[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
I knew what my wife wanted. She got in the habit of telling me what she liked in rings. One day we were sitting on the porch and she started running her mouth describing the perfect ring and I pulled out the exact ring and proposed. Down to the cut of the diamond. She still brags about the ring.[/quote]
Yep.
How long have you been dating? Have you ever gone out with her and female friends? Listen closely when they talk about jewelry. I listened more to the conversations about chicks wearing ugly jewelry, that way you absolutely know what to stay away from.
have you ever bought her jewelry? Even if not, go through her jewelry drawer and get an idea of what she likes.
I would buy her jewelry for her birthday, and I memorized her size. I put some of her rings on my pinky to make sure I knew how it fit so I could check the size when it came in.
Find a small shop. Preferably owned by a Jew. I kid. but sort of not. Finer (guys name, Alan Finer) would take trips back to isreal and bring back stuff specifically for me to look at. And tell me stories about the trip. Pretty dang cool if you ask me.
In my experience, small shops CRUSH everyone else in terms of price. I am talking like more than half off. I also found that smaller shops will hold stones for you while others come in to compare. I didnt have that kind of service from zales and the like.
Concerning the diamond itself, my thoughts are thus:
After a certain point, the price goes up without any real payoff. VVS and VS are a lot of times indistinguishable from each other unless you know exactly what to look for and have a loop.
Same thing with color, after a certain point, only trained guys with loops can tell the difference difference. or if you sit 2 diamonds next to each other that are significantly different, but who the crap does that except a jewelry store?
if you find a great stone that only has a minor inclusion, see if they can mount it with the inclusion under the prong. sneaky little trick Finer showed me that i sure didnt know about.
I think cut is important. I (and my wife) prefer round cut diamonds because they allow the diamond to be a diamond and shine (prismatic shape and whatnot). BUT, if the cut is a little off you can get dull spots, or if the face is too broad you can get duller shimer. The broad face makes the diamond look a little bigger, but it dont sparkle like a diamond anymore. same with the other cuts, imo. marquise and square may look like a bigger stone on a carrot-to-carrot basis, but they dont shine like only a diamond can. those cuts should be left for other stones imho. But if it is what she likes then i shut my damn mouth.
If you just cant decide, go for the bigger one. i got my wife a respectable size (at least for these parts - more than 0.5 less than 100 carrots :P) and even her friends that dont like round cuts always gawk at it.
platinum prongs cuz its stronger and stiffer. at least according to the material data i can find.
