re: Picking out an engagement ring

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Last Christmas I bought her a necklace and found out she did not like silver.

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That sentence made me laugh pretty hard.

Don’t

The entire industry is a fricking racket. I didn’t want to get taken to the cleaners, so I took a week and spent a couple hours an evening reading and learning about diamonds after knowing absolutely nothing. Then I decided to go to a couple of jewelers in town and tell them I was looking for an engagement ring.

I tell them I am looking for oval shape and they walk me over to show me their options. Then I tell them “I am looking for F or better color, VS1 or better clarity” and you can see the expression on their face change to “oh shite” because all they were planning on selling you on was the GIA cert.

Do your research. Buy a loose diamond at James Allen or blue Nile, then buy the ring and have it set at a local jeweler in town. You’ll get exactly what you want and save thousands.

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Buy a boat instead.

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Don’t do this. She’ll take the boat when you get divorced and frick her next boyfriend on it while you eat TV dinners in your trailer.

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It really is dumb. We’d never be able go sell it for near what we paid.

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But wait...the selling jeweler will appraise the ring for +10% of your purchase price. Definitely not a racket.

My husband gave me the jeweler’s business card and said go look. I met with the jeweler and then a day or so later my husband secretly went pick from my selections with the help of the jeweler. I got a ring that I love and he ultimately got to pick it all out without the pressure of me being there. It was still a complete surprise when he proposed.

To be a bit more subtle you could arrange for a friend to trick her into going try on rings “just for fun”. It’s Christmas and people are shopping for all sorts of things so I think this could work. Definitely find a jeweler and let them know ahead of time that you’ll need them to assist your girlfriend and take notes for you.

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It was still a complete surprise when he proposed.

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My wife knew it was coming, and I proposed in a place where she was going to know before I could actually do it, so I intentionally started a giant fight with her the day before when were in a place where she couldn’t leave.

I pulled out all the stops: Got hammered, insulted her entire family, and told her it was a good thing I didn’t waste money on her stupid Tiffany’s ring because she wasn’t worth it. She went from plotting to kill me to blowing me in 1 hour.

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toaster, on the other hand, can be used to toast bread which can then be used to make you a sandwich.

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Picking out an engagement ring

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Good luck with that. All my wife would say before we got married was that she liked the look of marquise cut diamonds and wanted a simple ring. So I got the largest and best marquise cut diamond I could afford (and it was a really high grade stone) and had a simple engagement ring custom made with a yellow gold band and a platinum setting. I loved it. Really showed the quality of the stone. She never said anything but I could tell she wasn't crazy about it. She felt uncomfortable with the stone being kind of unprotected sticking up off of her finger.

So after being married ten years I suggested that she work with a jeweler and design her own ring to replace it. She got a gorgeous larger round cut stone with a couple of other small round cut stones and the jeweler made a ring (took a few months) which looked like an old style antique ring with a lot of art deco design. It looks completely different than what she told me she liked before I had the first ring made.

I guess the lesson is that you can get her involved in guiding your choices, but even if you do, she may not actually know what she really prefers until she wears it for a while. Just know that whatever you choose is your expression to her, and will be ok. If she decides later that it isn't her thing, it's still ok.

So you will be fine whatever you choose.