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seal your commitment to marry

Seal your commitment to marry with the gift of eternal beauty – a diamond engagement ring
written by: lexmil 

It’s expensive, beautiful, will last forever. More importantly, and your woman loves it. That’s a diamond engagement ring. Once you’ve found your soul mate, taking the first step towards a lifelong commitment before the altar calls for gifting the woman you love with a diamond engagement ring. This observes centuries of western tradition to indicate that a woman wearing one is engaged to be married soon. It is also called a betrothal ring that a man gifts his future spouse as soon as the woman accepts his marriage proposal. Common decency dictates that if you meet a woman wearing one, you’re not supposed to make romantic advances to her. 

The ring is customarily worn by the woman on her left hand ring finger, but there are differences in various cultures around the world. And in some cultures both the man and the woman wear matching diamond engagement rings. After the marriage, both the wedding ring and the engagement ring may be worn together, or just the wedding ring. Because the wedding ring is just a simple band, it can be worn along with the diamond-set engagement ring and complement each other. 

If you are planning to propose to the woman you love and who loves you just as much, make the first move to get the two of you betrothed with a diamond engagement ring. If this is your first time, consider the following tips.

Setting Styles 

The finest diamond engagement rings are set in 18k yellow, white gold, or platinum. For the same karat, platinum is the most expensive. Some designs make use of both yellow and white gold forming simple concentric bands to more elaborate engraved patterns. A 10-12k gold yellow or white gold setting is just fine for the budget conscious. If you’ve had those Cross pens in 10k gold plating, you know that with some care, they can retain their lustre for years. 

Sterling silver is also accepted among the practical and budget conscious. While they need to be regularly cleaned in a special silver cleaning solution to retain their lustre, as they tend to oxidize with frequent use, their pristine whiteness accentuates the brilliance of any diamond set on them. Lately, new metals have found their way into fine jewelry to make diamond engagement rings more affordable to more people. You now have titanium and tungsten carbide that have become a favorite metal for wedding bands as well. Along with stainless steel that can look like white gold or platinum, these new metals can be crafted into exquisite engagement settings for fine solitary diamonds and cost a fraction of their gold equivalent. In a tungsten carbide engagement ring, you could be paying only the price of the diamond.

Going for a bridal set

Fine jewelers in Brisbane and other cities offer a more cost-effective three-ring bridal set or wedding set consisting of an engagement ring and matching wedding band pair. Some are designed as halves, with the diamond engagement ring and the wedding band forming two halves of a whole when worn together. While the wedding band shouldn’t be worn until wedding day, the bridal set offers both and the bride may choose to wear the two complementing pieces or just one. This can simplify your shopping and may cost less for a given style. Consider this option if the two of you are so in love that calling off a future wedding date is simply unthinkable.

Choosing the diamond

In a $60 billion dollar diamond jewelry industry worldwide, a 1/3-carat brilliant cut round white diamond with average clarity and set on a simple 18k white gold band can set you back by around AU$1,000 at today’s market prices, give or take another AU$100 based on the jewelry store. On the other hand, a perfectly flawless 1-carat white brilliant on the same setting can cost a whopping AU$30,000, give or take another $2,000. Consider this as your benchmark when choosing any of those fine diamond engagement rings. If you want more details, check out the Rapaport Price List Table which can give you a rough price indication of a chosen diamond of a given carat and clarity value. You may also check out some jewelry websites that have a price calculator just by filling out the 4C’s. 

What are these 4C’s? These are Carat (weight), Clarity (level of carbon impurities or flaws), Cut (number of facets often based on shape) and Color (crystal clear, pink, yellow, blue. etc.). All four influence the price. While in general, a larger (heavier) diamond generally costs more, it could be half the price of a smaller diamond with higher clarity, better cut or rarer color. 

Flawed diamonds come in eight grades from perfect to imperfect. Flawless diamonds graded as FL or IF (Flawless or Internally flawless) are rare, and most commercial diamonds suffer a grade of imperfection that greatly reduce their cost to make them affordable to most shoppers. If you can settle for a slightly flawed diamond with just a slight diminution in sparkle, you can get significant discounts from any of the jewelers in Brisbane. 

The favorite cut for an engagement ring is the brilliant cut, allowing the most sparkle in diamonds, regardless of color, or shape (round, marquis, tear drop or pear, heart, or square). The most common is the round brilliant shape. Cutting a diamond requires skill so that the maximum amount of light gets refracted with the correct facets angled to each other. Get them wrong and even if you have the required 58 facets in a brilliant cut, you may not be able to achieve the coruscating sparkle that diamonds are valued for. Again, the price of your diamond will also depend on how well the cut is made.

The most popular diamond engagement rings are single stone diamond rings commonly called solitaire rings. Pioneered by the Tiffany & Co back in 1886, the solitaire Tiffany typically holds a 1-carat diamond in place with six claws called a Tiffany mount. A good alternative to a Tiffany solitaire are three-stone diamond engagement rings with a combined weight of around a carat. With all other things equal, smaller diamonds in a clustre or row are more affordable even if the combined carat equals that of a single stone. Called trilogy or trinity rings, they have three diamonds set in a row with the bigger stone at the center. They can be interpreted as the woman’s past, present and future, or if the three diamonds are of equal size, can represent the same three red roses for “I Love You.” 

Certification

Lastly, don’t forget about certification that attests to the grade or quality (4Cs) of the diamond in your chosen engagement ring. There are many certifying bodies, but the most preferred is the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) which is considered as the global industry standard. It gives most people who can’t identify a real diamond from a fake one the confidence that they bought the real thing. Be sure that whichever local Brisbane jeweler you patronize, you get the corresponding GIA certificate with every diamond engagement ring your buy.

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