dude i just said fuck it and 99.95 % of women will love a 1karat diamond ring princes cut and from tiffany’s. yeah it was more than 2 months salary but the look on her face was priceless
ehhh…with talk of buying a house after married and job switching, student loans ect, I would rather keep my finances a bit more down to earth than buying “big ice” --guess it depends on how much you make in 2 months. for me it would be less than I plan on spending.
buy a used ring and put the stone in a different setting. i got a 1 carat princess cut for 200 bucks this way… and yes its real . jewelry store wanted to buy it off me for 1600…
I went to brook’s diamonds in the clark building, stacey that works there is a friend of the family, she hooked me up crazy, but i still ended up spending ~6-7k on a ring worth around 11k (i can’t remember exactly, but i have the diamond insured for 9500) it’s only a 1.13 ct, but it’s almost perfect in terms of cut, clarity, color… if you happen to stop in, say that jake referred you, you’ll get taken care of… not to mention she’s smokin hot
Hello i am the girlfriend and im on the board…duh… :doh: im not gonna say a thing… :blue:
You should take her too at least look so you get an idea… and definately go to clark building Frost Jewelers in where chad got my ring and I absolutely love it and wouldnt want anythign else.
STFU woman. you get what you get. end of story.
hahaha exactly
JUST WAIT TILL YOU GET HOME!!!:bash:
and you’ll get what you get :bj:
edit: back on topic
u should love & be happy for the efoard put into the man picking out what u got!
That’s where I bought mine too. Went to a ton of places at the Clark building. It came down to I knew what size I wanted but was picky about the clarity and ended up at Frost.
Exactly what I did.
Also learned that, if you are getting a round stone, get a 6 prong setting. 4 prongs will make it look square. Also, 6 is more secure and if 1 breaks, the rock doesn’t fall out.
keep in mind…
there is a fine line between nice & gaudy
& A LOT of people cross it with engagement rings…& jewelry in general
just because:
you can afford it
its the most expensive
it had the most weight
…doesn’t always mean it looks good.
^ and it looks fake… not a good thing
I would like to see the statistics for $ spent on ring, and length of marriages.
I mean, plenty of marriages fail today, and it would be interesting to see if there is any correlation. Ditto for $ spent on the wedding and/or honeymoon.
I am amazed at how much people typically spend on engagement rings. Not the sort of thing you want to cheap out on. However I am a long way from shopping for one of those.
A lot of good info in this thread.
ha ha, that would be pretty good! I wonder if anyone has tracked that…
For Beth and I, we wanted to start out on the right foot, and no more in debt than we were (2 cars, student loans, saving for house). I bought a ring that was just what she wanted, in our price range. I proposed while on a ski trip to colorado though, so if you include that in the cost, you can tack on an extra $1500 or so. The memory of that day and evening going out to eat, was priceless. Something we will both remember forever.
Same thing with the wedding. We spent enough to have a good time and for all of our friends to have a good time, but not too much that we couldn’t pay it off after the honeymoon (spending 7 days in aruba was very relaxing). So it really is just taking your tastes into account, and keep in mind that finances are a huge stressor in a marriage. It’s nice to not have any outstanding bills from the wedding / honeymoon when starting your life together.
Dom let me pick my own engagement ring for the most part, so now that I did all kinds of research on my quest for a ring, I feel like an expert. Dom makes about 30K a year now and he spent about $1100 on my ring after tax, so obviously I don’t believe any of that three month salary/12% annual salary crap. You spend what you can afford, you don’t need to go maxing out all your credit cards just for a ring. Yeah, she’s going to wear it for a lifetime, but there are much more important things to buy during that lifetime. www.diamondreview.com has a really good tutorial to look at before you even start shopping around, so you know what you are talking about when you walk into a store. Also, most stores have a warranty on the diamonds they sell, but this warranty usually only covers replacement of the stone if it falls out so it’s a good idea to get your own insurance policy for the ring. The insurance is pretty cheap, mine was quoted at about $20 for the entire year and you can probably get it with the same company you have car insurance with (State Farm in my case). Most big chain jewelry stores are a ripoff, they jack prices up, then offer you ridiculous sales to make it seem like a good deal. I would suggest trying smaller stores or even shopping online. Most online jewelers will ship their jewelry to an appraiser and you can go look at it there. Typically they give you 30 days to return jewelry if you aren’t happy with it. Some even offer GIA or other certifications. You can definitely get the most for your money online as compared to an actual store. Though, stores have the advantage of offering warranties/service plans and will allow you to trade your diamond in later for something bigger. You can also buy a loose diamond and a separate setting, this is a good option to consider since you can choose the perfect diamond and not just settle for one because you like the setting it’s in. This is the route we went, we picked my setting out of a catalog then chose the loose diamond and had it mounted. We got my ring at Dean Diamond Importers and I recommend them www.deandiamond.com
If you have any questions, shoot me a pm.
i didnt’ read what anybody else said, but i just had this discussion at work the other day. typical “rule of thumb” is that you spend 2 months’ salary on the ring. after that just make sure you get the best deal on the best stone
I spent $300 on my wife’s ring, and we are married 21 years. She much prefers having a nice house and a Hemi Durango to drive more than a rock on her finger.
:bigthumb: :bigthumb:
Same with us. My wifes engagement ring was a 1/4 carat round cut from David Weiss(only us old farts will remember that chain) that i bought in 1977 for $125. After about 4-5 years she lost the stone, so i bought another 1/4 carat from D.W. AFter 3-4 years she lost that stone, so i didnt buy her any more diamonds until 1995 when i bought her a 5 stone anniversary band form Zales. They offer free lifetime replacement of any lost stones if you bring the ring to them twice a year for cleaning and inspection. We did that and they replaced 3 stones over 10 years. Last year for our anniversary, we traded in her ring for one that had approx 2.5 times the carat weight in diamonds. NIce, but no where near 2 months of my salary. That 2 month bullshit was started by DeBeers, and is a brilliant marketing ploy. My wife is like gt420’s. She would rather live in a nice house and have her vintage SAAB to take to cruises than have a $10K rock on her finger. We have been married 28+ years.:love: