The Worst Engagement Ring Advice We’ve Ever Heard
Hola! How are you? Good? Good. We’re glad at least something is, because today we’re blogging the bad. The worst, actually. It’s time to share some of the worst engagement ring advice we’ve ever heard.
You can totally make an engagement ring with a [insert alternative gemstone or material here.]
You want alternative engagement rings? We’ve got you. We will set the awesomest sapphire/emerald/morganite engagement ring you ever saw. Want to wear a vintage moonstone cocktail ring instead? You got it. But if someone says they’ll make you a wood engagement ring, they’re counting on your repeated patronage. Alternative metals (and materials like wood) are super popular – we sell some men’s wedding rings with details crafted from them. But there’s a good reason why engagement rings have been made for hundreds of years out of gold and platinum: durability.
Better Advice: While alternative gemstone and metal rings are very cool and you can absolutely find some that are made to stand the test of time, remember that not every material or gemstone is suited to the decades of everyday wear that go hand in hand with an engagement ring. We love pearls, but a pearl engagement ring is always a bad idea.
Bigger is Better!
Whew boy. Nothing starts a Facebook comment thread of doom like the insinuation that a diamond is too big/small. Bigger, for some, is definitely not better – they prefer an understated carat weight, rather than a rock.
This also means that whoever’s giving out (bad) engagement ring advice commits the cardinal sin of placing carat weight above the other 3C’s! There are 4 C’s and they all work together to make a diamond beautiful. There’s no point to a big, but ugly (poor quality) diamond.
Better Advice: Read our most helpful blog posts about the 4 C’s to see why carat weight isn’t the most important.
As long as you’re buying a GIA diamond you can shop online.
Noooooo. First of all, GIA certified diamonds aren’t always the best diamonds. Second of all, shopping for diamonds online without seeing a photo of the actual diamond is never a good idea.
When you shop online with a big retailer, you expect to pay less because they don’t have the overhead of running a brick and mortar store. But those savings (which aren’t as great as they seem, we’ll get to that) actually come from them not owning any of their diamonds – they source them from a reliable network of diamond dealers and place the order when you do. Essentially they sell beautiful settings with an enormous diamond database. But let’s talk about those savings.
When you shop online, you rely entirely on the diamond’s certificate. Which we never recommend. But when you do that, you reduce the beauty of a diamond to formulaic grades that don’t tell the whole story.
For example, we just ran a search for 2 carat round brilliant diamonds on one of the most popular online-only diamond retailers. Two diamonds have the exact same carat weight, color, and cut grades. One is a VS2 (an excellent clarity grade.) The other is an SI1 (a decent clarity grade, but one we usually recommend to create budget flexibility. It has visible inclusions.) However, there’s only a $150 difference between these two. That’s weird. The next J, VS1 in the search results is over $1,300 more. So that first diamond is a fantastic bargain, right? Wrong. When you pull up the GIA certificate you can see the symbols for a cloud of inclusions that are a lot more visually unappealing than the more prominent (but less obvious) inclusions in the SI1. Oh, and the most expensive diamond of these three? It too looks like a steal at first glance, but a closer look at the certificate reveals a strong blue fluorescence. Not good.
Better Advice: You can read more about why it’s important to shop for a diamond, NOT a certificate here, but if that entire last paragraph just left you confused, we don’t blame you. There’s a reason why it takes years to learn diamond lingo. You know what you already know how to do? Recognize something you find beautiful.
So you can ditch the engagement ring information overload, save yourself the hassle of minoring in gemology, and look at diamonds in person. Pick the one you can clearly see is the most beautiful. Boom, done.
Want a nicer ring? Finance it!
DO NOT BUY AN ENGAGEMENT RING YOU CANNOT AFFORD.
Better Advice:
- How To Finance a Wedding Ring
- Best Way to Finance an Engagement Ring
- Can You Finance Wedding Rings?
- Best Way to Finance Engagement Ring Dreams? It’s This.
- Wedding Ring Financing Options
You Need An Engagement Ring.
Obviously, no one needs an engagement ring. However we’re jewelers, so we highly recommend one! We think this is bad advice because even if you really want an engagement ring, you don’t need to get one that’s clearly marked as an “engagement ring.”
Better advice: If a vintage cocktail ring calls to your heart way more than a 6 prong solitaire, go with the cocktail ring! If you’d rather skip the traditional e-ring and go straight to an eternity band, or even a stack, we fully support your decision. Check out celebrity bride Emily Maynard’s Henri Daussi bridal set. Nary an engagement ring in sight, but she’s still rocking gorgeous rings.
You should spend 2 months’ salary on an engagement ring.
So false we make jokes about it.
Better Advice: How much should you spend on an engagement ring? The amount you can afford. There’s no one-size fits all formula because this is a personal decision that varies from couple to couple. Whatever your budget is, it’s our job to set you up with the perfect ring.
What’s the worst engagement ring advice you’ve ever heard?