye.

Cut isn't anything to do with the outer shape, but the actual cut, detailed info here: http://www.thediamondbuyingguide.com/diamondcut.html

Cheap high-street stores will be selling SI and I clarity, good jewellers will be dealing in VVS to VS and for deep pockets IF and the odd Flawless (F). Which is why a same carat ring in a cheap jewellers can be much cheaper than that of a better jeweller!

I personally wouldn't buy a ring online as I'd prefer to talk to the jeweller, see the stones, try different rings on and then negotiate and buy.