You find the girl of your dreams, and one time while you are sitting across the table from her at dinner, it hits you that she is the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with. Usually, that is the first step – finding the “one,” then asking her father for her hand in marriage before planning for the perfect proposal. Planning a proposal is easy; it’s buying the engagement ring for your loved one that can be a bit overwhelming.
You can’t just walk into a jeweler shop and select an engagement. There is a lot of pressure and lots of things to consider before making this purchase.
An engagement ring for your loved one serves as a symbol of your love for your partner, as well as your willingness to take your relationship to a very crucial level. Besides, knowing that your fiancé will show off her engagement ring to all her friends and family doesn’t help with the pressure.
What You Should Know Before Buying an Engagement Ring for Your Loved One
Establish Your Budget
We all know diamond engagement rings, can be quite expensive. Hence, the first thing you need to do is walk into as many jewelry stores within your reach, survey the average cost on engagement rings, and establish your budget.
In as much as you want to spend the rest of your life with your partner, it’s best not to break the bank trying to achieve that. Jewelers are always gracious enough to show you options that are within your price range.
There is nothing romantic about going into debt, so aim to get the nicest engagement ring you can afford. What goes into purchasing the cheap diamond promise ring is what matters and not the amount of money you had to spend on it.
Discard the misnomer that an engagement ring for your loved one should cost the equivalent if your two months’ salary. De Beers created this marketing ploy in the 30s, and in the 21st century, this shouldn’t impact your proposal plans. Be it the quality of the stone you are looking for, intricacy of the ring setting, or add-ons like engravings or baguettes, the ring you buy will come down to how well you prioritize your budget.
Know the 4 C’s and Choose a Quality Diamond
This is the most technical part of this process because this is where all your decisions will be judged. An engagement ring’s diamond quality has always been seen as a symbol of your esteem for your fiancé and relationship.
Hence, we recommend that you know the 4Cs of diamond grading before making a purchase. You will need to know the carat weight, the color of the gemstone, brilliance in cut, and the purity of clarity because they will all impact the value of the diamond you select.
Sometimes we add another C to make it 5Cs because you must buy the ring from a licensed jeweler. Hence the fifth C stands for certificates for the gem. It is essential for you to make sure that the jeweler is ethical, knows the origin and provenance of the diamond you are interested in and can provide a certificate to reflect these specifications.
With carat weight, the heavier the stone, the higher the budget. This is where your budget plays the biggest role. Luckily, a master jeweler can make your diamond appear larger than what the carat weight suggests with proper mounting and shaping.
Diamonds are fancy in color, and here your lady’s preference should play a role. Start paying attention to what she likes because maybe she prefers a Tanzanite, which is even rarer than a diamond, which means more searching time.
Diamond color is often graded D to Z scale. D being colorless and Z light yellow. The most expensive is the colorless diamonds because they are the rarest, while white color diamonds are the most common. In the end, the diamond color should be about your lady’s preference.
You should also make sure that the diamond cut suits her style and will look good on her finger. Diamonds are cut in different shapes, including an oval-cut, peat cut, emerald cut, heart cut, or even cushion cut, all come with unique qualities. Always best to find a jeweler who will talk you through your diamond options.
Decide What Metal You Want the Ring to Be Made From
You have a budge, you have decided on a diamond, now you need to decide on the mental the ring will be made from. This should also be based on your girlfriend’s preference, style, and personality.
Consider things like skin sensitivities or allergies to certain metals, what will suit her skin tone better, her type of lifestyle, among others. The metal you choose needs to take all of these things into consideration. The metal also largely influences the setting of the ring.
Choose the Right Band and Ring Size
After an engagement ring comes to a wedding band and so you need to ensure that both will be able to coexist in the same finger together. In most cases, the engagement ring’s design will determine the design of the wedding band as well. Hence, we recommend deciding with the wedding band in mind.
And while you could get the diamond and metal right, you could still fail with the ring if you get her ring size wrong. To nail the whole engagement ring process, you need to ensure you have the right ring size. You can always ask one of her closest friends to help accomplish the task without giving your plan away.
Or you could just take one of her favorite ring for your loved one to measure the ring size and model the engagement ring with those measurements. And well, once you get the ring right, what you need to next is to nail the actual proposal.
The proposal solidifies the essence of the ring and serves as the memory that defines the relationship. Aim to go memorable, whether big or small. The diamond ring and the location become one unified memory that will make both of you happy for years.
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