pick the perfect engagement ring

If you’re wondering how to pick the perfect engagement ring there are a few options you should be aware of. Buying engagement rings is without a doubt, one of the most exciting yet stressful occasions in our lives. This is also the moment where all your friends and family will chime into the situation with opinions and recommendations and show off their flawless diamond solitaire engagement ring.

Here are the best knowledge and tips to make this process a little simpler and hopefully relieve you of some of that anxiety when it comes to buying your beautiful partner an engagement ring.

Our biggest tip is to research until you become an expert. This is to ensure you get the best deal and best value on your purchase. Read up on everything, including the increase in popularity in lab grown diamonds.

Things to think about when picking your engagement ring

Here are the essential things to know before you pick the perfect engagement ring.

Size

When it comes to choosing your engagement ring, you have to factor in a lot of things. One of the most important factors is your future spouse’s ring size. Picking out rings that are the best fit hasn’t always been easy because there are so many things to consider. The key is having an understanding of all of your choices so that the experience can be fun and exciting in the long run.

Rings are sized in millimetres (mm), so it is important to know how many millimetres your fiancé’s finger is to find the perfect fit. It might be helpful to enlist a friend who knows you and your partner well and whose opinion for the wedding rings you trust and respect. The person that you’re buying the ring for likely has a certain idea of how they would want their ring to look like and they might even have told their friend.

How much can you spend?

Many people wonder how much they should spend on a wedding ring. Some guys like to go for the biggest and most expensive ring they can find. Others however would prefer a more affordable price tag. But oftentimes, these two groups of people are worlds apart in the type of rings they want.

There’s no easy answer, but there are some variables that factor into the price of an Engagement Ring. These include the type of diamond you choose, the style and material of your ring, and whether or not you want to finance it.

As with all purchases, it’s essential to create a budget before you go ring shopping. It will put you in the best position to shop for the right type of wedding ring for your partner. You can always make adjustments if you find the perfect ring that doesn’t fit into your budget.

Here are some questions to ask yourself to get started: How much do you really want to spend? How important is the ring you choose? What do your partner and his or her family expect when it comes to the price of the ring? And finally, how much will the entire wedding cost?

There will always be a debate on what to sacrifice to save money on engagement rings. Just remember all stones sparkle, and if you can’t see the colour difference and imperfections by eye, then it’s unlikely anyone will know the difference. And there are alternatives to diamonds, which we have covered in detail in our gemstones guide.

pick the perfect engagement ring

Diamond Grading

For those buying their wedding rings online or in-store, you will naturally want to make sure that you are getting a diamond of the highest quality. The quality of the diamonds can determine the amount you pay for it.

To do this it is important to understand diamond grading as it allows people to make a more informed decision about the ring they are purchasing. However, with so many different colours and designations, it is not always easy to understand what they all mean.

The Gemological Institute of America known as GIA introduced what is known as the 4Cs. This is an internationally standardised method of grading diamonds. It takes the cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight of the diamond. They are measured on a diamond grading scale of 00, which is flawless, and 10, which is used for diamonds that are so chipped that they are worthless.

To ensure that she will love her ring as much as you love her, here is a quick guide for you to understand how diamonds are graded. We always recommend you buy GIA certified diamonds.

Cut

None of the above characteristics affects the value of a diamond as much as the cut. Diamond cut is one of the most crucial factors that determine how a diamond sparkles and to what extent it will shine. A well-cut diamond is not only more attractive, it appears more brilliant. When light enters a diamond, it interacts with many different surfaces hiding inside the diamond.

These surfaces could be flat (a mirror image), pointed, wavy or faceted (a new mixture). The point at which the rays of light emerge from the diamond is known as “the focus”. Once they emerge out of the stone, the light comes together and creates fire.

You will hear more about the various style of cut diamonds than anything else when you go shopping for engagement rings. See the cuts below or skip to colour.

What are the types of Diamond Cuts?

Diamond Cuts are the cuts in which diamond crystals are cut in different ways and made into gemstones. The main purpose of these cuts is to improve the appearance and make stunning jewellery pieces. We go into detail here on diamond cuts.

The common cuts of diamonds are:

Asscher cutEuropean cutOval cutStraight Trillion
Calf cutHalf moon cutPear cutCurved Trillion
Cushion cutHeart cutPrincess cutTrilliant cut
Emerald cutMarquise cutRound cutRadiant cut

Colour

What is the diamond colour scale? There are many different colours of diamonds, and they all have their own grade. On one end of the diamond colour scale, you have D, which is the most colourless diamond grade.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is Z. So, how do you know what colour your diamond is? It’s best to go in-store and learn more about colour grading. But preliminary note, if your diamond is graded D to J, it’s going to be white. Any other colour beyond that has either a tint or tone.

Did you know that you can also find diamonds that are orange, pink, black, red, blue, or green? These rare beauties would most likely be purchased by a collector long before they make their way onto the market.

Carat Weight

If you are an interested buyer of a genuine diamond engagement ring, you need to know the carat weight of the diamond. When buying a diamond, nothing beats the actual carat weight. This is done by a professionally calibrated digital scale.

The more carat weight the diamond has, the more valuable it will be. A one-carat diamond may be quite small but it is still worth a lot of money. The price per carat increases as the size of the diamond increases.

Try to see all possible variations in size and buy the one which is perfect for you.

Clarity

Diamond clarity is an important factor to consider when you choose your future engagement ring. The clarity of a diamond can make it look brilliant and beautiful but it can also make your engagement ring more expensive.

Clarity is the measure of internal defects in a diamond. Diamond clarity also affects how colourless your diamond is, which makes it an important factor when buying diamond engagement rings. The rock is placed under a 10X magnifying microscope for this to be done.

The results are recorded in a range that starts with flawless and goes all the way down to imperfection. The results can range from flawless, very small inclusion, small inclusions, or imperfections.

You want to pay just as much for lower clarity grades as higher clarity grades. By paying more for a diamond of higher clarity, you end up with better beauty and less visible imperfection.

diamond engagement ringThe Band

Once you have gotten the rock right, you would need to figure out where it sits. Jewellers are usually happy to change the band if requested. In some cases, this may attract additional costs but it is important to remember that the diamond is your main concern.

If the diamond is perfect, you wouldn’t care how much you spend on the band. When it comes to choosing your wedding rings, it is possible to get shaped rings that fit around your engagement ring.

The Male Engagement Ring

The demand for a management ring for men has increased with same-sex marriages being legalised in 2014 and also with a rise of equality within heterosexual relationships which has also seen wedding traditions like the bride taking the Groom’s surname.

The engagement ring concept in its modern conception came from the Vatican’s 1215 banns of marriage for publicly announcing a wedding before it taking place. The engagement ring was used to protect the virtues of the Bride. This was never needed for the male reputation, and as such engagement rings for men were not needed.

As always with wedding jewellery, this has become about the symbol of love, marriage and commitment. Helpfully driven by jeweller marketing teams who love the consumer to spend more money. Which we can only assume is the source of calling MAN-agement twist for the male engagement ring.

Of course, at My Ideal Wedding, we stand for love and equality so support anyone who wants to buy engagement rings for both partners. The management rings are standard engagement ring styles but tend to be diamond-encrusted bands rather than solitaires.

Conclusion on how to pick the perfect engagement ring

The 4Cs are combined to create the diamond’s monetary value. While they all contribute to what makes the perfect engagement ring, they are not the only thing that matters. It is just as important to consider your partner’s taste. Look at the sort of jewellery that they wear and this will help you pick the perfect engagement ring.

To trick your partner, maybe you could ask one of their friends to go through wedding magazines to see what interests them. Alternatively, if it’s something you want to get right, then consider proposing with a holding ring and choose the engagement ring with them.

If you want to keep your Engagement Ring sparkling, read our guide on cleaning and polishing here.

How to buy an Engagement Ring FAQ

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