best place to buy an engagement ring

stephenwood

hi everyone,

i am looking to buy an engagement ring for my better half, it would be 18 carat white gold with a .70 carat emerald diamond. now i have been to various shops in liverpool and manchester and looked on line at some jewellers in london and the prices are hugely different. the ones in the shops i have been to seem to vary from £3800-£5000 and the ones online for the london jewellers seem to be slightly under £3000. the rings are all fairly much the same spec if not better at the london jewellers. the websites ive seen the rings on are

diamondmanufacturers. co. uk
diamondsfactory. co. uk
77diamonds. com
bluenile. com
samarajames .com

my question is, why are the london jewellers above so much cheaper? am i missing something about the quality of the diamond etc and its not actually all its cracked up to be? any advice on where to go would be great

Bella73

Lots of people recommend the jewellery quarter in Birmingham if you changed there which if spending that sort of money could well be worth a visit.

http://www.jewelleryquarter.net/

Not used it myself but people say you can get a good deal there.

GlamGirlie

Definitely Birmingham as Bella73 has said.

However that seems an awful lot of money for a diamond that isn't even one carat?

ss3n08

We use https://www.tjc.co.uk for our jewellery. We find it pretty good value and at work we got leaving presents from colleagues from there. They have a section for weddings and they also do top cashback x

Gettin256

I would recommend chapelle - we bought my wedding ring from there and found it was signifcantly cheaper than identical rings from the normal high street jewellers.
We also got my engagement ring from http://mdcdiamonds.com/ where you can pick the exact quality of diamond and the ring separately and then they'll make it.

You pay extra for the 'brand' of the store. I would suggest comparing the grading of the diamond, particuarly if buying from a 'branded' jeweller doesn't matter to you. Diamonds are graded by:
carat - weight
clarity - level of imperfections/blemishes in the stone
colour - where it is on the white to yellow scale, white being best
cut - how sparkly it is

hope that helps!

Arthien

I've recommended 77diamonds before, my DH-to-be got my ring from there. He liked being able to see the diamonds in the store and see what it looked like for himself, and then made the purchase online so he could get the best price. You're right in saying that the online jewellers (and places like Hatton Garden in London and the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham) offer much better deals than the high-street chains. You'll get a lot more for your money this way. Good luck! :T

JuliesGuy

I went through something very similar and was shocked by the price difference online and in store, I got mine from mdcdiamonds.co.uk they have great customer service and answer emails within the hour, they also allowed us to customize some details of the ring at no additional cost.
We got a gorgeous Celtic ring that came out better than expected and appraised for 60% more than we paid.

minimad1970

JuliesGuy wrote: »

I went through something very similar and was shocked by the price difference online and in store, I got mine from mdcdiamonds.co.uk they have great customer service and answer emails within the hour, they also allowed us to customize some details of the ring at no additional cost.
We got a gorgeous Celtic ring that came out better than expected and appraised for 60% more than we paid.

I'm guessing that as the post's 4 years old they've probably got one by now :cool:

pontybridge

I had my ring made by a local company to me called Diamond Centre Wales. I couldn't recommend them enough. I had fallen in love with an Anna Sheffield ring... a black diamond, on rose gold band https://www.annasheffield.com/collections/black-diamond-engagement-rings/products/hazeline-solitaire-ring-rose-gold-black-diamond-50ctw

as you can see not cheap! The Diamond Centre recreated it exactly for me for just (wait for it) £850! In fact the stone is 0.8 of a carat so better again. Will be going back there to get my wedding band made