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How much did you pay for your wife's/fiancee's engagement ring?

Fueco

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Jeez, looking through this thread makes me happy that I found one happy with a $5 jade ring that I bought in a tourist shop in New Zealand. I proposed four months later, and she broke the ring within days. We've been married for almost ten years now.
 

venividivicibj

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Jeez, looking through this thread makes me happy that I found one happy with a $5 jade ring that I bought in a tourist shop in New Zealand. I proposed four months later, and she broke the ring within days. We've been married for almost ten years now.
Just get it insured and you don’t have to worry
 

otc

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real talk though, I spent 3-something grand at a local jeweler. Had them copy something found online but with some key modifications.

Ended up a good chunk cheaper than the original despite using platinum instead of white gold and being custom designed.
 

RSS

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$0 We've been together since 83. But we do have simple gold bands from a good NY jeweler.
 

new_to_fashion

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Surely someone has cited this statistic. Chances of divorce increase by 38% when the cost of the wedding exceeds $5000.

Is it because that is indicative of likely money problems in the marriage(which we know causes divorce) or being married to a "selfish" woman.
 

jts287

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Eleven years ago, I bought a loose diamond on eBay for $3,000, ran out and had it appraised, jeweler wasn't impressed. Seller (guy with a Russian-sounding name who shipped diamond jewelry from a commercial address in Beverly Hills) replaced it with a European round cut stone that then appraised for $12,000. I bought a setting and had it mounted locally. I assumed the Russian was a pawn broker- best case scenario.
 

daldr

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Does anyone have experience with James Allen?

Great experience, took a lot of self research but the results were terrific and my wife continually gets praises on her diamond, happy I went that route and maximized my $
 

gimpwiz

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If you want a diamond (read: if SHE wants a diamond), buying lab-made stones online is really the way to go. Prices fall slowly but steadily over time. At the beginning of the thread people were talking about $5k for well below 1ct; these days for that price you can get a "visibly perfect everything" (cut, clarity, color - virtually colorless and inclusions difficult to see even for a jeweler with a loupe) in a 1.5ct plus-minus 0.1ct range, in the most popular shapes like classic brilliant round. Comes with a report, details, serial number. If you buy one and are concerned, or just want to verify the details, you can always take it to a local jeweler for an inspection to make sure it matches.

Getting rings custom made is also often significantly cheaper than list price at a store. Consider it, even if you have a fairly simple design in mind, the CAD and manufacturing labor for USA-made stuff can surprise you with how low it can be. Not always, but ask.

Also, if you look at rings in jewelry stores or especially department stores, beware misleading "tcw" - total carat weight. You see a nice ring with a halo stone and they tell you "2.0 tcw." Means the sum total of the diamonds on the ring weigh 2.0 carats. The ring in the middle might be well, well under 1 carat. Is that a problem? No, not unless they're charging as much for the 2.0 tcw ring as they're charging for the 1.3 carat solitaire next to it with a similar band. You go online and price those out and you realize that all twenty of those 0.07 carat diamonds are worth about ten-twenty bucks each (and have relatively garbage cut/clarity/color specs to save money, not that you can tell), the remaining 0.60ct is $500. Whereas the 1.3 might have nicer specs and is $2000 online. Just - know what you're buying, if you know roughly how much it cost whomever is selling it you're in a better position to get the *right* price for it.

Also, my pro tip: Platinum sounds way fancier than gold but is currently half the price of gold. Granted virtually nobody wears 24K jewelry for good reason, and obviously 14-18K is significantly cheaper, but platinum is also quite strong and can be made quite thin (read: lower weight, lower cost.) Just a thing to think about. Another one - rose gold is very much in style now, and generally done 14K, versus normal yellow gold often 18K, so between the two it's significantly cheaper as well - or it should be, if whoever is making your ring isn't pocketing the difference and hoping you don't know better. Obviously don't go out and do those things just because they're cheaper, but if the lady really likes it, yep it's cheaper.
 

wojt

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^There is no reason to get hooked on diamond when you can buy quality 1ct-2ct Spinel or Sapphire which have great durability will be unique and have great color. Making custom solitaire gold ring is (relatively) cheap. Obviously the hard part is finding a trustworthy vendor but you can surf reddit/pricescope and check what vendors are preferred by collectors.

Top quality Spinel and Sapphire don’t have the sparkle of diamonds(though they sparkle a lot when cut good and not too dark) but their color is hard to beat by any stones and they are quite rare, extremely beautiful and often 100% natural.
 
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gimpwiz

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Quite right - unless it's important to her. Then you decide if you're cool with it or if the cost and business practices are too absurd. I decided I was cool with the 'original'. (Not even remotely all that traditional, but that's the power of lies.)
 

otc

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So...sounds like you probably shouldn't be getting married anytime soon then...
 

RSS

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One side benefit to being gay ... NO diamonds. It saves $$$. Although we do have a few nice cufflinks ... but still no precious stones.

We've been together for about 40 years. We finally got married a few years back. A local judge used a Native American ceremony ... just for the four of us (two witnesses and us) ... at the courthouse. We both got simple bands (3mm or 4mm) from Tiffany. I'm just not a ring wearing guy -- and neither is he -- so they are still in a jewelry box.

No wedding gifts or anything like that ... but our witnesses did cook us a wonderful dinner that evening. We returned the favor the next day.

I will always remember the question the judge asked to make sure we were ready for marriage. "How long have you been together?" My other half told her and I added "It only seems like a hundred." The judge said "Sound just like my husband and me. You're ready."
 

ValidusLA

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I would have preferred to get my wife something besides a diamond - an emerald would have been my preference, but she wanted a canary.

I bought a stone for around $7k (8 or so years ago) and then had it set for a few hundred.

Considering how much her father spent on the wedding I probably should have done better.
 

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