Best places to buy a diamond engagement ring (Ely: sales, wedding)

[npreisler]

First off, I tried searching this nine ways to Sunday and noticed there has not been much discussion on the topic.

I am looking for a Twin Cities jewelry store that will offer the best value (service, selection, and prices) on a diamond engagement ring. My budget is from $3k-$5k and want to get the best ring for my money.

Shane Co. and the likes are out because they claim to have the lowest prices but I don't believe that to be true given their astronomical advertising budgets. It doesn't have to be a mom and pop store - just a place with great prices and good, honest people.

[wamer27]

I bought mine at Shane Co. but for a small shop, Arthur's is great!

http://www.arthursjewelers.com

[scienceisgreat]

We began shopping a few months ago for engagement rings. My initial thoughts on Shane Co. were the same, but because I wanted to be sure we did our due diligence and stopped at every store imaginable we ended up stopping there. Service was great and I thought price:quality was great.

Shane Co. was our #1 location for price and variety offered.

Another store that looks quite cheap on the outside that was our #2 is "Wedding Day Diamonds". I would recommend stopping by.

Zales, Jared, Kay, etc. are all run of the mill in our opinion and didn't offer much in terms of original designs or competitive pricing.

This is all opinion, but we generally found lesser known stores were much better. Except for Shane Co., which I would recommend...even though I still can't listen to their commercials on the radio...

[fwsavemoney]

I had great experience with blue Nile. It is online and you may be a little uncomfortable. But I like the fact that you have a lot more options to build your ring. It works out to be significantly cheaper than the brick and mortar stores.

[Min-Chi-Cbus]

Firstly, congrats on the biggest decision you'll ever make!

Secondly, I went to Helzberg Diamonds at Ridgedale and that fancy schmancy place at the Galleria (Sheherazade), and I got WAY better value and customer service at Helzberg. I ended up getting a near-perfect 0.9+ carat diamond and ring for under $5K (this was also almost 8 years ago now, but I don't think things have changed THAT much since then). They took the time to show me what I was looking at (the difference between cut, clarity, color, etc.) and what drove the prices. They were really helpful and like I said I ended up getting a great ring.

Note: don't lose your mind over the 1 carat threshold that people go gaga for.....The difference between 0.9 and 1.0 or 1.1 is almost indistinguishable, but the difference in quality between a murky, yellowish rock and a pristine gem is quite noticeable. I'd recommend going for quality and cut over size, personally!

[Meraki]

We were customers of Shane Company (boy, do I despise the radio commercials though), and they did a great job. But, this was in 1999.

[Minntoaz]

Shane co! They pay their sales reps salary so they really don't hassle you. On my ring on one of the small bands this little stone kept falling out and they kept replacing with no problems but one day I came in and the manager just told me to wait and brought back a totally new ring. I've never had any more problems. They clean it for free. If you want to upgrade they will just charge the cost of the diamond difference.

[SForMNLee]

Try online at Brilliant Earth. They are ethically and environmentally friendly. Plus you get to build your own ring as you want it.

[ellysbelly]

Get educated about the four Cs (cut, color, clarity and carat weight)-- and be sure to purchase the diamond SEPARATELY from the setting-- your money will go much, much further.

Blue Nile as mentioned previously, is a great place to start-- also, getting a GIA certified diamond ensures that you get what you're paying more. My personal preference is to get an 'white' of a diamond (color, D is 'whitest' and color I is the lowest you should go to still have it read 'white'-- if it's not GIA certified, I wouldn't go below a G color) as you can afford and be willing to give up clarity (as long as it's still 'eye-clean', no lower than SI2, if GIA-- no lower than VS2, if not), as you'll pay a LOT for better clarity, but your eye won't be able to tell the difference. You can get a bigger, 'whiter' diamond with a lower clarity-- which will look 'more' expensive.

Also, CUT is very important-- you don't want a 'deep and cheap' diamond, where the bulk of the carat weight is in the depth and not showing (conversely, you don't want a shallow diamond that will look like a piece of glass with no fire). It will take a bit of time to get up to speed, but you'll be glad that you did-- good luck!