Tacori engagement rings practically define luxury wedding jewelry. The stunning, heirloom quality details combine with cutting edge technology and Old World craftsmanship to create rings unlike any other. Their commitment to excellence means that brides adore their Tacori engagement rings for a lifetime. Our partnership with Tacori means that even after Tacori artisans finish the last crescent on your engagement ring, you have our experts at your beck and call long before and after you say “I do.”
The brand prides itself on expert jewelers, highly skilled designers, and metal smiths who specialize in one – and only one – diamond setting technique. They team up to produce rings that show off their creators’ status as the best of the best at what they do.
And with every ring handcrafted in California, you get the fearless engineering led by the Golden State while still enjoying Old World, European inspired design.
Tacori engagement rings also make creating your dream custom ring incredibly easy. From the moment you first fall in love with a design on Pinterest or Instagram, to the perfect execution of your custom design, we work tirelessly with Tacori to create a ring as individual and beautiful as your love story.
Tacori engagement rings afford plenty of opportunities for customization: you can combine one ring’s side profile with another’s aerial perspective. You can add a halo from this setting to the body of that setting. You can wrap your diamonds all the way around the ring, or have them stop just after they pass under your finger. You can turn a round setting into the perfect frame for your pear shaped dreams. You can give a bright platinum ring a romantic twist by ordering it in rose gold. You can dream up endless combinations of Tacori’s timeless designs, and we’ll make them come true.
And as breathtaking as all Tacori engagement rings are, the real magic happens in the center when you add the perfect center diamond. And that’s where we come in.
After you choose your Tacori setting, it’s time to find the perfect diamond to complete your ring. With thousands of hand-picked diamonds and our team of experts at your disposal, we’re ready to deliver you the exact diamond you’re looking for.
And what, exactly, do Tacori engagement rings demand? Nothing but the best! And striking the ideal balance between beauty and budget is our specialty. To find the magic combination, you just need to work The 4 C’s.
Carat
Color
Clarity
Cut
Now let’s dive in!
Carat
Ah, carat weight. This is probably the C you’re most familiar with, and it’s the best starting point for your research.
Contrary to popular belief, carat does NOT mean how big the diamond is. It’s actually a unit of weight measurement.
The term carat is derived from middle French, but also has roots in Latin and Arabic. It can be traced to the words for “carob”, meaning carob seeds, which were used as a form of trading currency in ancient and medieval markets. In the 1570’s, the term became widely used for describing and trading in diamonds.
A carat equals 200 milligrams, and it’s the unit used to measure all gemstones – not just diamonds. 200 milligrams is about the weight of a paperclip, so you could even measure your paperclips in carats if you want to get fancy. The carat breaks down further into 100 points weighing 2 milligrams each. Jewelers refer to these smaller units as “points” and you’ll hear us throw around terms like “75 pointer” when referring to a .75 carat diamond.
Naturally, the heavier the diamond, the larger it looks (most of the time.) A diamond cut too deep will appear smaller than a shallow cut diamond with more surface area, and we’ll talk more about that below in the cut section.
Because a diamond’s price comes mainly from its rarity, carat weight influences the diamond’s price more than any other factor. Each of the 4 C’s work together to determine a diamond’s price, and rare color & clarity grades are prized along with skilled craftsmanship in the cut department. But before you ever get that far, carat weight trumps them all.
A 1 carat diamond requires about 250 tons of ore before it makes its way to our beautiful Tacori engagement rings. And even then it needs to be actual jewelry quality color and clarity. The low odds of this perfect alignment of stars into a stunning diamond drives most of the pricing behind diamonds.
A diamond’s carat weight determines its price in two ways:
Price-per-Carat
Overall Price
Both increase with carat weight. To make things a little bit more complicated, carat weight doesn’t increase in a linear or predictable fashion. So a 2 carat diamond isn’t double the price of a 1 carat diamond. Rather, diamond prices jump around certain carat weights, like 1 carat, 1 and a half carats, etc. The price-per-carat increases at the milestone carat weights I mentioned earlier; a diamond between 1 and 1.49 carats will maintain the same price per carat, before jumping up. The price per carat holds steady at 1.5 through 1.99 carats before jumping again at the 2 carat mark, and so on.
How can you game the system to get the best bang for your buck and bling for Tacori engagement rings? Let’s revisit those “points” we mentioned earlier.
You want to look for a diamond just a few points shy of your ideal carat weight. So if your heart’s set on a 3 carat rock for your RoyalT halo, you want to look for a diamond somewhere between 2.70 – 2.99 carats. This way you’re paying the per-carat-price of a 2.7ct diamond, rather than the exponentially higher per-carat-price of a 3 carat stone. You cannot spot the difference between a few points, but your bank account will thank you!
For Tacori engagement rings, our recommendation for carat weight remains the same as it always is: buy what you can afford. We never want our couples to start out married life under a mountain of diamond debt, so we want you sticking to a comfortable budget! We do offer financing, but we will grab you by both shoulders and shake you to reinforce that you must pay off the balance before your interest-free period ends. Tacori engagement rings accommodate diamonds from half a carat to Liz-Taylor sized diamonds, and each one is handcrafted just for you. So this very important C we leave entirely up to you!
Color
We’ve got a little phrase for you: Gorgeous, Very Sexy. Commit it to memory, and you’re all set while shopping for Tacori engagement rings! Gorgeous, while a great description of all Tacori engagement rings, actually translates to “G Color” in Tacori’s language. This is the color grade every Tacori diamond must earn before it’s given the privilege of gracing a Tacori setting! The Very Sexy part we’ll get to in the next part of this guide.
Diamonds come in virtually every shade of the rainbow, and when we talk colored diamonds, the more saturated the better (and higher the price.) But today let’s chat white diamonds, as that’s what most of our couples come in looking for.
Where colored diamonds earn their best grades for more color, white diamonds are prized for their lack of color.
They earn a letter grade on a scale from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow or light brown.) This scale is grouped into color categories:
- Colorless (D, E, F): Diamonds of this grade are very valuable because of their rarity,, and should be set in white gold or platinum to maintain the stone’s colorless appearance. When purchasing a large stone, opt for a color grade in this range, as the concentration of color increases along with carat size.
- Near Colorless (G,H,I,J): Not as rare as the colorless grades, so they cost a lot less – we’re talking half the price of a D, colorless diamond. Within this category, the price of the diamond will typically decrease as the color grades continue down the color scale. For example, a J colored diamond may be 30% less expensive than an H color. These diamonds are the best way to get a great price on a diamond that still looks colorless – particularly when shopping for the always popular brilliant cuts. Princess, Round, Radiants, Pears and Ovals all have more facets compared to a step cut like an Emerald, so they appear even more colorless. We recommend looking in this category first for diamonds destined for Tacori engagement rings.
- Faint Color (K, L, M): These diamonds have a hint of color, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and some couples prefer the warmth of diamonds in this category. They come at a huge discount compared to the higher color grades, and look beautiful in yellow gold and rose gold.
- Very Light Color (N – R): You can see the color easily in these diamonds, whether it’s yellow or brown. They can be set to maximize the color in yellow gold and make a statement
- Light Fancy Color (S-Z): Want a fancy yellow diamond at a major discount? Here’s your solution! These diamonds look yellow, and in a white metal setting wouldn’t look great. But set them in a yellow gold bowl mounting and they look “Fancy” at a fraction of the cost! It’s gorgeous and looks great with rubies in a vintage-inspired setting, however we don’t recommend this grade for Tacori engagement rings because the “Gorgeous” (G colored) accent stones would outshine your center.
The gradations in color grades are extremely difficult to detect from one stone to the next. Diamonds are graded in a special environment that removes as much outside color influence as possible, and even then the difference between a D and an E, for example, is nearly impossible to spot. Once diamonds enter a normal environment (where they’d spend most of their time anyway) only the most gifted gemologist could spot the difference.
Color grade gives you the most wiggle room out of any of the 4 C’s, and we recommend prioritizing it last to maximize your budget!
Clarity
Diamond clarity is one of our favorite C’s to talk about, because our grooms usually enjoy discussing its nitty gritty details after they’ve done their research. Like color, clarity comes standard for diamonds in Tacori engagement rings. That “Gorgeous, Very Sexy” nickname for Tacori engagement rings and their diamonds includes “VS” – for Very Slightly Included. So all Tacori engagement rings include diamonds of that clarity grade! What exactly does that mean, and should you splurge for a diamond of the same clarity grade? Let’s explore.
Diamond clarity refers to the presence or absence of flaws in or on the diamond. Sometimes, jewelers refer to these flaws as diamond characteristics, because pretty much every diamond has some sort of flaw.
In fact, only the rarest of diamond have no internal or external characteristics, or flaws, which makes them extremely expensive. These are the types of diamonds you see for sale at the major auction houses – they steal headlines when they sell for record-breaking prices.
Any imperfections in a diamond fall under one of two categories: Inclusions or Blemishes.
- Inclusions are flaws within a diamond. They include spots of varying colors, clouds, feathers, or tiny cracks, crystal clusters, cavities, knots, or graining, among other things. Inclusions greatly affect the clarity grade of a diamond, as they can compromise a diamond’s internal structure and determine how well the diamond refracts light. A large inclusion can make the diamond appear cloudy. Black inclusions lower a diamond’s value more than white inclusions, just because they’re easier to see.
- Blemishes are imperfections on a diamond’s surface. More often than not they appear as a result of the cutting and polishing process (rather than naturally.) Blemishes can be anything from polish lines to scratches, nicks and dents. More severe blemishes can include chips, cracks, pits and breakage on the surface.
A diamond’s clarity grade takes into account the presence of both inclusions and blemishes, their severity and their location. A gemologist then assigns the diamond a grade from this scale:
- Flawless. Free of both blemishes and inclusions when examined under 10x magnification. Exceptionally rare, and even if a diamond earns a flawless grade, once it’s set it gets downgraded to Internally Flawless!
- Internally flawless: The diamond shows no inclusions on the interior under 10x magnification, but may still have slight blemishes.
- Very, very slightly included: Including VVS1 and VVS2 grades. These diamond have small flaws difficult to detect even for a skilled grader at 10x magnification.
- Very slightly included: Including VS1 and VS2 grades. The inclusions and blemishes might be easy for a gemologist to spot under 10x magnification, but they’re still typically invisible to the naked eye. This grade – assigned to all diamonds in Tacori engagement rings – also happens to be our preference. You can get a stunning diamond that looks beautiful but doesn’t come with the premium price tag of VVS, IF, and F.
- Slightly included: These diamonds have easily noticeable inclusions and blemishes under 10x magnification. Depending on the individual diamond, the color of the inclusions and their location, they still might be very difficult to spot without a loupe. So if the diamond looks great to you, don’t let a SI1 grade discourage you. In a brilliant cut, inclusions hide very well thanks to all those glittering facets. If you’ve got your heart set on a step cut though, like emerald or Asscher, you likely need at least a VS2, just because there’s nowhere for inclusions to hide in that style.
- Included: Inclusions are obvious under 10x magnification and may affect transparency and brilliance. We don’t recommend these stones for Tacori engagement rings.
Remember these grades are determined by experienced gemologists under intense magnification. Until you reach diamonds in the Included category, the vast majority of stones are still absolutely stunning. We can help you choose the right clarity grade for your budget and set it in a Tacori engagement ring that hides flaws, diminishes them, or – in the absence of inclusions – perfectly shows off your internally flawless diamond.
Cut
We saved the best for last. Unfortunately it’s also the most complicated. Don’t get bogged down here – it’s easy to get caught in information overload during your research, and this particular C’ s enough to make any diamond buyer’s head spin.
While most people think carat weight is the most important of the 4 C’s, we argue that cut should be your first priority. Why? It’s what makes your diamond beautiful!
A diamond’s cut depends on so many individual sub-factors that make it complicated like we mentioned before, but it’s for good reason. Without a well cut diamond, your Tacori engagement ring – and its center diamond – miss out on the most important aspect of a diamond: its bling.
Without cut, all the other C’s mean nothing. You could have a perfect, D color, Internally Flawless clarity, 5 carat rock – and it would look like just that, a rock, without an excellent cut grade. So it only makes sense to prioritize a fantastic cut grade before moving down your list of diamond priorities when it’s time to choose the perfect diamond for your Tacori ring.
The term diamond cut refers to three specific evaluations of a diamond’s
Polish
Symmetry
Proportions
It does not refer to the diamond’s shape (IE Princess Cut) just to add another layer of complication to this particular C.
Anyway, a diamond’s cut grade lies in the hand of one very important artisan: the diamond cutter. He or she cuts a diamond from the rough in a way that maximizes:
- The amount of finished stone from the rough
- The diamond’s ability to reflect and refract light
There are different types of cut styles that accomplish those goals, like brilliant cut, rose cut, or Old European, but they all create a pattern of symmetrical facets carved into the diamond.
The diamond’s cut, like we mentioned before, is responsible for its beauty. And while beauty is subjective, the entire point of a diamond is to sparkle, shine and generally thrill. That can only happen with the combination of fire, brilliance, and scintillation.
- Fire refers to the colors reflected by a diamond’s interior; these are the flashes of color on the visible spectrum you see when proudly wave Tacori engagement rings around to properly show them off. It’s essentially the rainbow effect.
- Brilliance is the reflection of white light from the diamond’s facets, contrasted with the shadows they create. The greater the contrast, the higher the brilliance, and the better a diamond’s cut.
- Scintillation refers to a diamond’s sparkle as it moves; it’s the flashes of black and white in brightly lit environments
Now, onto polish and symmetry. These two cut factors refer to a diamond’s facets. Facets are the smooth, flat panels that are polished after cutting.
Polish specifically refers to the smoothness of each facet. When a diamond is cut, the machine may create surface defects that, while microscopic, can affect the way light interacts with the diamond. GIA grades this cut factor on this scale:
- Excellent (no defects visible at 10x magnification)
- Very Good (any defects difficult to see at 10x magnification)
- Good (any defects difficult to see at 10x magnification)
- Fair (defects noticeable at 10x magnification)
- Poor (defects visible to the naked eye)
While you can find recommendations of specifically which polish grade to look for depending on your diamond’s carat weight and clarity grades, we won’t make you any. It’s more important to look at the overall cut grade than to get bogged down in the minutia of the individual cut grade aspects. Finding the perfect diamonds for Tacori engagement rings shouldn’t require flashcards and study guides on your part. That’s why we pre-screen our huge selection of hand-picked diamonds for you – we’ve already weeded out the ones you shouldn’t bother looking at.
Up next, let’s chat symmetry. It refers to how well a diamond’s many individual facets align & “match” with each other, including any extra facets (a brilliant cut has 58), any wonky girdles, and tables or girdles slightly askew. Like polish, it’s graded on the same GIA scale from Excellent to Poor, with defects ranging from invisible at 10x magnification to defects visible to the naked eye, respectively.
Think of symmetry as a tiebreaker. Don’t sweat your diamond’s symmetry grade unless you’re in the rare position of deciding between two entirely identical diamonds. And even if you are, you’d likely be swayed by the price difference created by the two symmetry grades – a better one can increase the diamond’s price by 10%-15%, despite its minimal impact on the diamond’s overall appearance.
Finally, we can discuss proportions, the third in the cut trifecta of complicated grading criteria.
A diamond’s facet shape, size and angles determine its proportions. This includes the rock’s pavillion angle, which plays a key role in determining a diamond’s gorgeousness (more on that in a bit.)
Like we mentioned earlier, a diamond cutter’s skill lies in his ability to deliver the most smooth, polished diamond he can from the rough; to do this he must choose between a better cut diamond with a smaller carat weight (though higher per-carat-price, because of its superior cut grade) or a larger diamond with a higher carat weight and subpar proportions. Because Tacori engagement rings already come fully loaded with beautifully cut diamonds, we always recommend the former. Here’s what happens when you mess with proportions.
- A shallow cut diamond creates a lower angle for light to enter & reflect on the diamond’s pavilion. Instead, the light enters but escapes through the bottom where it does no one any good. This makes your diamond look dark and less brilliant.
- A deep cut diamond lets light enter and strike the pavillion, but the angle is so steep it refracts, rather than reflects, and “leaks” out of the diamond. Again, this makes your diamond look dark and less brilliant.
- An ideal cut diamond, however, allows light to strike each pavilion facet at precisely the right angle, reflecting light back through the top to produce fire, brilliance and scintillation. Jackpot!
It’s worth mentioning again that you do not need to weigh each of these individual aspects of a cut grade against those of another diamond unless you really need a tie-breaker. The overall cut grade takes each into consideration, and earns the diamond a grade on this scale :
- Excellent – the diamond has maximum fire and brilliance, and that the diamond reflects almost all light that enters.
- Very Good – these diamonds properly reflect the majority of light that enters; it’s virtually identical to a diamond with an excellent cut, but its proportions are a notch less than an excellent’s.
- Good – reflects most of the light that enters it. A good cut grade still creates a beautiful diamond, and for fancy shapes a cut grade of good still has fantastic proportions and is a great value.
- Fair – a diamond lets a significant amount of the light entering it escape from its bottom and size; this reduces the diamond’s fire and brilliance, and will have a noticeable impact in diamonds over half a carat.
- Poor – most of the light that enters escapes through the diamond’s sides and bottom, giving it a dull appearance. Most reputable jewelers do not carry diamonds of a poor cut grade, and this cut grade has no business anywhere near Tacori engagement rings!
Instead of sweating these details (which we know you’ve researched!), trust that all that research gave you a more discerning eye. You know what makes a diamond valuable, but only your eye can tell you if you think a diamond is beautiful! Which leads us to our next point: rock beats paper.
Bonus Round: Certificate
Certificate might qualify for the 5th C of diamond grading. And increasingly, our couples shop with this at the top of their mind.
Certified diamonds absolutely have their value, and their place. We offer a huge selection of GIA certified diamonds, which are the gold-standard (no pun intended) of the industry.
But a piece of paper that comes with your diamond should never outweigh the diamond itself. If you’re dead set on a G color, VVS1 clarity with Triple Excellent Cut and 2.00 carats even, you’re making the ring shopping process difficult and stressful. Go into the shopping experience with your budget in mind first, and a range of what kind of diamonds you’d like to look at.
By opening yourself up to more options, you give your jeweler more opportunity to find the perfect diamond for you. We love nothing more than presenting our couples 3 or 4 diamonds that meet their criteria so they can pick the perfect one. And it also gives us the opportunity to discuss the differences between individual color grades, clarity grades, and showing two different cut grades together to show why each factor is so important. Giving us a range – rather than an exact certificate requirement – makes this process easier for you.
Remember that while a diamond certificate mean that your diamond was graded by an expert gemologist there’s still human. You can recognize a good quality diamond when you see one if you need to use the diamond certificate as a tiebreaker by all means but don’t get caught up in trying to find the perfect diamond to match what your research tells you to buy. Buy a diamond you know and see is beautiful.
If you’re shopping for diamonds online a certificate is important – but it doesn’t tell you the whole story, There are certain aspects of a diamond that you wouldn’t find on a diamond certificate that impact its beauty, big time (like fluorescence or a strong bow-tie effect.) So if you see if it’s price looks way too good to be true make sure that the seller has a rock solid return policy that protects you entirely. You can read more about certificates here. Remember when diamond shopping for Tacori engagement rings: rock always beats paper.
Wrapping It Up With a Blue Bow
Tacori engagement rings are a dream to shop for, and we want your diamond-hunting process to be just as easy and enjoyable.
We think a well-informed client is a happy client, so we’re here to answer any questions you come up with after researching exactly what you need. Call or e-mail us today, and let us get started on designing your perfect Tacori engagement ring.