Weddingbee boards

I picked local jewelery store, but I'd also be willing to work with someone who does custom pieces.

I think if you have a clear idea, it doesn't necessarily matter where you get it -- I wouldn't blame you for doing some shopping around to get the best deal, especially in this economy =)! My FI got my e-ring off bluenile.com b/c it was the best deal he could find and he liked the convenience of it. But if you want to go with something with more meaning, it would be nice to work with a custom jeweler...i think that's a detail your future FI would definitely appreciate =)!

I went custom, but it was online!  Whiteflash.com.  They had great customer service as well as an in-house inventory of round and princess diamonds.  They're very honest with their opinions:  I wanted a super sparkly square diamond, and they found a perfect one in my budget.

Why not do the best of both worlds:  find an online jeweler with a brick-and-mortar store?  I see you're in NY (even though married years ago.  =)):  Engagement Rings Direct and Good Old Gold are great. 

I think any of the choices are fine.  It all depends on what you want.  You can always buy the stone on bluenile and have it set by a jeweler.  A good website for diamond info is www.pricescope.com.

Mine is really not any of those so I had to pick other. It's a well known jewelry store, not local not personalized and it was bought in the store.

I just always knew (and my husband knew ^^) that I am a Tiffany girl. I am ok with a smaller stone as long as I can see it without using a magnifying glass :>

I didn't reply because it appears (and I apologize if I assumed incorrectly) that David Posnett is a jeweler and the poll looks as if he's doing some market research for his business use. I suppose it's not against wedding policy for vendors to post polls, however, I choose not to participate.

we got my ring at Queen of Heirs in Houston.

It is a 1930's antique ring. It had an old european cut diamond but that has been replaced. I will see it for the first time since the new stone in a couple of weeks!

There are a lot of great places to look online. I do recommend Queen of Heirs, but I wasn' the kind of girl that knew what I wanted my ring to look like. I just knew that I didn't want a ring made from some casting that a million other rings were made from. I also knew I didn't want a ring that felt stale to me. I wanted a ring that was loved and had a story.

It was an amazing feeling when I put that ring on and it was my size and it winked at me. I had tried on others but nothing felt like this ring.

But do yourself a favor, look, and then look and then look some more. 

You will wear this ring for the rest of your life. And hopefully won't pick a ring your partner will be paying for either emotionally (say you don't like it or it is too small or too not whatever) or financially.

My sister got a beautiful ring from Simon G. 

I also did some googling on unique rings. There are tons out there.

Best of luck.

We've looked a little bit and I do know that I don't want to go with a chain...like Kay's or Zales. The worst part is that the future FI works on the road (inspector on the pipeline) and we're in Missouri right now. We don't plan on going home anytime soon as we'll be going to Illinois, Iowa, and Arkansas after this. The plan was to get my ring in the next month or so but I really don't want to buy it from a store that's not in our home state (OK).  I've been browsing the stone selections on Blue Nile, James Allen, and Good Old Gold but I have reservations about buying a stone that I can't see in person.  I want a round cut solitaire set on a pave band which should be pretty common to find but just not sure which route to go. Any suggestions hive?

We went with Blue Nile. My husband was able to get a much better quality stone and a plaintinum band for a lower cost than a lower quality white gold band at a local store.

Our concerns were quality (diamond and metal), price (as low as possible!) and I wanted a simple setting - so Blue Nile was an obvious choice.

If I wanted a custom design and/or did not care as much about the quality and price I would have gone local.

@ejs4y8  Hey! Right now we're in Poplar Bluff but I think we'll be moving up to the Marble Hill and Cape Giraudeau area in about a month. So we'll be pretty close to STL. I know that I want at least a carat but preferrably closer to 1.25, nothing lower than H for color and an excellent cut. I'm just not sure about the clarity. I know that they say a VS2 has no eye visible imperfections and I found a few really good diamonds on Union Diamond. But I'm just worried that if I order one that does have a VS2 I'll find something wrong with it.  What to do, what to do? LOL  The mister had told me that I have a budget of about 7,000 so instead of focusing on color I've decided that I'll take something in the F-H color range to be able to get something larger...just as long as the cut is great and I can't see any flaws.  Surely that will be enough to get some decent sized bling! So what are some of the stores that you recommend? Thanks!