(Closed) What's more important, size or quality?

• colormeheather
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: October 2018

@MissMarple:  +1

• Shina
• 7 years ago

Everyone’s different in what’s important to them.  Carat size is definitely important to me but the other C’s are higher in my priority list.  When my Fiance was shopping for my ring, he gave me a choice between my diamond which is 1.26ct (center) F color VVS1 excellent cut GIA cert or a 1.85 ct (center stone) J color SI1 very good cut but no certification.  I let him choose the final in the end and he went with the 1.26 ct because the beauty & sparkle of it was no comparison.

I have to say I am SO glad we went with the smaller higher quality diamond!  At first I experienced some shrinkage b/c my Future Mother-In-Law decided to upgrade her ring when my Fiance was buying mine, so next to her whopping 3cts I felt mine was tiny.  BUT now that I’ve had my ring over  year, it’s weird but my center stone seems to be “bigger” than when I first got it.  It sounds crazy but it’s so true what they say about quality and that a high quality diamond can look bigger.  The shine, sparkle, fire & brilliance of the stone is so bright, a lot of times people assume it’s bigger carat size than it really is and are surprised when I tell them the actual.

So if I had to choose all over again, in a heartbeat I will always choose cut, clarity, and color over carat size.

• BrandNewBride
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: May 2013

@MrsEME:  I meant that’s the only situation where I’d go size over quality–If they were both SUPER high quality!

• ceebree
• 7 years ago

@Baybeejulia:  Clarity and inclusions are two different things.  You can have a clear diamond with inclusions.

My solution was Moissanite.  I got the big size and perfect clarity and no inclusions!  Good luck.

• gromble
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: May 2015

Neither are as important to me as the overall design of the ring. 

• Rubbs
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: July 2012

Better quality. 

Nothing beats sparkle!

• foz
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: June 2015

Quality > Size. However, I do think there is a balance between the two, and this is because, to me, quality is a combination of cut, clarity, and colour (and even things like table and depth percentage for fancy cuts). Sometimes you can sacrifice colour a bit (e.g., get a near-colourless diamond instead of a colourless) and go a bit bigger in size. Sometimes you can sacrifice clarity (get an eye-clean SI) and go up in size. It really depends on the individual diamond. That being said, I would not sacrifice cut!

• ceemarie7
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: August 2015

When we looked at diamonds one of the jewelers told us it was better to have a diamond with inclusions because then we would always be able to identify our stone!!! And how awesome it would be to have real dinosaur feathers in the diamond. WTF?!?! We ran very far away ha ha!

After talking to some more experienced jewelers we found out that it is harder to hide inclusions in step cut stones. Since I was set on an emerald cut we went with a smaller stone and no visible inclusions. It took weeks to find a stone that was cut how I wanted it! I’m glad it’s over and I can’t wait to be able to wear it!!! 🙂

• baileyjosephine
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: August 2014

best cut I can get with no visible inclusions! 

• Mrs.Sugabee2003
• 7 years ago

@Baybeejulia:  We went smaller (to .7ct) for quality. It was actually DH who insisted on quality. I didn’t really care about the carat size. Heck, I didn’t care if it was even a diamond. He picked everything out after asking me what kinds of rings I liked, and I was very happy with he choose.

• Monicaab
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: October 2015

I haven’t seen the setting with the stone because my so picked the stone out alone, but he did say he picked one slightly under a half carat that was basically flawless because it was cheaper than a crappy bigger stone and looked nicer. I would definitely rather have quality over quantity.

• joya_aspera
• 7 years ago

@Shina:  Mine got “bigger” as I had it longer too (though I didn’t see it as small to begin with). But sometimes I’ll randomly look at it and feel like “damn it’s huge!” (and Fiance randomly does that sometmes too). It’s not a huge size for my social group so it’s not that.

It’s interesting, you often hear on these boards of “diamond shrinkage syndrome” but you and I have the opposite (“diamond growing syndrome”?) Maybe many people do but since it’s not really a problem people just don’t tend to post about it. I wonder too if it relates to the qualtity of the diamonds and the lightplay making us feel that the diamond has more presence than others of similar or even fairly substantially larger size that we see out and about. It “looks” a lot “bigger” than it “is,” in a way. (just because it’s so active and everything, it seems to “take up a lot of room.”)

@ceemarie7:  Dino feathers? Sigh, another jeweler wingin’ it to sell those funky stones. It’s  a cute idea though, but diamonds are much older than dinosaurs. They’re made basically from stardust. It’s not amber!

• drlolaz
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: August 2013

Diamonds or peen?

• Shina
• 7 years ago

@joya_aspera:  I agree with you, I believe there are many people out there who experience their diamonds “growing” vs. “shrinkage” — but maybe you & I analyze this phenomena more than most (I know I’m obsessed with my Ering!).  I absolutely do think if you have a very high quality diamond than the light play is more pronounced and the sparkle/shine on it contributes to the diamond looking “bigger” than it’s actual size.  I have two girl friends with bigger Erings than I do, one has a 1.5 ct center stone and another has a 2ct center stone (both are RB solitaires like mine).  They both sacrificed cut/clarity for a bigger carat size and although their rings are gorgeous, when we get together my center stone looks bigger than my friend’s 1.5 ct center, and looks only slightly smaller than my friend’s 2ct center — esp in the light.  In the dark where there’s hardly any light at all, it is much easier to tell the actual carat size of the diamonds between the 3 of us, but if there’s any light being reflected in my Ering than the size looks bigger.

• womanofsubstance
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: February 2012

@ceebree:  I’m not sure what you mean. I always was lead to believe clarity has everything to do with inclusions and where they are situated in a stone. (other things too – type of inclusion etc). 

I’m not a diamond expert though.