How We Went About the Ring Shopping Process & Decided on the Ring

If you missed the story on our engagement, check out the sweetest proposal Pierce planned here. 

Also before I dive into this, I want to say there is no right or wrong way to go about this process. Every story might look a little different and this is just our experience and what worked for us! 

CREATING OPEN COMMUNICATION

I think for us, it was important for us to be on the same page as far as our engagement was concerned. We were both very open with each other about timing when we ideally wanted to get married, what I wanted the ring to look like, etc. We had a lot of open conversations early on that really aligned us with the goals we had going into this process. 

LEARNING ABOUT DIAMONDS TOGETHER 

Oh man, this is the part every guy (and girl) just is blown away by how much there is to know about diamonds. Cut, color, clarity, there are so many little details. I would recommend learning as much as you can about diamonds before you start the process. The more you are educated on what the different readings mean, the more you can know what you are willing to sacrifice. 

For me, I was willing to sacrifice clarity down to SI2 because I didn’t care if there were inclusions (pieces of coal) you could see under a microscope. As long as it was clean to the naked eye I was good with it! I also cannot see a single speck in the ring. It’s totally clear and I’d never know to even look for it! 

Things like that are important to educate yourself on to see what you care about. I also knew I wanted a real diamond from the earth. There are a lot of new ways to create diamonds including lab grown and alternative diamonds, but it was important to me to have the real deal. Pierce too once he learned about all the different kinds agreed that we wanted a from the earth stone. 

I also wanted a GIA certified diamond. GIA is just a type of certification certain diamonds have to meet and it just ensures the value of the stone. It’s a big investment to buy a ring and I wanted us to have the certification which also ensures you’re getting what you pay for! 

DECIDING ON THE SHAPE 

For a long time, I thought I wanted an oval engagement ring and went back and forth with this decision. Ultimately, I fell in love with a cushion cut ring but with an elongated shape. These are super hard to come by but I loved how unique they are and it feels not overly popular but still classic.

Pierce and I also came up with this idea together to create a “stacked” wedding band look over time. As our relationship grows, you continue to add small thin bands. I loved the uniqueness of this as well and being able to celebrate milestones in our marriage and lifetime by adding a band for anniversaries, etc. 

I also liked the idea of mixing metals as I do this quite frequently already with my jewelry. Also with the future addition of bands, we could constantly evolve the look and feel by adding unique bands or different metals and stones. 

We kept coming back to the elongated cushion cut as the engagement ring and realized every stone was so unique and different that it was really going to be hard to not make this decision together. Given how different these stones can look in length, thickness, diameter, etc. Some looked too square and some too oval. We really wanted a certain shape that we realized we were going to have to pick together. 

STARTING THE PROCESS TOGETHER

We started asking our friends for jeweler recommendations and looked at so many stones together. Nothing was really speaking to us for a variety of reasons. We quickly found a lot of people didn’t know the elongated cushion shape and we kept being shown radiant cut diamonds. 

This happened quite frequently at a few places and we decided to try the Clear Cut in New York City. I had followed them on Instagram for years and that’s where I really learned a lot about diamonds and fell in love with the shape of the elongated cushion. They specialized in it and had a ton. 

We had a consultation call together with the Clear Cut and were really impressed with them. They showed us a few rounds of diamonds before we found the one I’m wearing today! 

I knew once we found the diamond, I would be out of the process and Pierce was on his own to keep the rest a surprise. He knew I wanted a simple gold band and he totally nailed it on the setting!

RECAP

I’m really glad we went about this process together because we were able to help each other make decisions along the way. It is such a big decision and I’m really glad we were able to work on the process together! It’s beyond anything I could have ever dreamed of! I am so thankful to Pierce for giving me the best gift as a forever symbol to our commitment to each other!