Australian Members - Page 1779

Congrats mate great news!

Let me tell you the proud feeling doesn't subside and for me my perspective on life definitely has changed.

First 6 weeks are tough but a growth spurt happens around 6 wks and you'll notice it gets noticeably easier!

 

 

 

(Congratulations, too.)

Congrats Jason. From experience, I can say that the next 25 years are the hardest. After that it gets better.

DP

Will ye go lassie go? To pull wild mountain thyme, all around the blooming heather, will ye go lassie go?

Yes, purple and green, lovely.

I have that same pocket square and similarly wear it with a tan jacket all the time. It's such a nice square and surprisingly versatile.

Blue, Green and Purple

Lapel flower is from Owen&James

For the married men here, how did you go about choosing an engagement ring?

Sounds exciting.

A) Be sure as you can be the answer will be yes.
B) Think long and hard about what kind of person my wife to be (to be at this stage I suppose) is. Not to be sure if she is the one as that should be figured out before A) but to decide what sort of ring to get. Diamond or other, classic shape or something unique, white or yellow gold?
C) Wandered around as many jewellers as you can looking for ideas, what is available, time frames and cost. I was pretty upfront with jewellers and for the most part they were pretty helpful.
D) You can do this earlier if you choose, though in the end unless you flat out ask it is a bit of guesswork. Gauged her ring size. My, now, wife, used to take her ring off to play basketball once a week, so I took a trace of the size when I could. In the end I got it wrong (a bit too tight) but most jewellers are very happy to fix and I think you can get it sorted for a small price if you bought the ring elsewhere.
E) This is optional and depends on how secret you want the proposal to be. Engage the help of her sister/mother/best friend/a private detective for more advice and possible help with sizing. I spoke to my wife's sister but in the end trusted my judgement over hers (rightfully to regarding yellow gold over white).
F) Again have it confirmed how overpriced the Australian market is and look online. I am Scottish (yeah, we get it Pink Socks) so looked for a Scottish company that did a Scottish themed ring (more of which later). Look around to see what is out there.
G) Optional again, seek her father's blessing (not approval because if you love her you would ask even if he did not approve).
H) Wave goodbye to your bank savings.
I) Trust your gut and buy the ring.
J) Plan something special and ask the question (the one knee, full name thing works really well...based on my one and only experience).
K) Live happily ever after (if you can make it through the wedding planning).

I bought my wife's ring from a small Scottish company, Grant Logan. They were a lot cheaper than here (esp with no VAT to pay and from some reason no extra charge for shipping). They were so lovely to deal with, answering questions in detail and sending extra photographs. Ring arrived promptly and we also order our wedding rings from them (and never got charged the import tax either time but factor it in). When ring was too tight they fixed it with no issue (when we were back in Scotland but would have done via mail). I got this one but had it custom made with a different diamond than the standard - http://www.kintyrejewellery.co.uk/engagement-kintyre/solitaire-engagement-ring.html
(They have two companies grantlogan.co.uk and kintyrejewellery.co.uk, cannot recommend highly enough).
Good luck to you or whoever you are seeking the advice for.

PS Melbourne is too bloody hot. I had to go for a casual dinner in shorts, a t shirt and flip flops tonight, which is the most underdressed I have ever been (and was still too hot) and am now home and giving engagement ring advice instead of painting the town red. Bring on winter.
Edited by Pink Socks - 2/16/13 at 5:57am

Gerry, what are you doing about those congac saddle Carmina's?

Not really too much I can do so at this point, I will be keeping them. Have yours arrived yet?

Congrats Jason!

And yes, guilty again, tassel loafers without socks. Didn't think it would be a crime on casual Friday. No?

Great advice pink socks.

Only thing ill add is get a little firm when visiting the jewellers and try and find out roughly a good price for the specs of the diamond. I used a few wholesale websites for this part.

It saves you a lot of grief because a LOT of jewellers will take advantage of a ill- prepared male. There are so many snake oil salesmen out there that it pays to do your research. Happy to pass on a few of the wholesale brokers details if you like. As I said I didn't end up buying through them/ but found out what a reasonable price was for what k wanted.

This +million.

You need to understand diamonds. Learn all about them and the 4 C's. Understand what drives the price and why. If you're dropping $20k+ then it's a serious outlay you need to understand. I bought my wife's diamond wholesale and had the ring designed and made for her. I just found there was significantly more value avoiding retail chains. I would recommend GIA graded diamonds only.

Great advice from Pink Socks.

I'd give another vote for getting the ring somewhere else if at all possible. I got mine in Japan and - even though I was accustomed to just how expensive Australia is - I was still shocked by the discrepancy in the price of jewellery. I bought a platinum ring and platinum is massively cheaper in Japan.

Good advice from Spandexter on diamonds, too. Do some research, learn about grading, learn about what is best, and make sure that you are getting bang for your buck.

My wife's family are quite traditional and so I asked my (future) father in law for permission to marry his daughter. It was the most nerve-wracking moment of my life - I was much more nervous than I was when I actually asked my wife to marry me! Thankfully, he gave me a big smile, a pat on the back and gave his emphatic approval.