Proposal!!! What is a big diamond?

[boobsboobsboobs]

My (soon to be) brother in law has asked for my help picking a ring for my sister for a post lock down proposal!

Obviously, we can only look online at the moment but it seems that some sites like blue nile offer quite good value and we hope to visit Hatton Garden when we can.

I know that she wants a big solitaire on a platinum band... but what is big?!

One carat? Two carats? Somewhere in between? Just looking for a general consensus.

I don't want to bring up rings now as it would be so out of the blue over the phone / FaceTime and I don't want to alert her

He has a decent budget so it would be balancing the size and the quality!

if she wants platinum, it needs to be a very white stone.

IMO a stone bigger than 1ct gets in the way somewhat. presumably she is not a woman who washes up, grooms horses, does carpentry, makes bread.

I’d go to a ring designer and get them to discuss the options with both of them. Much nicer than him buying some chunky diamond.

Propose with a fake ring and job done.

Even if you and your DSis have discussed engagement rings over the years, I'm sure she'd rather have a say in such a big, important purchase that she'll hopefully be wearing for the rest of her life.

Completely a side note but SHIT THE BED!!!!!! people actually spend £10k on a piece of jewellery?!?!!

Huge variety depending on where you go. Mine was £12k and a 1.1 ct from Tiffany. I could buy the exact same second hand (also Tiffany) on eBay.

I went for bigger because I have bigger hands.

If I was doing it again I'd go second hand - get much more for the budget.

£10k won’t get you a good diamond of any size. To give that ‘across the room sparkle’ you need excellent cut, clarity, colour. The balance of the cut, not the shape.

I’d go on compare the diamond.com and buy a separate stone.

Mine is 1.56c and cost US$18k 15 years ago.

She needs to try things on for that money

I ended up with a large ring for under £1000 but maybe it’s large to me because my hands are smaller

It’s not just about size it’s also cut and clarity to consider

Also consider if she really does want platinum as it’s quite a grey metal rather than bright and doesn’t often look as nice as one may imagine

All in all it’s what she wants so fine but £10k on a plain solitaire seems like a huge waste especially if purchased new

If you buy antique rings you get a lot more for your money. Look at Berganza in Hatton Garden, we chose mine there and the choice was amazing.

Honestly though, I've heard SO many people say they'd hate having a ring chosen for them. It's something you may (hopefully) wear forever and that's a really personal thing. DH proposed with a fun ring and we chose together. Has your DSIS actually said she'd like a surprise?!

@Brandyb those rings are gorgeous!!

That's quite a good budget. He needs to go to a jewellery quarter in either London or Birmingham. As pp have said white gold needs to be replated but this isn't a massive issue in my opinion. I have very narrow fingers but found that 1ct looked pretty small. You need to balance size with quality though - looking for the largest stone you can afford at the quality level you are comfortable with. I do think a proposal with a stand in ring is best for such budgets though, it's what DH did.

White gold tarnishes, all my rings are platinum and are very shiny still.

My husband chose the diamond and the Hatton Garden jeweller put it in a temporary setting so I could chose my own design. Your sister may prefer this. I can send you his details if you like?

He’ll get much better value if he buys the diamond and has it set rather than just picking one off the shelf. There are websites where you can do this. Mine is a very sparkly 1.3 - dh looked at some spectacularly boring charts to work out which values would give the best colour and sparkle etc (the websites show some kind of graph for each diamond) but I did enjoy the choosing of my own ring and I absolutely love it.

Don’t waste your time and money buying flawless colourless diamond, because you’re paying through the nose for perfection no one will notice. You can save a load of money and get a huge beautiful stone if you understand diamond specs. I spent a lot of time looking into diamonds before we purchased our engagement rings (same sex couple), never sacrifice on cut, because a diamond will look terrible no matter how big it is. I would recommend a D-G colour, VS2 (which should have no visible inclusions) or SI1-SI2 if seen in person, excellent cut, oval or pear, as they face up larger, if she wants a round, then put the measurements into an online calculator if buying online, as they can tell you if it’s a good stone. We purchased my fiancée’s diamond from 77 diamonds, who were amazing, and got mine from the jewellery quarter. If she wants “big” then aim for minimum of 1.5ct imo, which is easily done with a 10k budget. Simple solitaire settings are very cheap, so he can spend the vast majority of his budget on a great diamond.

@Bristolbitsandbobs yikes ok, thank you!

I thought £10k could get something wow!

Do you mind me asking the colour, cut and clarity of yours?

I'm trying to do my research so we know what's good value.

Very good points by PP about them choosing together! Thank you!

Tell your BIL to be sensible, OP. That is a fuck load of money. Think of all the Haribo rings you can buy for that.

A friend has a three carat one. It's big looking but not ridiculous.

A colleague has a five carat one. It's massive!!

@hopeishere oh my goodness!!! They both must be HUGE diamonds!

@Bristolbitsandbobs

“£10k won’t get you a good diamond of any size.”

That is complete and utter nonsense, you can get a diamond with perfect specs for well under 10k.

Look at London Diamonds. You’ll get something amazing for £10k from them.

Mine was no-where near that budget but is a diamond solitaire on platinum from Tiffany’s. It’s a lot smaller than most have quoted on here (0.4ct) but the cut and colour are good so it shines well and looks bigger than it is. I’ve got tiny fingers and hands and so didn’t want any bigger than 1/2 a carat.

We used this company and mine was a 1 point something of a carat and good cut and clarity, platinum. I got to choose the setting ring style and it really was the perfect ring. I'm sure it ended up being less than 2 grand. For 10 grand you'd get something amazing from them. All the certificates as well
https://www.comparethediamond.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwncT1BRDhARIsAOQF9LlBrDuhNNDtWwmyDKSLZqu0eskAZOCbCAkQ4PKC0GhdydwBxedF5waAl2HEALww_wcB

My daughter didn’t want anything too large for her hands but settled on 1.6 carat conflict free. It’s big enough to be noticeably sparkly without being excessive. Gold not platinum though.

FYI platinum is about 4.5 on the Mohs hardness scale. Gold is about 2.5. Palladium comes in just under 5.
Platinum is not dull; it just isn't as shiny as the rhodium plating that is put on white gold jewellery.
I have an unusual shaped diamond engagement ring which was done by choosing a diamond and then having it set separately. I got a much bigger diamond by sacrificing some of the 4Cs - nobody can see small flaws and they don't make a huge difference to sparkle.
Think carefully about stone - there's a reason that diamonds can be worn all the time and e.g a pearl or a morganite cannot. I wanted toughness and not to have to put my rings on and off all the time for washing up and so on.

For that budget you should get at least one carat, a Round cut (or other shape if preferred), E to F colour, VVS2 upwards. Look for the cut, clarity and colour and then go for the largest diamond within the budget.