Birmingham Jewellery Quarter for a diamond ring

manfromouterspace

Firstly Ive had to create a new id as my wonderful OH uses this site and hopefully she now wont suspect anything.

After deciding to take the plunge and propose :j I read all the threads on here about buying an engagement ring and decided to check out the jewellery quarter in Brum. We arent exactly local but its not hard for us to get there.

From knowing a bit about OH's preferences and tastes, I knew I was looking for a solitaire diamond ring with a platinum band and a claw setting.

I found a lovely jewellers in the quarter who would create the exact ring I wanted from my own design and they even made a wax replica of what the ring would look like so I could confirm it was exactly what i wanted. And it was - it was perfect!! :j

Then the problem of picking a stone came. She has quite petite fingers so a huge rock will look out of place. I think something between 0.75 and 1 carat would be perfect. In terms of the other C's, I was more flexible but wanted a good quality stone.

The jeweller suggested a 0.73 carat, D colour, very good cut, SI diamond with certificates which looked lovely.

I asked about a price for that diamond in the platinum band and he said around £3k but if I liked it a price could be agreed. I said I needed some time to think about it and left it at that.

I have two questions which Im hoping someone can help with:

1. I understand that there are different places that do diamond cert's. This one is ICI (I think) . Is that good, bad or does it not really matter who does the cert?

2. How much discount should I expect to get when he says a price can be agreed? How much should I be looking to pay for that stone in that setting?

Thanks in advance for any help. :beer: