Buying an engagement ring

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year of the roo said:
- how much should I be budgeting for? Is that a stupid question?
- I think I'd like to avoid the cliche of getting her a diamond ring, or is that just crazy talk?
- birthstones. She's born in June (so her stone is pearl), I hate pearls and I reckon she might too, I am
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This is age old question. This post itself is old but the question is quite relevant today and will be very much in the next 10 years. It is a daunting question. I recommend taking your fiance and seeking a jeweller first hand. I know your fiance might be upset as it takes away from the spontaneity of it all but what I did, was take my future wife to see Larsen Jewellery about 6 months before popping the question. Your girl friend will expect it to be soon regardless. Then she can truly pick out what she wants taking out the guess work for you and ensuring she gets what she likes which is the biggest and scariest moment for a man. Try Larsen Jewellery. They are located in both Sydney and Melbourne.
 
Wow nice bump, forgot I posted this. She said yes BTW. Went for a white gold diamond ring with violet sapphires (she loves purple).
 

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Always a tricky task!

I took the punt of getting the ring myself without getting her best friends help.

As others have mentioned it's a real test to how well you know your partner. Or if your partner is like my wife and sends you photos of rings circled in catalogues you should be fine ha ha.

Definitely wait till sale time. Might sound like a tight ass thing to do but I got a $3,500 ring half price and she loved it!

Other option for finding her ring size is to steal an old ring she doesn't wear anymore and take it into the store.

Good luck and back yourself in!
 
I really don't think you need to spend 3x your monthly wage or whatever the old saying is.
My fiance picked mine and was spot on with his choice. White gold pave band with raised cluster diamonds with a yellow gold halo. Perfection :)
 
Got my fiance a ring custom made by a mob in Melbourne, they designed it for her, great value and they did an amazing job, they supply some major retailers. also have a friend who works at a Jewelers and the mark up on what I got would be like 60% or more.

Would recommend
 
There are about 50 diamond guys in the Manchester Unity building on the corner of Swanston and Collins. Look them up and they could do an amazing quality piece a lot cheaper than the jewellery chains.
 
Scotland said:
The average is wage these days is what, $60-70k?

$70k / 4 = $17.5k. Do people really walk around with that much value on their fingers? Surely more married women would be getting mugged if that's the case.
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Surely no one prescribes to that salary theory anymore?

Do they?
 
If you know your fiancé well enough, you should know what she likes. If she doesn't like it tell her to * off.

Having said that I picked out my wives and she loved it, but everyone I talked to afterwards was surprised she didn't have any input.

I personally thought it would be weird to propose to her without the engagement ring
 
sivart said:
If you know your fiancé well enough, you should know what she likes. If she doesn't like it tell her to **** off.

Having said that I picked out my wives and she loved it, but everyone I talked to afterwards was surprised she didn't have any input.

I personally thought it would be weird to propose to her without the engagement ring
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It's getting common now. Can't say I'm a fan of it.
 
get her a basic gold ring for a few hundred for the deed, and then go with missus and get a custom ring made by a jeweler for the balance you were going to spend... all jewelery in the shop it not worth a pinch of poop... made cheap and sold with massive mark ups....

is she says no because you didnt spend few k on the ring to pop the question then shes not worth marrying.

think i spent a few hundred on engagement, we were in Paris and missus found a ring she liked, and then we had wedding rings custom made (friend or a friend) for maybe $1000 all up.

TIP # 2 when getting ring made buy fake diamonds no one will know the diff, and allows more to be spend on the gold/band/design.
 

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daddy_4_eyes said:
Consider buy the diamond & ring separately. There's a number of jewellers around the world and in Australia who have a diamond listing online, so you can compare prices based on specifics of the 4 C's.
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I bought an engagement ring from Larsen Jewellery who have offices in both Sydney and Melbourne. They were awesome and if you check out their reviews you will be pleasantly surprised.
 
Why don't women just get their own ring, with their own money? Isn't this what equality is all about? You are no longer the pampered princess, before you become chattel. We've pissed on every tradition there is, why is this ole chestnut still in circulation?

If you both want to get married you can both go and choose whatever ring you want to wear for the rest of your lives (or however it takes to get a divorce).
 
I don't think I'll ever get married, but the idea of buying a ring before you propose seems right. Adds to that surprise. And although like 6k is stupid, I don't think there's much wrong with spending a bit if you can't afford it – it's a nice, simple, special item that people will always keep. Better than spending hundreds of thousands on massive teles, Jeeps, boats and that kind of s**t.
 
Silent Alarm said:
I don't think I'll ever get married, but the idea of buying a ring before you propose seems right. Adds to that surprise. And although like 6k is stupid, I don't think there's much wrong with spending a bit if you can't afford it – it's a nice, simple, special item that people will always keep. Better than spending hundreds of thousands on massive teles, Jeeps, boats and that kind of s**t.
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personally I don't value shiny s**t especially when I have owned diamond mines. A good quality 2ct diamond uncut would be $500/ct and cutting is $12 (giving a 1ct, a .6ct and a .2ct) so a 1 ct diamond cut should cost less than $1k including retail mark up.

but they retail between $20-50k.
 
Power Raid said:
personally I don't value shiny s**t especially when I have owned diamond mines. A good quality 2ct diamond uncut would be $500/ct and cutting is $12 (giving a 1ct, a .6ct and a .2ct) so a 1 ct diamond cut should cost less than $1k including retail mark up.

but they retail between $20-50k.
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What?? My engagement ring is 1.25ct and didn't cost anywhere near that much money.
 
MEB_ said:
What?? My engagement ring is 1.25ct and didn't cost anywhere near that much money.
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then the starting stone was probably $90-$180 and a $12 cut

the same rules apply


the cheapest stone would be $15
 
I was meeting my girlfriend in Croatia for a holiday about 12 years ago. The holiday was costing quite a lot of money as I was going to the States to see my kids first, so money was tight. We took a ferry to Italy and ended up in Rome, where I proposed with a cheap ring worth about $120. I explained that I would buy her a proper ring of her choosing later. She said yes.

We went to Florence, where we bought her wedding band from one of the many jewellery stores on The Ponte Vecchio. We just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and I finally bought her a proper engagement ring of her choosing. It is crazy to spend a fortune on an expensive engagement ring that she may not like. The ring my wife just chose was beautiful, but totally not what I would have expected her to choose.
 
If you're stopping through Dubai on holiday anytime before you're planning on getting engaged. Have it made there. I bought diamonds there (From the Argyle mine in Australia actually) and sold them back here for double the price. My mate got an engagement ring made up from designs that he had from the web with his own changes. Spent 6k on it, got it valued in Australia at 20k.

Aussie Mikes in the gold souks will sort you out.
 
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