Engagement Ring Buying Advice

[jing]

Originally Posted by truth

Those who ordered from blue Nile, did you gave any issues receiving a ring sizer from their website? It's been well over a month and I've ordered twice. They suggested we get my fiancée sized locally and call them to start the resizing process.

Took over 2 months for ours to come in.

[Oleophobic]

Currently in the market for an engagement ring and have visited Spence once and was quoted ~$6600 after taax for a ring. After looking on James Allen and Blue Nile I realized I can probably save $2k or so buying the diamond online (approx the same specs) and getting someone to set it onto the Ring.

Does anyone know or can recommend a place to get this done? I know Spence won't set diamonds not purchased from them onto any of their rings.

Thanks

[dat_steve]

^ see my post last page

[Oleophobic]

thanks
actually i was wondering if there was a place that offered this type of service where you didn't need to buy the ring from them (ie. bring in a diamond and ring from outside)? I called Harling's and they definitely don't do that.

[rageguy]

Check out https://www.instagram.com/minichiellojewellers/. I provided my own diamond, worked with them on a design I wanted, set it on platinum and it was a bit under $2000. Turnaround time was 2.5 weeks. One of the picture in their Instagram within the past 4 weeks is mine.

[Oleophobic]

Glad Blue Nile worked out for you!
Any chance you can provide the GIA cert #? I'm still researching and would be curious to see an example of a report for an excellently cut diamond...

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

This thread was great info, thanks for everyone who provided!

I spent approx 8-10 hours of research learning about diamonds before going into local stores just to get their "crash course" in diamonds

I also went to the surrey location for the diamonddeals.com and looked at a few of their pre-set rings.

Typically what I learned locally, and even at the diamond deals place is they really try and push non-gia diamonds. And with a little bit of research it's clear that anything but GIA is not up to par with the GIA grading. You may be able to snag a great deal if you REALLY know what you're looking for, but now that I have my ring from bluenile, it's not even close.

BlueNile was not only the best option for the ring, it was one of the best online shopping and retail experiences I've ever had, period. It was that good of an experiance.

After looking at about 10 local places including Costco etc I ended up with bluenile

As the OP said I believe, I spent about 6 hours going through GIA certs, and upon further reading regarding the setting/band I ended up with a designer label platinum solitaire setting.

Pushed my budget to just slightly over what I wanted but the end product was -amazing-

Ended up with a .64, ideal cut, VVS2, I color, excellent polish, excellent symmetry, no fluorescence.

Was delivered the morning after it shipped and worked out perfectly for me. The "fire" of the diamond is night and day from anything I ever saw in store, like infinitely nicer.

+10000000% for bluenile. I will recommend it to anyone and everyone looking for a diamond and in the end, I felt like I really did get sooo much more buying from them than anything locally

[Amaru]

Originally Posted by Oleophobic

Glad Blue Nile worked out for you!
Any chance you can provide the GIA cert #? I'm still researching and would be curious to see an example of a report for an excellently cut diamond...

I posted a pic of the GIA report for the ring I bought on page 2 of this thread.... the diamond is VS1 not VVS2 so may not offer what you're looking for, but otherwise it's similar to the one Hondaracer chose ('excellent' cut, excellent symmetry, etc).

[Amaru]

I'm pretty stoked that so many people have benefitted from this thread... hope it will continue to help out future dudes hunting for rings as well. Thanks again for all the sound advice & helpful guidance, dudes.

Seeing as how it appears I'm the OP, this post will serve as my final update..... we got married this past weekend in the Cayman Islands. So, I guess things ended up well, and the ring still looks good.

We bought my wife's wedding band from BlueNile... it is the perfect matching band for the ring we bought, and it looks awesome. Once again BlueNile was awesome: fast shipping, good service, and a way better price than anything we looked at locally. Very well-run company, pleasure to deal with.

In terms of the entire process of ring/wedding band purchasing, if I could do anything over again, it would be to go with white gold for the band rather than platinum. As I recently learned, you want to have the wedding band and engagement ring made from the same material, otherwise the softer material (ie. gold) will be scratched when it rubs against the harder metal (ie. platinum). Because my wife's engagement ring band was platinum, we had to go with a platinum wedding band, which skyrocketed the price from $850 to $2500 (for the identical band). Not a big deal in the end but I don't see any reason to go with platinum over white gold unless your woman loves to brag about how $$ her ring is.

Anyway, fuck it, we're married now and both rings are on her finger... not going to think about jewellery again for a looooong time.... probably until my next wedding...

[underscore]

Congrats! Looks like a gorgeous wedding!

Good point about the band materials, I never would've thought of that. What are your guys thoughts on sterling silver vs the various gradings of white gold? The ring I'm looking at is available in 925 sterling silver, and 14K or 18K white gold, and the price differences are pretty significant (14K is 2.7x the price of 925, and 18K is 3.6x the price).

If I remember right the higher the karats the higher the gold content, but the softer it becomes? So it's more prone to damage and losing gems, which I think is less likely still for the silver? Definitely for OP's platinum bands, those should be able to survive anything.

[MarkyMark]

I did 19k white gold for the band of my engagement ring I'm getting custom made, should be done by the end of the month. I was originally going to go with platinum but the guy talked me out of it. The difference would have been about 300+ bucks more for platinum.

His main points were that other than being more expensive, platinum dulls out and gets a patina finish over time, and scratches easier. Obviously that can be corrected by polishing it, but 19k would keep its shiny appearance a lot longer before needing a polish so it's pretty much just less maintenance to keep the ring looking good.

19k gold seems to be mostly a Canadian thing from my brief research online, but the people who have gotten it seem to have no complaints.

[originalhypa]

On a side note, Amaru is a white guy?!?
I had no idea.

#mindblown
#congrats
#lookslikeanicewedding

[Amaru]

Originally Posted by underscore

Congrats! Looks like a gorgeous wedding!

Good point about the band materials, I never would've thought of that. What are your guys thoughts on sterling silver vs the various gradings of white gold? The ring I'm looking at is available in 925 sterling silver, and 14K or 18K white gold, and the price differences are pretty significant (14K is 2.7x the price of 925, and 18K is 3.6x the price).

If I remember right the higher the karats the higher the gold content, but the softer it becomes? So it's more prone to damage and losing gems, which I think is less likely still for the silver? Definitely for OP's platinum bands, those should be able to survive anything.

Thanks.

Definitely go for the 14K... or if available, you might even consider 10K. I chose 10K white gold for my own wedding band because it's the least scratch-prone and I can replace it twice more over the next 20 years and still spend less than if I went with platinum.

The lower the karat, the less gold content, the more scratch-resistant it is.

Platinum is actually stronger and more durable than white gold, but it scratches more easily. However, the scratches on platinum tend to be less noticeable and some people like the patina effect that develops over time. White gold is easier to polish/clean, at least as I understand it.

The main disadvantage to white gold is that it tends to be much more prone to discoloration / yellowing, whereas platinum won't fade at all. Still, you can replace your white karat band or have it cleaned annually for years and it will still be cheaper than if you go with platinum.

I know nothing about silver, but I do remember being told by a jeweller that many people are mildly allergic to silver whereas gold and platinum are less likely to irritate the skin. No idea how common of an issue that is with silver, but even if it's rare I would be tempted to go with 10K or 14K white gold instead anyway.

Originally Posted by originalhypa

On a side note, Amaru is a white guy?!?
I had no idea.

#mindblown
#congrats
#lookslikeanicewedding

Yes, there are least 3 of us here on RS......

[murd0c]

Originally Posted by originalhypa

On a side note, Amaru is a white guy?!?
I had no idea.

#mindblown
#congrats
#lookslikeanicewedding

I was thinking the same thing when I met you

[originalhypa]

Originally Posted by murd0c

I was thinking the same thing when I met you

I was incredibly shocked to find out you weren't a 6'4" African man.
Maybe even a little disappointed.

[blkgsr]

my wifes plantinum rings are beat to shit....definitely not happy about it at all (4.5 years for the engagement ring)

what's the refinishing process?

[Sunfighter]

Hey everybody! This thread has been a fantastic resource for me so thank you everybody for contributing! I'm looking to pull the trigger and order from brilliantearth.com this week.

It's so incredibly hard to comparison shop in this industry with the vast number of variables associated with each style, diamond, etc., have actually made me more comfortable with sites like Blue Nile and Brilliant Earth and (currency valuation aside) they make shopping for Canadians/Australians VERY easy. I wish there was a better Canadian alternative. I feel there is far more bang-for-the-buck with online retailers in this industry than brick-and-mortar.

I prefer platinum as a metal type and am leaning in that direction. When I went to my basket today the price was a little higher than I expected so I emailed one of the reps that has been assisting me and asked for some recommendations on possible alternate stones to keep the transaction within my price range.

My GF and I own a few homes together already so from an economic perspective dropping $10k+ on a ring simply isn't an equitable option for us (and she would be furious) but I want to make sure it's something that will last for decades to come.

[yray]

^ then buy a home instead of a ring, it'll last way longer

[Amaru]

Originally Posted by Sunfighter

It's so incredibly hard to comparison shop in this industry with the vast number of variables associated with each style, diamond, etc., have actually made me more comfortable with sites like Blue Nile and Brilliant Earth and (currency valuation aside) they make shopping for Canadians/Australians VERY easy. I wish there was a better Canadian alternative. I feel there is far more bang-for-the-buck with online retailers in this industry than brick-and-mortar.

BlueNile may be based in Seattle, but they definitely have a Toronto warehouse / facility of some sort.

When I mailed my wife's engagement ring back to BlueNile for re-sizing, I addressed the package to a PO Box in Toronto.

IIRC, my wife's rings (both engagement and wedding band) shipped from Toronto, too.

Anyway, even though they may be based in the US, it's still a great resource for Canadians and much better value than local stores. For what it's worth, I paid ~$13k for my wife's engagement ring and the official jeweller's valuation (included along with the diamond certificate) lists the value at over $19k (which is what we insured it for - anybody know a good pawn shop??).

[Sunfighter]

I placed my order via BE on Friday morning at around 12:30AM. I'm incredibly relieved as it took years to get to this point (savings, research) and I'm very happy.

[smoothie.]

Bluenile FTW.

Went to Harlings and Spence via friend referrals and what they offered for price and service were just not even close.

I felt better served via bluenile online chat than in person at those local shops. I'm sure there's better local jewelers but I just didn't have the time, and the diamond picking was just so simple and easy to go through the 100 diamonds I viewed to find the right one.

Harling's was not only pricey, but didn't have any diamonds in stock and had to order them, also email / phone contact that was promised didn't happen. Given option of alternate from GIA certification to save money did not interest me. No platinum rings in stock was very surprising.

Spence I was served with the whole "online diamonds are crap we have better selection" and service was all commission style pushing. Even after all the diamond research I was given the noob presentation which wasted 30 minutes of my time. The same spec'd ring I was quoted for 5k, I built for 3.4K on BN.

Finally, a gorgeous solitaire with a nice diamond for a price I was happy with. I don't know how they did it, but I ordered on a Tuesday before 1PM, and Fedex knocked on my door Wednesday 11AM. Custom selected diamond on a popular band.

Thanks for everyone's help in here, shoutout to Hondaracer for settling my nerves with ordering online. There are a few online sites, some rumoured to be cheaper than BN with similar quality of service, but I liked the livechat that was 24hrs and always there to answer my questions the most.

Advice for those looking on bluenile: go for signature ideal cut always, and then look at the GIA and visual reports for every diamond within your budget and specs

[dat_steve]

and don't forget to use ebates! it's normally just 1% but hey, 1% on that amount can take you and your (soon to be) fiancee out to dinner.

[ajax]

Recently worked with Sandy at Phera Diamonds for my fiancee's ring and she was amazing. Great service all they way from selecting the stone to designing the band. She exactly what I was looking for in a stone and it fit my budget perfectly. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone looking to purchase a ring locally and they definitely had the best prices compared to other places I visited.

[underscore]

One thing I just thought of, make sure they're properly insuring these when it's shipped, the last thing you'd want is for the ring to get lost and be out several grand because it wasn't insured properly.

[Hondaracer]

Insuring ain't cheap either so make sure you're certain of the size when you send it back for resizing

I found that locally in store when I asked for GIa diamonds, It was like an insult to them. Like it was me thinking what I was bein shown wasn't good snough, it's like yea, it's not.

[roastpuff]

What are your guys' thoughts on lab-created diamonds? I was browsing on Brilliant Earth and it seems like a lab diamond can be up to 40% cheaper than a similar-grade "real" diamond.

For example: 0.80 CARAT
ROUND LAB CREATED DIAMOND
SUPER IDEAL CUT • F COLOR • IF CLARITY $4425 CAD

VS

0.80 CARAT
ROUND DIAMOND
SUPER IDEAL CUT • F COLOR • IF CLARITY $8740 CAD