More Women Picking Out Their Engagement Ring

Just as we see from our great customers, this report just confirms what we see.



Once upon a time, when a man proposed, he gave a woman a shiny solitaire diamond engagement ring. It was the standard. It's probably what her friends had and she was eager to join the club.





Fast forward to 2007: It's now the norm for a woman to influence what her engagement ring will look like -- if not to pick it out herself, says Mary Moses Kinney, director of the Independent Jewelers Organization. The result is bigger stones, nontraditional settings and some rings that forgo the diamond altogether. "Size matters," says Millie Martini Bratten, editorial director of the Conde Nast Bridal Group. "People love a big sparkly ring, especially coming from the person they love most in the world."



Moses Kinney thinks the larger rocks are being driven by two things: Women aren't shy about asking for what they want, and, because couples are getting married a bit older, they typically have more money to spend. The older bride also has had more time to carve out her personal style. "Women want personality in their ring. They want to make an emotional statement with the ring.



They want it to reflect who they are," says Moses Kinney. The groom, Bratten says, if left to his own devices, would probably still go for a classic solitaire because that's what he thinks an engagement ring looks like. But he's rarely left to his own devices. Usually, she says, "He will take his fiancee to the store and let her point out shapes she likes -- the shape is the priority -- and settings. She'll drop hints whether she likes gold, platinum or white gold."



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