diamonds direct will do appraisals. and they have an excellent repair dept if you need something fixed/cleaned/redipped/etc

[Edited on November 2, 2011 at 3:11 PM. Reason : 33]

11/2/2011 3:11:18 PM

I don't really like the idea of "trading up" rings. I know a lot of people do it, especially once when they may not have had a very fancy ring when they first got married, but that just makes me feel sad that you're basically saying your first ring isn't enough.

But I know (hope?) that's not really the mindset other people have. Maybe I'm just more attached to tangible objects than other people. I wouldn't want to trade in my original ring for a newer model.

Using one of your mom's stones in a new setting is a great idea though, if your girlfriend would be on board with that. I have my grandmother's diamond that I want to use in my own ring because of the sentimental value of it. And I'm sure I'd be honored if my bf had one in the family he wanted to use, though obviously it would have less of a sentimental tie.

11/2/2011 3:18:41 PM

Quote :

"Baller Dad!"

Son...not so much.

Although I can't really talk...I plan on using my grandmother's ring/stone.

11/2/2011 3:20:12 PM

Quote :

"And I'm sure I'd be honored if my bf had one in the family he wanted to use, though obviously it would have less of a sentimental tie."

See that's just it. I don't really care about the sentimental value from one of my mother's old rings that she doesn't care about. And I'm sure my gf cares even less. I like the idea of starting with something new and fresh. It's a nice enough ring though, but my mother probably won't part with it it she knew I'd just part out the stone in another setting.

We've been fake ring shopping enough before to know what her tastes are. I'll probably go this weekend to see the jeweler my father uses. He should hook me up with a baller discount.

11/2/2011 3:56:24 PM

We went together to look and both liked this one setting (which is now my ring). From there he decided the size, quality, etc. I think what we did is fairly common. And we both liked that we found something we liked together since he would be spending money on it and i would be wearing it

11/2/2011 4:32:35 PM

Quote :

"And I'm sure I'd be honored if my bf had one in the family he wanted to use, though obviously it would have less of a sentimental tie."

Depends on what you mean by sentimental. What if it's from a dead relative? My step-dad gave my mom his mother's ring (she died 2 years before and it hit him hard). To her, that was the most special he could have done.

I think using the ring/stone from a deceased love one and then getting a personalized setting is about at sentimental as you can get.

11/2/2011 5:08:31 PM

Quote :

"I don't really like the idea of "trading up" rings. I know a lot of people do it, especially once when they may not have had a very fancy ring when they first got married, but that just makes me feel sad that you're basically saying your first ring isn't enough."

aaaaahahaha my mother did this. twice. I call her current ring the P.Diddy bling

honestly I don't see the big deal. she has the old diamonds made into different jewelry that she wears. Marriage isn't about a rock. My parents started out dirt fucking poor and worked their asses off for years and years for the money they have now. so what if they want to upgrade?

11/2/2011 8:38:09 PM

someone post a pic of a 1/2 carat and 3/4 carat ring on a finger por favor

11/27/2011 12:08:38 PM

1/2 carat


3/4 carat




http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/share-pictures-of-your-ring-and-state-your-ringdiamond-size

11/27/2011 1:00:51 PM

thanks! you are 10x better than Google!

[Edited on November 27, 2011 at 1:08 PM. Reason : .]

11/27/2011 1:08:02 PM

11/27/2011 1:12:04 PM

yeah trying to figure out what I'm looking at. Thanks

12/21/2011 6:22:18 PM

12/21/2011 6:56:50 PM

congrats! that's a really nice setting, what's the total weight?

12/21/2011 7:23:09 PM

Thanks! The center stone is 1.0 ct. and I think the total is 1.41 or something like that (that might include the wedding band, too.) I wish I could say I picked it out on my own.

12/21/2011 8:07:03 PM

future Mrs. ClassicMixup is now official future Mrs. ClassicMixup

[Edited on December 21, 2011 at 10:49 PM. Reason : ]

12/21/2011 10:49:09 PM

Congratulations!

12/21/2011 10:51:15 PM

the future Mrs. nasty_b is now officially the future Mrs. nasty_b





also +1 for Richard at Diamond's Direct

12/22/2011 10:57:11 PM

congrats to the nasty_bs!

[Edited on December 22, 2011 at 11:03 PM. Reason : .]

12/22/2011 11:03:32 PM

Congrats guys!

+1 for Richard at Diamonds Direct where we ended up buying our wedding bands

Not a fan of Lisa there.. She was an absolute nightmare to me and extremely rude to many of my friends

Richard is knowledgeable and friendly.. He gives me a hug whenever he sees me now. He's the only person there worth talking to in my opinion

12/23/2011 9:46:48 PM

I loved Sylvia at Diamonds Direct.

12/23/2011 11:06:01 PM

^^ pretty sure lis was the one that drove me away from DD. i went in to look at some options and she was all "oh you have to buy this stone today"

12/24/2011 12:03:37 AM

While I didn't post in this thread (the lady isn't "on" here but she has been known to browse) I did want to say that I found quite a lot of helpful advice. Ended up going to Diamonds Direct and I was very happy with the service and the selection. Lisa was very helpful to me, not pushy at all--there are evidently two Lisas though. Maybe the one y'all aren't fond of is the "other" Lisa.

The only issue was that Dawn has really slender fingers (size 3.75!) and they cannot size down the ring I picked out that far without putting too much stress on the setting, so they've had to request a new ring be made in the proper size. That will take 6 weeks. In the meantime they went ahead and set the stone in the band they had and put a ring guard in so she can wear it, and they will reset the diamond in the "real" (identical but correct size) band when it arrives.

But the main thing is--she said yes.




[Edited on January 9, 2012 at 5:32 PM. Reason : d]

1/9/2012 5:31:56 PM

Congratulations!

1/9/2012 7:19:50 PM

3.75?! holy crap those are tiny fingers!!!!

[Edited on January 9, 2012 at 9:21 PM. Reason : daaaaaaang]

1/9/2012 9:21:23 PM

Man, I thought mine were small with 5.

the ring is beautiful and congrats!

1/9/2012 10:01:30 PM

I'm a size 3

but wow, that ring is absolutely stunning on her finger. You made a very beautiful choice. Congratulations!!

1/10/2012 12:17:42 AM

beautiful ring!!

1/10/2012 12:56:14 AM

anyone have any recommendations on where to go to have diamonds reset into a new setting?

1/19/2012 10:19:19 AM

And I thought I had midget hands with a size 6 ring lol.

1/19/2012 10:26:57 AM

future Mrs. ViolentMAW is now official future Mrs. ViolentMAW. god help her

1/19/2012 3:54:00 PM

Congrats! And nice rock!


I like the trend I started with future xyz is now officially future xyz

1/19/2012 4:17:58 PM

Thanks. Yep, just trying to fit in. My favorite story about that ring is when I was picking it up from Diamond's Direct after it got fitted. I seriously think the girl who worked there wanted to jump over the counter and do me. I don't think I've ever been looked at like that by a woman in my life. Maybe she does that to all the customers, haha.

1/19/2012 4:25:22 PM

Woody,

I know how you treated your last gf and have been assured by your current gf... er, fiancé that you are no longer the piece-o-shit loser who dated my bestie. I would officially like to start anew and wish you a sincere congratulations.

Remember when I dressed up as you for Halloween?!

See, only thinking about the good times.

Again, congratulations to you and Kelli.

<3,
Linda

1/19/2012 8:01:55 PM

Thanks Linda. I am still not perfect, but am slowly maturing.

1/19/2012 9:37:59 PM

Congrats!

1/20/2012 1:23:03 AM

Any/all you guys getting insurance on your rings?

1/20/2012 5:13:08 AM

We have it insured through the homeowners insurance.

1/20/2012 8:00:05 AM

^ same with us. since we both own homes, i just tacked it onto my home insurance policy.

1/20/2012 8:57:15 AM

I haven't posted in this thread yet, but seeing what some of yall have been looking for, I thought I would mention Cox & Cox (right on the Concord, Kannapolis border). This guy is a prior-enlisted Marine that works in a tiny little building that looks like a bunker, but he does quality stuff. He has some new and some pre-used stuff for great prices, but if you have the money you may want to have him custom make something for you. That's his specialty.

I got my wife's engagement ring and we both got our wedding bands from there. He even knocked some off the final price just because 'it was a lot of money for a college kid to pay cash'. Good guy and he backs up his work.

1/20/2012 9:16:32 AM

at least put Steven's question in here and bump it if you're going to lock his thread...

Quote :

"How did you go about picking one? How did you know it was the one for her? How did you go about paying for it? I am trying to stay below $5k...The 1st one I looked at was this $13,700 one from Tiffanys...I decided to look elsewhere. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!"

2/27/2012 8:38:13 AM

lol Kirk.

Steven:

my fiance and i went about picking out a ring by me going and looking online at stuff i liked. he wanted to have an idea of some ring styles i liked so i went on different websites and sent him some ideas of things i like. there was one particular ring that stood out that we both liked so we found the jewelry store that carried the brand and went to see it in person.

as soon as i put the ring on my finger, we were both like, "this is the one." because of that, it kind of took the guess work out for my fiance in deciding if it was the one for me because we both liked the ring. the important thing for us was me finding a setting i liked - my fiance picked out the stone.

i would think if you get a general idea of what kind of stone and/or setting your fiance likes, then you probably could find something. if you're open to both going together, then that could be helpful as well.

i will say - find out how long the ring will take to be made and sent to the store, especially if you kind of have a timeline or a date in mind of when you want to propose. my fiance wanted to propose in September so he bought the ring in early August. the jeweler said the ring will be ready by mid-September the latest.....but it actually didn't show up until the first week of October and of course because he had been planning to propose for the last month, he ended up proposing that day.

2/27/2012 8:50:43 AM

We went to a couple of stores together and I tried on many rings. I had two styles in mind, but didn't really know what I wanted. Everything was just meh, or "that's nice" until the moment i put my ring on. I was starting to get really bummed out after trying on so many and not getting a "feeling." When I finally did try on my ring, it felt right. He "kept it in mind" and we were going to continue looking. He went back and bought that same ring a day or two later. Proposed about two weeks later.

2/27/2012 9:04:34 AM

We didn't actually go to any stores together, but I did ask her specifically about what she liked and didn't like, and asked her to do some browsing online and if she saw anything that caught her eye, let me know. This worked out well for me because we had been together quite a while at that point (over 3 years) and we knew that marriage was in the cards, just didn't have a time frame for it yet, so I wasn't spoiling any sort of surprise. So she told me a few things (she wanted a round main stone and didn't like three stone settings, for example) and showed me a few settings that she liked which gave me an idea of what direction to go in. But I wanted to pick out the ring for her, not just buy one that she told me she liked, so the final selection was my own.

Based on her reaction, I think I did well.

Payment in my case was a combination--I had been setting aside money for a while, and I knew how much I wanted to spend. Ended up using the cash I had saved for about 3/4 of the purchase and financing the rest as they had an 18 month 0% interest offer. Don't worry if $5k is your budget, you can still get a fantastic ring, just remember that you want to put the majority of your budget into the stone rather than the band/setting. (That may sound logical but you can spend $3k on a ring, without a stone, without even trying, from some of the "designer name" manufacturers.)

2/27/2012 11:10:50 AM

this might be a silly question but does anyone propose as a surprise anymore? No ring shopping together beforehand, just as a straight-up surprise? has anyone on here done it as a surprise?

2/27/2012 11:22:06 AM

^ this.

2/27/2012 11:55:38 AM

^^ Millions of pages back, you can see my surprise proposal and supplementary photos of the event by my photographer friend that was hiding the whole time.

2/27/2012 12:15:11 PM

^^^

I agree. I would definitely be worried about getting my lady a ring she doesn't like...but at the same time, I can't imagine going "ring shopping" with her before I've actually asked her to marry me. Seems ridiculously anti-climactic.

Therefore, I will enlist the help of my mom to ring shop for the lady (at some point in the near future). I usually hate picking out jewelry, but I've done a really good job with this girlfriend on picking out earrings. My mom has also bought her a shit ton of jewelry that she loves (my mom loves my gf and almost outdoes me on the gift giving).

I feel like it will be difficult for my mom to fuck this up. She's even gone through my girlfriend's jewelry box before to "see what her style is" before she bought her first gift.

2/27/2012 12:52:12 PM

I don't like surprises (especially when it comes to something I'll be wearing on a daily basis)

I thought looking at rings with Kodiak was fun, and I got something I wanted without it being expensive

and she'll know if your relationship is heading toward marriage anyway, so I'm not sure how surprising one can really be about proposing unless you've only been dating for a couple months or something

I guess I'm just saying that having her input isn't a bad thing

Quote :

"Seems ridiculously anti-climactic."

If you think of proposing as some kind of surprising/exciting/romantic new commitment in your lives, sure. If you already know you're going to be together until you die without having to ask the person, it's already anti-climactic. People would ask us how he proposed and honestly, he didn't even have to. So we got a ring and put a date on the calendar. At this point it's a formality for us, not a commitment we haven't already made to each other.

[Edited on February 27, 2012 at 1:08 PM. Reason : .]

2/27/2012 1:02:52 PM

i can see from a guy's standpoint why you wouldn't want to go through the process of "ring shopping" but i think it could be helpful even if you ask your girlfriend what kind of style she likes or if there is a stone shape she prefers.

2/27/2012 1:03:35 PM