Engagement rings

http://www.exceldiamonds.com/

Call and ask for Judah. Made a stressful buying experience enjoyable.

If she knows you're going to propose, and you trust her not to go nuts, I would have her pick it out, but maybe have her pick a few, unless she absolutely needs a specific one. That way there is still some element of surprise.

I've looked for rings for myself, and picked out a few I really loved - I gave examples of the cut, style etc, and the price range (which was only like 1.2-1.5k) and told him I liked those ones, go nuts.

I don't know which one he'll get, so I'm excited to see what he picks out, but because I don't wear jewelry in general, it needed to be something I would love forever and wear, and something small. I cannot stand garishly gross large cuts, especially since my fingers are very thin.

Edit: Should also say I think diamonds are bogus and I picked out sapphire engagement rings. I'm not especially good at the industry either, and even when it came that time for it to become relevant I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to "clarity" or "flawlessness" for the diamonds that flank the sapphire, it just needed to be something pretty, something that mattered. Something that said, "I bought you this because it is something you'll treasure, because instead of a giant price tag, it came with a reminder that I love you so much I'm willing to go through the annoyance, cost and pain of a divorce."

That's what marriage is about right? -.-

I'm beginning to wonder if Tuco owns stock in moissonite. He's mentioned it in like every post.

Why not just get a cheap fake ring to get the element of surprise down and then plan the next day to go ring shopping together. Hell make it a weekend with a mini vacation somewhere, day at the spa, all that shit. Any of your female RR's out there think this would be good or shitty?

Is the act of the guy going out and picking out the ring he THINKS you will like a good portion of what makes proposing so special? The fact that he was thinking about you all day, going out of his way, bla bla bla

I don't see how going out to buy the diamond is anymore of a uh, sentimental thing than the fact he was/has been thinking of proposing for awhile. Most guys don't get into that casually, so it's not necessary to pick a ring out.

I told the S/O to pick out what he wanted, mostly because it's not just *my* ring. I'll wear it, but it's the first *indicator* in society of a union of that magnitude. I wanted there to be something of him in it. So I gave him ideas, and the plan is that he will take into account what I like to wear, then look at rings, pick out something that he'd also like to see on me and bam. Engagement ring done.

The fact that I hate diamonds and large rocks in general was the biggest reason we talked about it and looked at rings. I'd have loved whatever he picked, but I have a hard time with things that draw a lot of attention like that. I want it to be something I notice because it's on my finger, and every once in awhile when the light catches it maybe someone will remark on it. I don't want it to be in anyone's face, or make a large dent in a pocketbook.

The wedding isn't a big deal either; the ceremony is something like 10 people and then a small reception. Hell, even my dress is a pink A-line that costs around 100 dollars. I'm pretty sure my parents spent more on my prom dress in high school.

I look at it this way though: Every 60 dollars spent is another released game I have to wait longer for. We can't have that, seriously.

Tuco_sl said:

There's massive differences in quality between a CZ and a moissanite/diamond. Basically CZ looks like shit.

And draegan I doubt the moissanite company is even public. Not that I'd buy into their stock. Their business model is dependent on scientists not being able to make diamond production cheaper and I doubt they have a strong hold on the ability to generate moissanite.

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Charles and Colvard is publicly traded. And their business model is dependent on their patent not expiring so they can act as a monopoly in the US and charge you inflated prices.

Tuco_sl said:

There's massive differences in quality between a CZ and a moissanite/diamond. Basically CZ looks like shit.

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A good cz looks no different than a moissanite or a diamond. So again, why buy a vastly more expensive moissanite other than the snob appeal of its price?

I was just joking with you Tucbro.

Ishad_sl said:

Charles and Colvard is publicly traded. And their business model is dependent on their patent not expiring so they can act as a monopoly in the US and charge you inflated prices.

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Sounds like you're getting ripped off Tuco. Better find something else to be self righteous about!

Don't.

Tuco_sl said:

Bottom line: Diamonds are for suckers. They're not very rare gems nor are they that special. It's all bullshit. Women are pretty susceptible to stupid jewelry purchases, which you'll examine for yourself when Etoille finds this thread and demonstrates an incompetent level of pride in being good at wasting money on expensive rocks.

The way I convinced my wife to accept moissanite was I talked budget with her then showed her what we could get if we bought diamonds vs moissanite. At anything less than $10,000 it's impossible for diamonds to compete with any real objectivity.

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Nah I'm done arguing. I've filed this topic in the same pile as abortion. People want to believe what they want to believe - I've said plenty of times do whatever makes you happy. Its a waste of my time to try and convince people otherwise - this is a core values/worldview topic. The info is out there and if you want to talk to me about it you'll ping me (as several others on FoH did and were very happy with the results).

Yeah, moissanite and CZ aside, humans can manufacture diamonds of a higher quality than can be mined, but they're not "worth" nearly as much. That alone quite tellingly demonstrates that the worth of diamonds has absolutely nothing to do with their properties, and everything to do with people's perceptions that have largely been shaped by clever marketing.

I can't really think of any other luxury good or conspicuous consumption item that is similar. Even with shit that is ungodly expensive with seemingly little justification, from LV bags to sports cars to art work to you name it, the counterfeits or alternatives to them are inferior or just plain different, so you can somewhat justify the price give that supply of the genuine article is (intentionally) limited. But a synthetic diamond is superior in virtually every way to a natural one, and can even be pretty much made to order.

There are plenty of things to criticize Eomer for, but that isn't one of them.

Don't forget to check resellers and shit on Ebay as well. Granted this was for our actual wedding rings but we went to a variety of jewelers, picked out the rings we wanted and then she went on an ebay hunt. Managed to get the ring I wanted for 25 bucks (jeweler wanted 350) and hers for 950 (jeweler wanted 1900).

It's possible to get big time scammed and we may have just gotten lucky however.