Great places to shop for diamond rings?

[HollyGoHeavily]

DP and I have just decided to get married and I am on the hunt for a wedding/engagement ring.

I've never been that fond of the 'two rings on one finger' look so I am after one ring which will do both jobs - probably a gold band with inset diamonds. DP is a bit of a traditionalist except for the getting married before having two kids bit so is looking to spend about £1,500.

Any recommendations of good jewellery shops/sites?

I would look at auction houses , lovely antique rings. Loads more for your money.

If you are in London take a trip down to Hatton Garden - there are lots of shops as well as individual designers who may have some nice ideas for you.

Congratulations!

Hatton Garden if you're within reach of London.

There will be lots along in a mo who say get one made to your own design.

Personally, I think this would make a lovely all-in-one ring .

I can't recommend diamondgeezer.com enough. Got my engagement and wedding rings from there, great value, they do 'requests' and the customer service side was great. (Given that I had to replace my wedding ring at v short notice before the wedding and they did it in time - I heart them)

Definately worth a look. My engagement ring would have cost about twice as much from the high street for what I had - platinum with diamonds.

In Manchester not London, i'm afraid. Wonder if there is a northern equivalent....

Yes, Hatton Garden is great. You can go round 5 or 6 different shops and get a feel for what you want. They all know that there are loads of shops nearby so actaully are pretty good at not pressurising you.

Or the Jewellery Quarter in Brum if that is closer.

I really like Rennie & Co in HG - which is where I got my wedding ring. Ask for Andre - he is really nice and has a great eye for detail/design and explains the whole process/what they can and can't do etc in great detail so you have a good feel for the limitations and reasons for what they are doing.

IsItMeOr - yep, that's the sort of thing I am after.

I've been having a a scout round on a few review sites and general consensus seems to be that Tiffany is somewhat overpriced - not sure if that is true though. Given my love of Breakfast At Tiffanys (see my username!) i might be heading over there :)

I've heard that too Holly. However, as the owner of a Tiffany diamond ring and one from Hatton Garden, it is only the Tiffany one that has been admired from across the room.

I gather this is to do with their patented diamond cut, which makes them really catch the light.

IMHO it's about buying something you will love to wear for the rest of your life, and you have a fixed amount you want to spend, so what's it matter if it's not the "best value" - not like you're planning on selling it any time soon [shrug emoticon].

Cat64 - Yep - if I wear my oxygen mask i can venture down south as far as Birmingham :)

Thanks - looks perfect for a wander round....

Congratulations!

If you like the contemporary look we got our rings from here.

Always thought this place looked good too.

I think that is why I am finding it a bit intimidating - I have never tried to choose something that I will look at 50+ times a day for the next 50 or so years....

Suspect I need to unclench and look at rings till i fall in love with one...

Once (or if) you go to Hatton Garden you'll see the difference in prices (DP very pleased at this!).
I did the high street trawl first, to get an idea of what you could get for your money.

On my own with a 3 month old baby throwing up everywhere I went to HG.
So much more choice and loads of shops all right next to each other.
As FBB says I didn't feel any pressure to buy. In some high st shops I felt positively captive.

Don't worry Holly, if you're anything like me you will go incredibly girly and excited when they start letting you try on sparkly things, but will know when you find the right one.

Not to sound rude or anything but if you want to consider the ethical factor you might want to try somewhere that sources fair trade diamonds...or look at second hand perhaps? (my favourite!)

Apparently most diamonds these days come from war torn areas and involve bad stuff happening...not sure what but someone mentioned it on a different thread a while ago, so thought it might be worth suggesting.

Big congrats on your engagement

Not rude at all - i've been doing some reading on conflict diamonds and the retailer guarantees you should look for.

Can I offer a second vote for Tiffany please ? :) My engagement ring is from there and it is a real pleasure to look at every day :). I love the one that Isitmeor picked out. I have a single diamond on a yellow gold band.

[tulpe - I have the matching solitaire etoile ring in platinum as an eternity ring on my right hand. I love it. The only thing is that yellow gold on my engagement ring is definitely harder wearing than the platinum though]

I'm not hugely into the traditional diamond ring (this is my ring), but the only diamond ring I have ever actually noticed across a room and felt the need to comment on because it was such a beautifully cut diamond turned out to be a Tiffany one, so although I'm sure that they're marked up simply because of the box they're in, they're also really nice rings.

And hey, how lovely to have a Tiffany's box for the rest of your life?

Oh yes, the allure of that duck egg blue box together with its lovely white ribbon.........sigh.

There are lots of places where you can get unique engagement rings. You can try this for example (if you like different styles): cushion cut engagement rings

I have this one in platinum. Very simple but I think it's beautiful.

www.serendipitydiamonds.co.uk/detail.asp/sku=R1H037/baguette-diamond-solitaire-ring

Mine is from the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham. I think it was here

If you don't want the traditional solitaire, then what about this

or this kind of thing?

Bezel set

I ordered my ring from that website. They are fab.

Oh, and with the weak $ you get more ring for your money at the moment.