Engagement ring shopping!

[yrskinnyf1sts]

My boyfriend and I need to go engagement ring shopping. (Wheeeeeeeeeeee!) We'd love to go to a smaller jewelery place, but we're also relatively broke grad students who don't want to (read: can't) pay a crazy mark-up. A post from June 2007 recommended some jewelers in the Clark Building on Liberty Ave. Do you still agree with that rec?

Thanks in

Comments

[khyron]

I don't have a jeweler recommendation because we're still new to the city ourselves, but I do have one piece of advice (besides "congratulations!") as someone who very happily celebrated the eighth anniversary of our wedding and the fifteenth anniversary of our first date this summer...

...buy a ring that makes you happy and serves as a symbol, not as some regrettable "investment" you'll be scared to wear and not one that makes any of your friends or relatives happy or one that fits any sort of ridiculous "tradition" (that salary-based stuff was actually made up by the diamond syndicate's marketing firms).

The advertising industry has all manners of media aimed at you, as future newlyweds, to guilt and shame and push you towards making the jewelry and the wedding itself into some insane circus that will help ensure your proper place in the American debt cycle.

Focus on your love and leave the waste and greed to people who watch too much TV.

[vallentine]

To avoid insane mark-ups my brother bought a certified diamond online. He then took the diamond to Stonebraker's (http://www.regentsquare.net/stonebrakers.html) who checked out the diamond to ensure it was what it claimed to be and then set the diamond to my brother's specifications. All-in-all it made the whole process significantly cheaper for my brother than it otherwise would have been and he still ended up with the ring he wanted.
Hope this helps. Also, Congrats!

[oushi]

We got my engagement ring and our wedding rings from Werner's Jewelry, (412) 367-2336, located in Pines Plaza in the North Hills. Small shop, very nice people, good prices.

Congrats, btw!

[marzipan_robots]

all i can say is LUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jano]

My husband and I had the diamond already (passed down through the family) and just needed a setting, but the prices were astounding (you want me to pay $1,500 for the setting? for serious?). We ended up going to American Jewlery (or something along those lines) in the Clark Building and had that same $1,500 setting custom made for I think $300, including setting and everything. It would have been even cheaper ($150), but I wanted two-toned. I love my ring and have gotten a ton of complements on it, so I would definitely recommend their work.

Just a note - I think all they do is custom work, so you might want to look around at a few other places and get an idea of what you want.

oh, and I agree 100% with what khyron said above.