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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More grooms-to-be are pointing and clicking to find their honeys the perfect wedding ring

Future dentist David Ung wore out a lot of shoe leather shopping for a diamond engagement ring for his fiancée, Ynhi Nguyen.


"I went from 47th St. to Chinatown," said Ung, 29, who visited more than 10 stores in a month. But when it came to actually buying the bling, he went online to jewelry Web site diamond.com.
Ung, who's studying at New York University College of Dentistry, plunked down $5,000 for a 1.15-carat, round, colorless diamond ring, even though he first saw it when it arrived in a box at his home.


"I love it, it's shiny, it's sparkling," said Nguyen, a 33-year-old accountant from Vancouver.
Ung loves it too - for a different reason. A comparable ring "would have been $7,000 to $8,000 in a store," he said.


For many men, there are few things more daunting than buying an engagement ring. Not only are they expected to fork over a huge sum - etiquette experts have long recommended spending two months of salary - assessing the quality and value of diamonds can be as angst-ridden as meeting the in-laws.


But jewelry Web sites such as diamond.com, ice.com, whiteflash.com, diamondsonfifth.com, mondera.com, ross-simons.com, abazias.com and industry leader bluenile.com are taking the guesswork out of the hunt, and offering a growing number of grooms a less expensive alternative to traditional and often intimidating stores.


Prices for diamond rings purchased online can be 20% to 40% less than comparable stones behind the glass shelves. The reason: jewelry Web sites, which have far lower expenses, will often take a much lower markup on their merchandise.


"A $1,000 diamond at Zales will be $650 at Blue Nile," said Ken Gassman, president of the Jewelry Industry Research Institute, an independent research firm. "Zales' profit margin is 50%," he said, while "Blue Nile's is 20%."


For Gabriel Weaver, a 29-year-old lawyer from Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, scoring what he considered a good price on a ring - $4,000 for a 1.1-carat, near colorless Asscher-cut rock - wasn't the only reason he bought from bluenile.com.


Weaver said the Web site had great information that helped him choose among Blue Nile's vast selection - 50,000 stones and 100 settings. The catalog ranges from a .23-carat diamond of medium clarity for $277 to a 12.23-carat piece of ice for $1.369 million.


Blue Nile and others are making jittery grooms more comfortable with 30-day return policies and certificates from independent diamond-grading labs backing up their diamonds. Place an order and the ring will arrive at your doorstep in three business days.


The sites demystify the buying process by detailing what's universally known as the four c's - cut, clarity, color and carat weight - that factor into each diamond's value. Knowing those attributes for any given stone makes it much easier to compare prices.


For now, online sales are still just a fraction of the diamond engagement ring business. But the numbers are growing along with online jewelry sales - the fastest-growing Web retail category overall.


Gassman estimates that, of the $6.2 billion worth of engagement rings sold last year, $500 million, or 8%, were bought online. Five years ago, Net sales accounted for only 1%. The average price of an engagement ring online or off was $3,200 last year, according to the Diamond Information Center.


Jewelry stores aren't going away any time soon, though many are hurting because of the Web. There will always be people who insist on actually seeing a stone and comparing it to others.
Buying a diamond is "a touch-me, feel-me kind of thing," insisted Harvey Nagin, president of the 47th St. Business Improvement District, which represents 3,000 Diamond District retailers and wholesalers. He added that wise shoppers will find 47th St. prices competitive with the Web.
If you choose to buy a diamond online, make sure you are buying from a reputable store. Read shoppers' reviews on comparison shopping sites such as shopzilla.com or shopping.com, said ice.com marketing chief Pinny Gniwisch.


Only shop at a retailer that has a liberal return policy and provides certification from the Gemological Institute of America or the American Gem Society.


And once you buy, have an independent appraiser grade your diamond, said gem expert Antoinette Matlins, author of "Diamonds." Given the investment, she said, "It is money well spent."


$500M - Value of engagement rings bought on jewelry Web sites in 2006$3,200 - Average price of an engagement ring bought in 2006 on or offline

Education on Diamond Cut

We have people asking us all the time what is the ideal cut in a pear shape diamond or a emerald cut diamond, so I decided to add these pictures to make is easer to understand. Hope this will help.

Now lets take a look at the first picture, this is a emerald cut diamond. Lets say on the certificate by the measurement it says that the size is a 9.81x7.45x4.95 you take the first number and divide it into the second number in this case it will come out to 1.31 now you look at our picture below you see that this is a beautiful diamond shape.

The same you do with each cut diamond. Use these pictures below to help you decide what ratio diamond is the nicest in each shape.