married men - engagement ring shopping?

go to a diamond merchant. either a jew or an indian. save shitloads of money that way. the same cut of diamond that was going for 11k at a store my brother got for 8.5k thru a merchant

My recommendation, go to the best jewelry store in town with your girl, get her to pick out exactly what she wants...some girls like round, some like oval, etc. Also, get them to measure her finger. Then have the sales rep write it all down, including the color and clarity, and of course her finger size. Then go to the smaller jewelers in some of the strip malls around town and tell them exactly what you want. They'll give you much better prices.

Color and Clarity make a huge difference on how much "fire" the diamond has. A good quality diamond will sparkle in very low light. It took me 3 months to find the right diamond for my now wife and I must have gone to 20 different stores.

Take your time, research them and dont buy the 1st one you see. Since there really is no set standard for rating color you can find a diamond that may be an "H" at one store and a "G" at another. The problem with this is obviously the store that has it rated as the "G" is going to charge more because of the higher rating.

Also remember that when buying, most diamonds are marked up 50% to 100% and there is always room to negotiate.

it's time to buy her a watch for putting up with you
www.chopard.com

you're always so mean to me

I'm just letting my girlfriend pick out exactly what she wants. We've lived together for a while, we're having a baby, I have no clue about these things...so she gets exactly what she wants, I will pay the bill.

I would do that except I want to ask her to marry me when I have the ring as a surprise.

Just keep in ind :

The ring will last longer then the marriage ...

Just go to Tiffany & Co. Even if you do not buy from there they are the best for helping you understand what that diamond is all about, at least to me they are.

With color D E and F are colorless diamonds which tend to be your more costly diamond. G H I are almost colorless and the most common diamond bought. When you get into J through Z they are more yellow and can be very very expensive but for my taste the D E and F are amazing. They shine from across the room. I would rather have a one carrot D than a 2 carrot H.

The cut is not what everyone thinks, it's not about shape it is more about the symmetry of a diamond which makes all the difference in the world.

Clarity begins with IF which is flawless and rare very expensive. FI is almost flawless, then their is VVs1 and VVs2 which is a beautiful diamond and the most common bought by someone looking to spend a little bit but not break the bank is Vs1 and Vs2 then it goes into your Sl1 and Sl2 which has flaws but you would have to look very hard. Clarity is what makes all the light shine through amazing.

Carot is the weight of the diamond which like I said before I would rather have a small BEAUTIFUL diamond than a big cheaper diamond. But that is up to what you think your girl would like.

In today's world it is very common for the guy to ask a girl to marry him and then they pick out the ring together, but it's not as romantic. Surprise is everything with an engagement. I would get a ring that is simple and has a beautiful diamond, this way when you design the wedding ring she can either just go with a band if she is simple like me, or she can take your diamond and put it into her dream ring, which ever girl has.

Sorry for the long post but I hope I helped you a bit! Nothing like love, without it have more than half the music out there would be.

Good luck and don't break the bank, that is not the way to start out a life together! (But spend it if you got it haha)

Yeah, that makes sense too. Fortunately for me, we're a bit past that part already.

Yes and if it breaks off before the marriage you get the ring back and can sell it, if you get married she can sell it, or if everything works out you can pass it to your kids and have a beautiful family heirloom!

After educating myself on the 4 C's and finding out which cut wifey prefered, I went to the diamond district in NYC. I ended up buying a nearly flawless diamond just over one carot for a really good price and some smaller stones (bagettes) for the outer part of the setting. I bought the diamonds only. I took the diamonds to my local jeweler and had him set them for me in a setting he made specially for me/wifey. It came out perfect, wifey loves it and when we had the ring appraised by another jeweler a year later it was worth 3x what I paid.

1 site you need to know www.bluenile.com

I bought the wifeys ring for close to 30k at birks in Montreal. IF, amorique cut.

Would have saved a good 10k buying off blue nile. Everyone I know recently bought from there and couldn't be happier.

Dumb question, but how wise is it buying it off the internet (seeing how you can't see it)?