Just having a lot of empathy for you! In the midst of getting married myself in September. I have many friends who have a single ring for their engagement and wedding band. I highly recommend Brilliant Earth in SF for conflict-free diamonds if you haven't gone there.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts! :) This is my 2nd wedding so I've gotten a lot more mellow, but it's still fascinating to me what details will catch my attention that I'll focus a lot on!
A nice blue topaz might be nice. They're generally heat treated, but pretty when they get that light blue shade. If you're just going shopping for a wedding ring, though, I think there's a few nice places in Santa Cruz who have interesting designs. Can't remember names, but hey, if you go to downtown and shop around, it's fun in it's own right, and you can unwind at Kiva afterward.
I found a brilliant designer in Los Altos near my house that I'm hoping to go with. I did visit and interview four others, but this one had the most stylish, most comfortable, easy-wear designs.
Strangely, their gemstone catalog had really high prices for moissanite. A diamond broker just up the street had access to moissanite for 30% less.
Aaron and Aleatha had theirs custom-made by Andersen Jewelry up in Ben Lomond. He was apparently awesome.
Albert bought my engagement ring online, and it worked out beautifully, but I had been wearing rings for a while and so I knew what size I needed. My Mum's engagement ring is a little big, so she just wears her wedding band on the outside to hold it in place. We also bought our wedding band online because it was *way* cheaper than direct from a jeweler and we just wanted plain gold bands (and only 14 kt so they would last).
I'm a nice standard size 7, which made it easy for me to try stuff on. I found that even in stores, the comfort level of the rings varied dramatically, and I think I'm hideously picky about ring comfort.
8K on a ring? What sort of bling are you looking for?? You can cut that in half or a 1/4 and still get a really nice ring. I'd go custom, we had that, and it was really no more expensive than a mall one. The guy we worked with was great, I'd totally recommend him. I think he's worth the drive.
Also Zoe has a re-sale license that got her into that Jewelry Mart in SF which is wholesalers only. Supposedly that's supposed to be about the best deal one can find on an off the shelf ring.
Just concentrate on the stone. You can have a ring custom cast for nearly nothing (4-5-600). Most people I know just have a simple wedding ring, and the expense went into the e-ring.
Even more specifically, the diamond on my engagement ring is substantial and _gorgeous_ at .73 karats, and the ring cost Chris under 3k. The guy we went to will do pretty much anything you want in a ring, and gets a really good price on beautiful loose diamonds that you can look through...
Also, before spending several thousand on a ring, we had him make up our proposed design in silver (the final metal is white gold) and CZ so we could make sure we really liked it, and only charged a bit over $100 for it. Now I've got a spare :) Though the real diamond is rather obnoxious in how much more beautiful it looks than the CZ (maybe it's just because I know).
We're still being indecisive about whether to get wedding bands in addition to our already complementary engagement rings. I love the matching band that's in the set our engagement rings are based on, but do I really need to wear two rings? Might that be uncomfortable? I dunno.
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Thanks for sharing these thoughts! :)
This is my 2nd wedding so I've gotten a lot more mellow, but it's still fascinating to me what details will catch my attention that I'll focus a lot on!
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Strangely, their gemstone catalog had really high prices for moissanite. A diamond broker just up the street had access to moissanite for 30% less.
Reply
Albert bought my engagement ring online, and it worked out beautifully, but I had been wearing rings for a while and so I knew what size I needed. My Mum's engagement ring is a little big, so she just wears her wedding band on the outside to hold it in place. We also bought our wedding band online because it was *way* cheaper than direct from a jeweler and we just wanted plain gold bands (and only 14 kt so they would last).
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Also Zoe has a re-sale license that got her into that Jewelry Mart in SF which is wholesalers only. Supposedly that's supposed to be about the best deal one can find on an off the shelf ring.
Just concentrate on the stone. You can have a ring custom cast for nearly nothing (4-5-600). Most people I know just have a simple wedding ring, and the expense went into the e-ring.
Reply
Also, before spending several thousand on a ring, we had him make up our proposed design in silver (the final metal is white gold) and CZ so we could make sure we really liked it, and only charged a bit over $100 for it. Now I've got a spare :) Though the real diamond is rather obnoxious in how much more beautiful it looks than the CZ (maybe it's just because I know).
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(this is the company that did our engagement rings)
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