Weddingbee Blog

We left off right before diving in headfirst into actual ring shopping. We covered our bases of the 4 Cs, and I gave you my rank of how important each one was to me.

Destination 1:

In December 2009, we started our quest at one of the large chain stores, Robbins Brothers.

Image via Houston Business Journal

We scheduled our appointment for a weekday evening in the hopes that it wouldn’t be too busy or high pressured. The first goal was achieved.

The outside of the store has this huge saying sprawled across the external wall: “World’s Biggest Engagement Ring Store.” OK.

The place looks huge from the outside, but a ton of the space was taken up by a parking garage and only one floor actually had the showroom. I expect the rest of the building was offices and conference rooms.

We took an elevator up from the parking garage, and it was decorated with all kinds of love-themed quotes on the walls.

Once in the showroom, a hostess took our names and let us know which salesperson we would be meeting with that evening. I think we started with one person and then randomly got transferred to another person when the first one left for the day. All right, not really a big problem.

So the first guy introduced himself and we chatted for a while. He wanted to know how we met, what our budget was, etc. We talked about what kind of ring we were interested in, and then he went to go pull some to show us. There wasn’t an ounce of time for us to just browse on our own, and it felt like someone was breathing down our necks most of the time we were there.

The later it got, more employees left for the day, but the store itself wasn’t near its closing time. However, the later it got you could tell our sales guy (the second one of the evening) felt like he was doing us a favor by staying late and started really pushing the sale on us.

We sat down in a booth with a setting that I had decided I liked the best out of the few I tried on. I didn’t even get to see a majority of what they had because we were followed around the store no matter what.

In the booth, we looked at several loose stones to compare different qualities in each of them. But then suddenly the salesperson asked me to leave the booth so that he could talk to Mr. High Wire in private. I guess he assumed that I didn’t know specific numbers when discussing the ring price. He should have asked the first sales guy, since we discussed it very clearly with him.

Before I was asked to get up and leave, there was a lot of “You know you love this ring. Can’t you see it in her eyes? It is definitely the one for you. Let’s get all the paperwork done and get this started. You deserve it.”

It was strange. And I didn’t care for the pressure. But we were complete newbies and didn’t know how the process was supposed to go. And my poor fiancé didn’t want to make any kind of bad reaction to the guy—’cause he DID think I deserved a beautiful ring and didn’t want me or anyone else to think otherwise.

We got pushed a lot further than we intended to that night and wound up having to tell them later on that week that we were not ready to move forward and to please cancel anything they had on file for us.

Not the best first impression of ring shopping, but I’m glad we went to see.

Pros: Large selection, payment plans with no interest for one year, personalized service, willing to educate shoppers on diamond and metal quality, lifetime warranty on ring

Cons: Pushy salespeople, cheesy atmosphere (the love quotes all over the place), higher cost due to overhead of many employees and giant (unnecessarily so) store, not nearly as much of a selection as I thought there would be

Destination 2:

In early 2010, we set up an appointment with an independent jeweler. He was a referral from my boss who had just used him to get an engagement ring for his now-wife.

We spoke in advance of our appointment and discussed our budget and what types of stones we would be interested in. He said he would bring the stones and a few settings, but could easily customize anything we wanted.

After having a pretty negative experience at our first stop, Mr. High Wire was hesitant to attend this meeting. But it ended up being much better.

There was zero pressure to make a decision, which was a nice change of pace.

We looked at several different sized stones, and it was nice to see a few different sizes that worked in our price range. Seeing loose stones is definitely an important part of the process, and I highly encourage it.

In order to move forward with a stone and a setting, payment would be required completely in advance. We were not in a position to do that, so we didn’t end up going this route. It made me nervous to lay out money for a product that didn’t exist yet and that we couldn’t see before we made a decision.

Pros: Relaxed attitude, no overhead costs so overall price was slightly lower (but not as much lower as I was expecting)

Cons: Money due up front, couldn’t see actual ring before paying entire cost, no warranty

Destination 3:

In April, the Dallas Diamond and Gem show was in town. My parents, Mr. High Wire, and I decided we would all go together as a group to see if there would be anything worthwhile at the show.

By this point, we’d been to two appointments and gotten ourselves a lot more educated about the whole process.

The show ended up being pretty overwhelming. I couldn’t make a decision about which booth I wanted to talk to. We finally found one that looked interesting.

The person at the booth spoke to me and Mr. High Wire like we were complete idiots. He then started to speak only to my dad, as if HE were the one who was going to be buying the ring for us.

Then, he made up some wacko diamond-grading scale using his fingers. And pointing to different places on each side of his fingers to explain the different qualities in stone.

He pulled out one loose diamond for me to look at, and I could tell instantly he was a total con artist. NEXT.

After that I got a really bad taste in my mouth about being there, and we all decided our time was better spent elsewhere.

Pros: Fun to walk around looking at jewelry

Cons: Shady salespeople, no brick and mortar store to get ring serviced in the future

Destination 4:

After a less than stellar experience at the Gem Show, our parents suggested we check out their diamond store, Jalin Jewelers. We headed straight there after leaving the Gem Show.

Image via Jalin Jewelers

I had actually stopped in on my own prior to this, and there was a setting there that I absolutely fell in love with and was excited to show to Mr. High Wire and my parents.

All of the collections they had in-store were absolutely breathtaking.

When we arrived the owner instantly recognized my parents and offered to clean their jewelry while we shopped.

I was so paranoid that they wouldn’t have the ring I found still on display that I immediately went over to the counter to see if it was there.

It wasn’t.

Darn it!!

So I went to browse around in another part of the store, when Mr. High Wire pointed one out to me at the counter I had just left.

There it was! It was just hiding in a different part of the display case.

I tried it on and everyone knew that was it.

The owner asked us what kind of stone we were interested in and suddenly got very excited. It turned out that he had exactly what we were looking for in stock and, once he brought it out for us to look at, we knew that was the one.

Mr. High Wire discussed payment arrangements with the owner and our decision was made.

Yay!

Pros: Extremely personalized service, large selection of high-quality fine jewelry (watches, rings, necklaces, etc.), flexible payment arrangements, brick and mortar store to get ring cleaned and serviced, close to where we live

Cons: No warranty (but the ring is insured by us anyway, so it doesn’t really matter)

Advice for ring shopping:

1. First off, have a talk with your significant other about how you want this process to go. If you want to be surprised, then by all means, let him (or her) take care of all of this for you! Just make sure the two of you are on the same page. This process worked great for us, but that might not be the case for you. That is OK.
2. Do your research. This may be obvious, but there’s a ton of good information out there on the good old interwebs. Read reviews of stores before you go there so you know what to expect. Arrive armed with questions.
3. Don’t be afraid to ask to look at loose stones. Stores may or may not offer them up to you, but you have a right to see them. So ask!
4. Make sure the stone you choose is a certified one. A diamond-grading report is proof that it has undergone an unbiased, professional examination and the qualities that someone says it has are actually a part of the stone. If someone selling you a stone is not willing to give this to you, run. Run far away.
5. Don’t be pressured into a decision. You are allowed to walk away at any time. In fact, I think it is good to take a step away and discuss things in private before getting forced into anything. They will want you to make a decision then and there. Make sure it is the right one for you 100%.

Final notes (If you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking with me!):

• Don’t be afraid to research diamond alternatives if that makes sense for you. Other gemstones make a personalized statement and I think are absolutely beautiful. There are also diamond alternatives that look similar to diamonds but can be found at a much lower cost. The Moissanite is a good option if you have ethical concerns about diamonds or simply don’t want to spend the money on one.
• Yes, there are reputable stores online from which you can purchase a diamond engagement ring. Blue Nile is a great place to start. They even have an area on the website where you can see what kinds of rings people have purchased recently. I love that part!

Do you have any more tips for future ring shoppers?