Carats for Engagement Ring

[Principessa]

why are you getting married? you get nothing and she'll get everything. some traditions should fade away. be spontaneous.

That's only in California, stunod.

I know of quite a few women who were financially raped in their divorce and ended up being homeless. One woman got NOTHING!She and her 3 children by the lying, cheating bastard had to move back in with her parents. :angryfire2: He didn't pay alimony and rarely paid child support. :angryfire2:

 

[Phil Ayesho]

Moissanite, White Sapphire... look at a round cut 1 carat moissanite ring and tell me it doesn't look enough like a diamond to make it the better purchase at $400 than the diamond at $4,000. Unless you are, in fact, rich enough that it just doesn't matter. But if you ARE than rich, give the money to a good cause instead of spending an extra $3,600 on something for your wife's fukin friends to talk about at starbucks.

I would point out that a criminal looking to steal an expensive looking ring from a woman's finger is not going to be able to discern a Moissanite or Cubic Zirconia from a diamond.
So this kind of flies in the face of your earlier caveat.

I will say that if you want a pale- essentially colorless stone, Moissanite is actually better looking than diamond for a fraction of the price, and it is nearly as hard without being as brittle.

 

[darkbond007]

Well I talked with her. I asked her the question:

"Would you like for me to just surprise you and do my own thing, let you have some input into what you would but nothing overly specific, or would you like for us to go shopping together for it.

She chose number 2. She wants a diamond size and price she says is up to me but she does not want me to spend over 10K (FYI my 3 months salary is well over 10K). She also said she doesnt want it to be a conflict diamond, if thats what she has to wear then she would rather a sapphire based ring. She also said clarity is more important to her than size. She wants a solitaire. Nothing flashy.

 

[2322]

Well I talked with her. I asked her the question:

"Would you like for me to just surprise you and do my own thing, let you have some input into what you would but nothing overly specific, or would you like for us to go shopping together for it.

She chose number 2. She wants a diamond size and price she says is up to me but she does not want me to spend over 10K (FYI my 3 months salary is well over 10K). She also said she doesnt want it to be a conflict diamond, if thats what she has to wear then she would rather a sapphire based ring. She also said clarity is more important to her than size. She wants a solitaire. Nothing flashy.

Good for you and very good on her. I think you've found a good woman. She sounds like a keeper. May all that happiness can provide grace your home.:smile:

 

[Principessa]

Well I talked with her. I asked her the question:

"Would you like for me to just surprise you and do my own thing, let you have some input into what you would but nothing overly specific, or would you like for us to go shopping together for it.

She chose number 2. She wants a diamond size and price she says is up to me but she does not want me to spend over 10K (FYI my 3 months salary is well over 10K). She also said she doesnt want it to be a conflict diamond, if thats what she has to wear then she would rather a sapphire based ring. She also said clarity is more important to her than size. She wants a solitaire. Nothing flashy.

Smart Woman! I'd take a small diamond of excellent clarity over a larger diamond of lesser clarity as well. I'm not as proactive about conflict/blood diamonds so that's not an issue for me.

Good luck, I wish you both much happiness.:smile:

 

[darkbond007]

Thanks to all of you I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to do. She also asked if I would have a problem if she didnt where it certain places. She is a fish biologist so she doesnt want to wear it near any type of water or stuff as such.

I was fine with this.

I do think I may end up getting two rings, I like the idea of something different, blue is her favorite color and a sapphire looks very nice...

 

[2322]

Thanks to all of you I think I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to do. She also asked if I would have a problem if she didnt where it certain places. She is a fish biologist so she doesnt want to wear it near any type of water or stuff as such.

I was fine with this.

I do think I may end up getting two rings, I like the idea of something different, blue is her favorite color and a sapphire looks very nice...

What you may want to do is to get her the engagement ring of diamond and then give her a guard ring on the first (or another) anniversary. A guard ring goes on last, after the wedding and engagement rings to allegedly help keep them on. An alternative is to get a ring with sapphires as accent stones in the setting. You could try a 3 stone arrangement with the diamond in the center with 2 slightly smaller sapphires to the side. Surround all three with pave diamonds to unify the piece.

Whatever you do, choose platinum for the setting as it's the most durable of the precious metals and that ring faces a lifetime of continuous use.

 

[MagicJohnsonFan]

That's only in California, stunod.

I know of quite a few women who were financially raped in their divorce and ended up being homeless. One woman got NOTHING!She and her 3 children by the lying, cheating bastard had to move back in with her parents. :angryfire2: He didn't pay alimony and rarely paid child support. :angryfire2:

Not necessarily in California, either. I ended up paying off all the debt with no alimony (which I disagree with in most cases, regardless) and no child support. Fortunately, though, I didn't end up homeless and I'm SO much better without him!

 

[Gillette]

I'm not as proactive about conflict/blood diamonds so that's not an issue for me.

Why the hell aren't you?

 

[MickeyLee]

i wouldn't wear diamonds of any kind, for any reason. too much misery and woe attached to something that's really nothing more than a sparkly rock.

 

[Phil Ayesho]

Perhaps because the very CONCEPT of a "Conflict Diamond" is a bullshit marketing scam created by DeBeers to try and prevent diamonds from sources they don't control from finding a market.

Conflict diamonds exist because certain places where Diamond mines are not debeers controlled are PREVENTED from selling their diamonds by DeBeers.

So the only option for these sources is to smuggle them and sell them by other channels.

DeBeers then makes a big stink about these diamonds as funding 'conflicts' when, in fact a large part of the instability of certain African nations is that they can not establish a stable economy BECAUSE deBeers won't allow them to sell their diamonds.

If all sources of diamonds were allowed to sell freely without manipulation by debeers, the price of diamonds would plummet to a sixth its current value.

DeBeers is also trying to figure a way to undercut the Man made diamond industry.

So- point in fact- ALL diamonds are conflict diamonds. Period. All diamond purchases either support ruthless despots, or a dynastic hegemonic monopoly that actively undermines the stability of nations whose diamond mines it does not control.

Get her the sapphire...

And seriously- for a LOT less than 5 grand you could get her a far better stone, in a far more distinctive ring than you will get shopping at ANY jewelry store.

Personally- I think you muffed in even asking her- she wants to go shopping with you for it now because she has no faith you could pick out something she would like.

 

[Principessa]

Why the hell aren't you?

Probably because no one has ever given me any type of engagement ring. :frown1: When it finally happens I'll be damned if I'm gonna get righteous about it's origin. :irked:

 

[Principessa]

My best friends niece was given a lovely craftsman style house as an engagement present. They had been talking about living together and had looked at a few homes in their price range and he put a down payment on the one she seemed to like the best. He gave her the front door key in a small box with a bow right before Christmas 2001. A few months later he gave her a small, tasteful diamond engagement ring of excellent clarity. They are still very happily married and have a 4 year old son. :smile:

If I were given a choice between a housee and a ring I'd take the house. I could wait until the first anniversary for a diamond band or something.

 

[thadjock]

What you may want to do is to get her the engagement ring of diamond and then give her a guard ring on the first (or another) anniversary. A guard ring goes on last, after the wedding and engagement rings to allegedly help keep them on.

i'd just get her branded. she wouldn't be able to take that off.

 

[Phil Ayesho]

PS- a word of caution...

One of the biggest cons you will run across in buying jewelry is that a jeweler will sell you a ring on display that is of a stellar quality, and convince you the quality is worth the price... and then switch that ring, or sometimes just the stone, for a ring with a stone of far lower quality.
If they have similar rings in back- this can happen when they box the ring... but more commonly they pull this when you bring the ring back for "sizing".

Not all of them do this... and those that do don't do it every time... but they are ALL tempted to when the stone in question is very fine and the buyer very naive.

I bought a necklace once with a 3 carat Columbia green emerald and 16 diamonds in it.
I gave it to them to adjust the length of the chain... and what I got back was NOT the emerald and NOT the diamonds I had bought.

Its hard to argue this with a jeweler when you don't have a micrograph of the original stone in your hand- but that is why I MARKED the setting with an engraving point in an obscure spot prior to handing the thing over. I showed them that the necklace they were giving me lacked the mark and if they could not find me the one I bought I would happily accept a refund.

Boy did they start backpedalling and talking about that being some OTHER customer's necklace because they HAD sold two or three etc...
Believe it or not, I went on to buy several pieces form this same jewelry over the years... He knew I knew what he had done, and what he learned about me was that I could tell good stones from not so good ones. I did not pitch a fit but called them on their shit with a smile and a wink and from that day forward that jeweler was extremely honest with me... and, he always gave me an aggressively low price on every other piece I bought.


So- be wary... when you are going to leave a piece of jewelry with someone for work, memorize what the stone looks like under his lights - if it has the slightest flaw, KNOW where they are and what they look like, and, if possible, unobtrusively mark the band in a spot that will be hard to polish off...

 

[2322]

Perhaps because the very CONCEPT of a "Conflict Diamond" is a bullshit marketing scam created by DeBeers to try and prevent diamonds from sources they don't control from finding a market.

Conflict diamonds exist because certain places where Diamond mines are not debeers controlled are PREVENTED from selling their diamonds by DeBeers.

So the only option for these sources is to smuggle them and sell them by other channels.

DeBeers then makes a big stink about these diamonds as funding 'conflicts' when, in fact a large part of the instability of certain African nations is that they can not establish a stable economy BECAUSE deBeers won't allow them to sell their diamonds.

If all sources of diamonds were allowed to sell freely without manipulation by debeers, the price of diamonds would plummet to a sixth its current value.

DeBeers is also trying to figure a way to undercut the Man made diamond industry.

So- point in fact- ALL diamonds are conflict diamonds. Period. All diamond purchases either support ruthless despots, or a dynastic hegemonic monopoly that actively undermines the stability of nations whose diamond mines it does not control.

Get her the sapphire...

And seriously- for a LOT less than 5 grand you could get her a far better stone, in a far more distinctive ring than you will get shopping at ANY jewelry store.

Personally- I think you muffed in even asking her- she wants to go shopping with you for it now because she has no faith you could pick out something she would like.

Seen it on TV so it must be true.

When extra-De Beers countries started selling diamonds on the market, De Beers switched to a, "preferred buyer" model of sales which essentially said that if buyers bought diamonds from countries outside the De Beers cartel, that De Beers would not sell to those buyers. That coincided with the whole Blood Diamond thing.

It also pays to know just who is profiting from these diamond conflicts. What's the difference between "insurgents" and "freedom fighters" again?

 

[darkbond007]

Perhaps because the very CONCEPT of a "Conflict Diamond" is a bullshit marketing scam created by DeBeers to try and prevent diamonds from sources they don't control from finding a market.

Conflict diamonds exist because certain places where Diamond mines are not debeers controlled are PREVENTED from selling their diamonds by DeBeers.

So the only option for these sources is to smuggle them and sell them by other channels.

DeBeers then makes a big stink about these diamonds as funding 'conflicts' when, in fact a large part of the instability of certain African nations is that they can not establish a stable economy BECAUSE deBeers won't allow them to sell their diamonds.

If all sources of diamonds were allowed to sell freely without manipulation by debeers, the price of diamonds would plummet to a sixth its current value.

DeBeers is also trying to figure a way to undercut the Man made diamond industry.

So- point in fact- ALL diamonds are conflict diamonds. Period. All diamond purchases either support ruthless despots, or a dynastic hegemonic monopoly that actively undermines the stability of nations whose diamond mines it does not control.

Get her the sapphire...

And seriously- for a LOT less than 5 grand you could get her a far better stone, in a far more distinctive ring than you will get shopping at ANY jewelry store.

Personally- I think you muffed in even asking her- she wants to go shopping with you for it now because she has no faith you could pick out something she would like.

No she doesnt want to shop for the ring with me.

I give her the option but she trusts my taste. The only problem I have is that I don't buy jewelry even for myself with any kind of precious stones in it. It's always just the pure metal.

 

[Phil Ayesho]

She is thinking solitaire because she has no imagination over how distinctive a ring can be.

The term solitaire simply refers to a ring with a single stone.

That says nothing about design- most solitaire settings have a low band with TALL prongs holding the stone up vertical like a doorknob.
THIS is the kind of ring she will have to remove to do anything practical.

However channel set stones do not stick out at all- are more secure, and may result in a ring that she can wear daily.
If you want to go diamond, you might want to go for a VERY expensive and rare colored diamond, in which case a very small stone, that is very nearly perfect might work in your favor as it frees up design options and may result in a ring she can wear 24/7.


Attached are some pictures to give you a very rough idea of the scope of what you could go for... and this was just a cursory search online... Custom designed jewelry can get WAY more unusual and distinctive than these...

And can just as effectively do something unique and special in a very understated way, if that is the kind of woman she is.

One of these looks like it is made of wood- its not- its two kinds of gold that are forged together like damascus steel- creating that pattern, which is called a damask.

The one with green/blue accents is actually titanium, and shows how a small, very expensive stone can feature into an interesting result.
And one of these just shows how elaborate and distinctive you can get...
The multiple stones could be multiple colors , or multiple sizes... could describe the constellation of her birth sign, etc.

Start by searching online... and, again, think about her personal style... her colors, her job... and pick something that will surprise her with the thoughtfulness you brought to it.

 

[darkbond007]

I find my girlfriend to be VERY imaginative. However when it comes to jewelry she doesnt really wear any so the solitaire is based on simplicity. She is VERY understated when it comes to jewelry.

I must admit I like those first 3. I dont like the last one.

EDIT: That first one I would buy in a heartbeat actually...where is that from?

 

[nudeyorker]

I find my girlfriend to be VERY imaginative. However when it comes to jewelry she doesnt really wear any so the solitaire is based on simplicity.

I must admit I like those first 3. I dont like the last one.

EDIT: That first one I would buy in a heartbeat actually...where is that from?

I have something like that by this man, he was the master of tension set diamonds, you will never have to worry about the stone coming loose, he mastered this setting which many have tried to copy!
Steven Kretchmer Tension-Set