Weddingbee boards

Blue sapphire for me!

Blue sapphire!

@redrocksgirl:  What a beautiful stone!!!

I just received my moissanite ring!

Moissanite is an overpriced man-made stone. If you are going to spend that buy the white sapphire. It is the hardest natural substance and actually a good quality on will have a lot of fire. Moissanite tends to be yellowish in color.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money buy a Cubic Zirconia. It is not as hard as a sapphire or moissanite but cheeaper and looks great. Many people can't tell the difference in my store. The only thing is you will have to replace it every few years to keep it looking great. Atleast it's affordable that you can do that. If you scratch the Moissanite or sapphire you will pay a lot more to get it polished or replaced.

I am a gemologist.

Good luck.

@soupycat- Moissanite is slightly harder than a sapphire and yet both are MUCH less harder than a diamond. A diamond can only be scratched by EXTREME pressure against something very hard like a piece of steel, or another diamond. You are much more likely to actually chip the edge of a diamond before you will be able to scratch it. Diamonds are still the most durable substance on earth. The Moh's hardness scale is 1-10. But it is not proportional. A sapphire is a 9 and a moissanite is a 9.25. A diamond is a 10 but it is still over a 100 times harder than both. Having seen both under the microscope thousands of time I personally believe the moissanite looks a lot less like a diamond than a cubic or even a sapphire. They are very strongly doubly refractive even though sapphires are slightly doubly refractive. The moissanite tends to have a hint of yellow. You can look at the double refractive as a good thing because it does make it reflect light differently. It's really a matter of opinion but I was just giving her mine. Because most women see color very easily I actually find they incline toward the white sapphire or even CZ. It's a personaly choice I am just giving her my advice. They are all very beautiful regardless.

@lysistrata- Moissanite material was found on a meteorite and it is not abundant on earth so they are now lab created.

@Dsquared: Wow I had no idea! I thought that Moisy stones were as closely related to a diamond as any other stone.

I have a question, and you being a gemologist, my faince wants to upgrade my stone to a 1c enhanced diamond. I've seen it and it's AMAZING! What do you know about enhanced stones?

His Lil SantosGirl- Glad I could inform. You mean as in color-enhanced or clarity enhanced? My personal view on color enhanced is fine, clarity enhancement depends on whether or not it is laser drilled or fracture-filled (often called clarity enhanced to make it sound better). Laser drilling isn't a big deal they drill down to the inclusion and then bleach it so it's less visible. GIA (Gemological Institute of America the foremost authority in diamond grading) will even grade these stones. Fracture filling is a little less accepted in the trade, GIA will not grade those diamonds. Some Fracture filled diamonds can look beautiful but the truth is they are a bit more fragile because of the fracture filling and most stores will not accept a fracture filled diamond to trade up later.

Basically it is a process of introducing a glass-like substance with a similar light reflection pattern, into the diamond to make the fractures appear less visible. The diamond is already a little bit fragile to begin with because the fractures are usually quite large. You have to tell every shop you go into that it's FF so they know not to use heat on it or put it in the ultrasonic for too long.

That being said I have seen many that are quite beautiful and they are often a good affordable alternative. Just make sure  you  get a lifetime guarantee if you do go that route.

@Dsquared: Heat? What about cleaning is? and how about getting it dip? I have a white gold band that needs dipping every 7 months or so.

You probably can't do anything to hurt it.Most jewelers will know when you tell them it's fracture filled that sizing with the torch can be a problem. If you accidentally leave it in a hot ultrasonic overnight the filling can leak out. They can crack if you heat them basically because the glass inside can expand and extend the already existing fracture.

@Dsquared: Okay, it sounds like a great idea! I mean I love my stone now, it's FLAWLESS, really, but he told me he's not proud of it cause of the size. So he wants to buy a bigger stone but the 1c with the same stats is far too expensive. We thought about moissy cause so many girls on here love it and say its just like a real diamond, but I really do want to stick with an actual diamond stone. So i'll let him know that the enhanced stone is a go :) Thanks so much for all your advice and help! You should make a post about all the geological background of the different types of engagement ring stone options. <3

@His Lil SantosGirl--  Just make sure they will allow you to trade up later with that enhanced stone and give you more value for it. Cuz like I said some of the other stores will not take that enhanced stone in on trade. I mean if your stone is small but a flawless diamond it will always keep some value. Maybe you should keep your diamond for sentiment and have him get the enhanced one if he  can do both that might be a good way to go! Good Luck!!

@icedchaitea: FI did get the ring from etsy! Did you have any problems with the seller? Also, I notcied that you got the wedding band to go with it, I was just wondering if it fits flush to your e-ring? Mine sits really low and I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a wedding band!