What You Should Know Before Selecting an Engagement Ring

Posted By Rudiger Petulanze
Categoirzed Under: Jewellery
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by Rudiger Petulanze

Engagement rings can be stunningly beautiful and they’re an incredibly important part of your life. However, there are lots of rings out there, and plenty of confusing terminology, making it hard to choose where to start on your quest. Here’s some basic information to help.

There are three major parts to any engagement ring - the design, the stone, and the metal. The stone is generally a diamond, and the metal is usually gold, but other options are available.

Picking The Stone One thing to be aware of is the system for grading diamonds. The four components are Cut, Carat, Color and Clarity.

You′ll need to pay close attention to diamond quality when you make your purchase, but the highest quality isn’t necessarily the best. Lower quality diamonds can look the same as the best ones, but they save you a lot when you use them.

Choosing Metals Most engagement rings have bands and settings in either gold or platinum. You can get gold in levels of quality from ten to twenty-four karats, and in many colors, ranging from yellow to white to rose.

Eighteen karat gold is probably the most popular engagement ring choice, but ten and fourteen karats are chosen by some because they’re stronger. These less pure alloys are harder to dent and scratch.

One interesting, though costly, material is platinum. It looks a lot like white gold, but is significantly harder. Look closely and you′ll be able to tell the difference.

Designing Your Engagement Ring The design for your engagement ring is an extremely personal choice, whether you choose an existing ring or have a custom one made to your own specifications. There are also semi-custom rings, where you choose the stone, band size, and other design elements, combining them into the perfect ring for you.

Remember that your engagement ring design should do four basic things, however. No matter what you choose, you need a ring that’s practical and comfortable to wear each and every day, strong enough to hold up and keep its stones, and looks good under any circumstances. What will constitute an attractive, durable, easy to wear ring depends on your lifestyle. Higher settings are pretty, but catch on things. This can be a safety hazard in some jobs.

An attractive, durable, comfortable ring depends on the way you live and work. A higher setting looks pretty, but is prone to catch on things, making it a hazard in some conditions.

This is why some people choose gold that is less pure and has been adulterated by other metals - it’s stronger. It’s also a reason why other people look for sturdier rings or choose platinum over gold as a metal.

Security of stones is determined by the setting. Four prongs is the least secure, with a six prong setting being stronger, and a bezel setting even stronger than any prong setting. Heavier, lower settings are more durable than light, high settings.

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How To Find Cheap Diamond Engagement Rings

Posted By Vanessa Cruz
Categoirzed Under: Jewellery
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by Vanessa Cruz

No matter how things change in our societies and lives, there are some things that remain the same. This is what happens in the case of weddings and ceremonies. They are considered to be the centre of human life, and of course people buy all the tokens of love that go inevitably with them. Engagement rings are the most common ones, although for most people finding cheap diamond engagement rings can be really hard.

The problem for most men is that diamond is a girl’s best friend, as they say. At least for most of them. If you are looking for cheap diamond engagement rings, then it’s most likely that you will come across a vast selection of them, since there are numerous available in the market today. In most cases the rings are expensive, but nowadays, mostly due to the competition, there are many bargains as well.

Engagement rings are tokens of love and they reflect your admiration and respect for the woman you want to share your life with, so they have to be special. Cheap in this case doesn’t necessarily mean ugly or poor quality. There are bargain diamonds everywhere which are wonderful and impressive; in many cases you would be surprised at how affordable some can be.

Research is the key element here. You need to determine how much money you can afford spending, and then start looking. The great advantage that you have is that today you don’t have only the traditional stores to look in, but also numerous stores online, even in different countries. It is important to find the right place for you. You can find really many websites that offer cheap diamond rings, or at least the chance to get different options.

Doing so, you will be able to compare the qualities and prices and decide what is the best for you. If you are not up to this though, thinking that you cannot be sure how good and safe your purchase online can be, then there are always the local stores. Some of them do not look fancy, but still sell some really nice things, that will help you impress your future wife.

It is not difficult to find rings at a lower cost in local stores, because most of them have different categories of engagement rings. Don’t forget that there are some factors that determine the price of rings, such as the size and carats of the diamond gem, so you can really find something smaller and cuter, and very affordable.

In some cases looking for an antique diamond ring is a good idea, both because they can be less pricey, but also because they carry a lot of history and they are ideal for women who like nice things from older eras.

It is important to remember that above all your love is what counts and women, although fascinated by the idea of a diamond engagement ring that costs a fortune, care far more about the real fortune? your love. Even if you make some compromise with the price of the ring she knows the love that goes with it will never be compromised and with the options available to you today it is easier than ever to compromise on price without sacrificing the sheer quality and beauty your woman desires.

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Shopping for an engagement ring? Here’s a diamond buying guide!

Posted By Tom W Mason
Categoirzed Under: Body Jewellery
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by Tom W Mason

Shopping for the right engagement ring can be a baffling experience to begin for most people. If they have never shopped or bought diamonds before how do they know what quality they are looking at? Maybe these tips will assist you in knowing where to start. It should be fun shopping for an engagement ring. Try not to get stressed about this purchase because this is supposed to be an exciting time! Let’s examine the 1st 3 things for you to do. Once you do these things you can turn your attention the most important section of the ring, which is the diamond.

Decide on a Budget

My clients are always recommended to do this first. You want to decide what price you can pay and stick to it. There is no “set in stone” rule about how much you need to spend, although many people recommend spending the equivalent of 2 months salary for the ring.

Please don′t spend more than you can afford. I have friends who took out a massive loan just so they could buy a bigger ring and they are still paying it off years after the fact. There is no point putting you (and her) in financial difficulties. If you can′t get her the size of diamond you want right now, you can always “upgrade” her ring later on in life when money isn′t as tight. Your budget is going to depend on a number of different factors, but be prepared to fork over a decent chunk of change. Diamond aren′t cheap, but she will wear it forever and I promise the smile on her face will make it worth it.

Choose what type metal for the band.

White gold, yellow gold, and platinum are the 3 main choices for bands. Pay attention to what type of jewelry she owns now. If she owns or wears mostly yellow gold the choice is easy. If she wears white gold or silver than you need to choose either platinum or white gold. The cost of platinum is 3 times that of gold. Platinum is the most durable of the metals. That makes it an attractive choice for people who think about passing it down through the years to family. There is not much maintenance to platinum other than having it polished once in awhile to keep it from having a matte look.

White gold is cheaper and a bit more shiny than platinum. It will damage a bit easier but not enough to worry about. You may have to have it replated once every year or so. White gold is not actually white; it is actually gold combined with different metals that give it a look of white. Rhodium is used to plate it with to take the yellow tinge away. If this plating comes off you will start seeing the yellow tinge return. Replating is not very expensive just remember this will need to be done.

It’s not a bad idea to go and have a look at how both white gold and platinum look. Some don′t like the way platinum looks and vice versa. It will help you out as you make this decision.

Choose the Type of Setting

The setting is just the style of the ring. Does it have multiple diamonds? Does it have just a singular diamond? This is decided by which setting you pick for the engagement ring. You have 3 main types to choose from. The most popular is the solitaire engagement ring, which is also the simplest. There is a single diamond on the band. What a perfect way to help show off that beautiful diamond. A 3 stone ring has one diamond in the center, and 2 diamonds that are smaller 1 being on each side. The diamonds on the sides are about 30 to 60% the size of the larger center diamond.

Then there are the diamond engagement rings that have side stones; these have one large stone in the center and several smaller diamonds on each side. These diamonds are usually inexpensive because they are extremely small. Try to figure out which one she would like. Maybe one of her friends would find out for you but make sure she would not give away the secret first. As much as girls talk about jewelry she won′t be suspicious. You will feel more secure in the knowledge that you got her the kind she wants.

After you have these three steps down, you can move on to the fun part - choosing the diamond! She is going to be wearing this for life so make sure you focus on getting a stunning diamond - it’s so much fun seeing my wife get compliments on it. Reminds me of the good job I did!

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How To Find an Affordable Engagement Ring

Posted By Greg McNaughton
Categoirzed Under: Body Jewellery
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by Tom W. Mason

If you’re intimidated by the process of engagement ring shopping, you’re not alone. Most of us are worried about this large, important purchase. However, there are some ways you can save a lot of money and make the whole process much simpler.

First, here’s something you probably already know: big diamonds are the most popular. This is one of the things that puts so much stress on ring shopping - we’re afraid we’ll have to spend more than we can afford. After all, larger diamonds come with a larger price tag.

Fortunately, there are ways to get a high quality, large diamond for a lot less than you might think. It’s all about getting the most out of your money.

Here’s an example to show you what we mean.

There are four main characteristics used to grade diamonds. These are carat, cut, color and clarity. We’ll take a look at color to see how to get the best deal.

Color grading scales range between D and Z, with D color grading indicating the best color. To decide what quality color a given diamond has, each one is inspected under very high magnifications.

What’s the catch? D-grade diamonds look the same as H-grade diamonds, unless you have a microscope. That’s a difference of four grades.

Unless you look at the diamonds beside one another, on a white background, and under close magnification, you’ll never notice the difference. The naked eye just can’t see that level of detail. You might spot a difference between D and I if you know what you’re doing, but even grades I and J are hard to see a difference in.

So what’s the point? Why pay more for diamonds graded higher when you can’t tell the difference between them and one that’s graded lower.

The price difference between the two ranges is enormous. You could pay thousands of dollars more for a D grade diamond. Most jewelry stores encourage buyers to choose the highest grades, of course. Most people fall into this scheme, and pay a lot more than they need to.

This is only one of the methods you can use to save when you buy that all important ring. Picking a diamond that has a lower color grade but looks the same will allow you to buy a bigger one for the same price. That’s shopping smart.

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