engagement ring on a budget

catsy_2

Just after a bit of advice. We don't have a lot of money to spend on a ring, and I don't really want to get into debt taking out a loan/credit card to get a ring. I also don't want such a small diamond that it looks cheap. I've been looking into antique rings, and rings with a main gem stone and a few tiny diamonds next to it. I'd also love white gold, although with antique rings this is unusual. We're thinking we will have around £500, maybe a little more if we save up for a few more months. Any suggestions for where to look?

Sammy85_2

Hiya

Try bluenile.co.uk

You can build you own ring, Diamonds start at £198 and are fully certified and you can choose exactly the quality you would like. White Gold Settings start from £230.

My engagement ring came from there and is absolutely stunning. If i had paid that price on the high street the diamond would not have been of the same quality and would most likely not have been certified.

I was quite worried about buying online, especially for the sort of money mine cost, but no problems at all, the people were really helpful!

I chose the ring i wanted, based on the cut, colour and clarity in my price range rather than the size, (id prefer to know my diamond was top notch than have a giant diamond of poor quality). I emailed it to my H2B, he made some joke about not having a chance of getting married if i kept nagging!

Anyway, turns out when he went to buy the ring some months later, that particular diamond had already been sold, the lovely people at Blue Nile helped him find another diamond that was almost identical to the one i had chosen. That kind of service isnt found very often these days unless you pay a premium.

Highly recommended - take a look and see what you can find for your budget.

montrose5

Look for second hand jewellery or even look at local auctions. You'll get more for you're money and better quality than most modern crap.Bought my missus a victorian engagement ring she spotted in a jewellers window, never found anything modern to match it

Stephb1986_2

Hi my engagement ring came from Samara James http://www.samarajames.com/ It is gorgeous and I love it to bits, it's a

0.30ct, colour E VS2, in white gold it came to £506 it's been valued at over £1200! it's also certified with a certificate too

HTH

Steph xx

catsy_2

thanks for all the advice so far, will start researching now..

Emma1988

i know its not exactly antique... but Ernest jones give you 10% off your wedding rings if you buy your engagement ring with them!!

mummydarling

As well as looking at antique rings, take a look at your small local independent jewellers, we bought my engagement ring and our wedding rings from a very small independent retailer as I was having trouble getting a ring to fit as have slim fingers. In the end I got a white gold ring with 6 small diamonds in a row and we got unusual wedding bands with lovely engraving to the outside.
The shop owner was delightful, gave us expert advice, fitted the rings professionally, had the engagement ring polished before the wedding AND let us pay in instalments.
Fabulous service, couldn't fault it, was better than the big chains where they ignore you and don't seem to care what you want as long as they earn commission on what they sell.

hayleythedaisy

Mine is from Ernest Jones, was about your budget and I love it, I would go in and have a look at the rings in there and other jewellers (not online cos they can start to all look the same imo). To be honest I think all the 4C's etc is stuff that is only relevant if you are overly fussed on selling it on or want to be able to say it's got XYZ about it, if you just want to wear it forever then you need to love it the look of it, and know it's not going to fall apart and I really do love the look of mine!

yumyums

I recently bought an antique necklace from this seller on ebay
http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/captain6-antiquediamonds/
They do rings too but don't know what the selection's like for engagement rings.
Most of the listings are buy it now or best offer. I put in an offer considerably lower than the buy-it now price and won my item. Great service and I took the item to the jeweller's who confirmed it was genuine.

catsy_2

thanks everyone, loads of great advice, went into ernest jones today and got an idea of what size I am - very small!! also the sort of look we'll get for our budget. I would love an antique ring, with history etc, but my OH would rather get me a new one, and is very adamant that if he doesn't like it I'm not having it!! Still I can usually persuade him over to my way of thinking so I'll have to start trying!!

my_definition

im sure he could be persuaded to like what you like....

im requesting pictures in advance as people always seem to forget after they buy it and im always dying to know what people get. oh and if it makes you feel any better my ring cost a lot less than your budget but a near identical one was double in the high street so im sure youl find what you want for the right price