Wedding Blog

Sounds good. You may also want to refer people to pricescope.com, as it’s got a wealth of knowledge and is how Mr. Lime and I educated ourselves on diamonds before the big purchase.

We shopped at the high-end retailers and mall stores to get an idea of what both of us liked, what looked good on me, and to get an idea of budget in that area. Of course, I fell in love with a somewhat-unique design at Tiffany’s.

Luckily, our friends referred us to a local jeweler in the downtown jeweldry district who was able to work with us in custom-designing something similar to my dream Tiffany’s ring for less than 1/4 of the cost with a slightly better quality diamond, even.

got my rocks at LA’s downtown jewelry district (www.bridalrings.com)

pricescope forums and reviews and then to http://www.whiteflash.com for ring purchase

I wanted a set where the wedding band and engagement ring intertwined and happened to find it at the mall. FI knows about diamonds and didn’t like the stone in the setting. He searched numerous jewelry stores and couldn’t find anything remotely close. He eventually had them bring in the same ring from another store and the stone was much better quality. The advantage to the mall is you can get a better stone for less if you know what to look for in diamond quality. It can also be a disadvantage if you don’t know what to look for.

we dealt with a diamond dealer directly (@ L.A. Gems)… then Mr. Daisy worked with their in-house jewelry designer on a setting. it was all through family connections. not sure if they are open to the public or not.

I had given my mr-to-be the difficult task of no diamonds and not expensive. Not quite sure what I would like, he knew he wanted to propose to me on our trip to Europe this past summer and just figured we’d find something there. As a backup, he brought the wedding bands we bought the year before in New Zealand.

While we were walking through the Marais in Paris one night, a ring in the window of a random jewelry store caught my eye. It was silver with jade and hematite and kind of art-deco-manly. He didn’t say much and I thought nothing of it, least of all an e-ring. Well, a week later in Slea Head, Ireland, sipping whiskey from a flask and watching a beautiful sunset on a cliff over-looking the Atlantic, he proposed with the ring. It turns out that while I was getting ready for our big-splurge dinner in Paris, he went out “for espresso” and ran to the jewelry store and then ran to a boutique to get a shirt I had liked just to cover his tracks. Neither of us knows what the name of the store is, but how stinkin’ cool is the mr?

My ring is a knock off of Tiffany’s Lucida. I really love the style, but I thought it wasn’t worth paying that much of a markup. We studied up on the three C’s. Then Fi went to his local jeweler and selected the diamond and made the setting based off of the picture.

My FI’s friend works in the diamond business, so he hooked him up with loose diamonds and a setting created on by one their clients. It’s beautiful, unique, and I also love that our friend handpicked our stone. A lot of love and hard work went into finding the perfect ring by my fiance.

Please tell people not to buy their engagement rings at chains or mall stores! Those stores sell junky stuff at inflated prices. Pricescope.com is a must.