Rain, rain… go away. For anyone living in Southern Ontario today…. bring an umbrella!
Recently, WG was hired to plan a proposal – start to finish. We were asked to help do the research on the ring, aid in the design, plan the proposal, and assist in its execution. All I can say is this… there is one lucky girl out there who doesn’t even know it yet!!
…. but all this chit-chat about engagements and diamonds and budgets really made me sit back and look at the diamond market with a bit of a scrutinizing eye. I started to do my research and what I found was really astonishing.
[The history of a diamond]
As I learned on DiamondTrade.com, diamonds were first mined in India, almost 3000 years ago. The have always been extremely rare – in turn making them very precious. The modern diamond industry boomed in South Africa in the late 19th Century and today most of the diamonds that reach the retail market come from Australia, Zaire, Botswana, and the former Soviet Union. By the time a diamond reaches your finger, it’s been on over 4 continents, in hundreds of sets of hands, and has affected thousands of lives (in good and bad ways).
[The value of a diamond]
If you were a part of the diamond-shopping process prior to getting engaged, you should be familiar with the 5 C’s of Diamonds: Cut, Colour, Clarity, Carat, and Cost. For a detailed tutorial on these, visit CanadianDiamonds.com – but to quickly summarize, the cut refers to how many facets the jeweler cuts into the diamond (the better the cut, the more facets, the more sparkly the diamond). Diamond colour refers to the presence or absence of yellows / browns / blacks in the diamond (caused by impurities present while the diamond was being formed in the earth) – the most rare diamonds are the ones that are colourless or near-colourless. Clarity refers to internal characteristics of the diamond – whether there are scratches, blemishes, air bubbles, or mineral impurities – most diamonds have these, but the rarest and most expensive have either very few, or ones that are not visible to the naked eye. Diamond Carat weight is a unit of measure (not necessarily size) – but for all intensive purposes, carat refers to the “size” of the diamond. According to CanadianDiamonds.com, less than 1% of women in the world will own a diamond larger than 1.00 carat.
Lastly… cost. Diamonds, if they’re of good cut, high carat weight, marked clarity and good colour, are insanely expensive. Most mined diamonds are small – no larger than the head of a match – so to have a large diamond that isn’t discoloured or visibly included makes it a very rare find. Jewellers charge an arm and a leg for these, and society has taught women that the more expensive the diamond, the more valuable they feel. — where are we, medieval times??
[The mining of a diamond]
I read that harsh mining conditions will drastically affect the cost of a diamond… so naturally, I began to research the process that goes into extracting a diamond from the earth. An average of 250 tonnes (250,000 kilograms) of ore must be extracted from the earth to mine a SINGLE 1.00 carat diamond. That’s a lot of displacement. On top of that, hundreds of miners die each year in mining-related accidents… so if a larger, more rare (harder to mine) diamond makes it onto the retail market, you best believe someone is going to be paying top dollar for it.
Girls with beautiful diamond rings become the envy of their friends. Strangers often notice beautiful engagement rings and comments such as “Wow, he really loves you!” swirl about in the air. Ultimately, though, it’s not about how much money is spent.. it’s about what matters to YOU!
As I helped my groom-to-be do his diamond research, I realized that if you’re buying a diamond on a budget, you’re agreeing to compromise on at least one of the remaining 4 C’s. If you want a colourless, flawless diamond, you’re sacrificing carat weight. If you want a large, brilliant diamond, it will likely be included or slightly coloured. Unless you’re willing to spend a sum equal to the downpayment on a house on a diamond, it won’t be perfect. But you know what? no one notices! When you’re newly engaged and someone asks to see your ring, they don’t often scrutinize it’s carat weight. No one holds the diamond up to a microscopic lens to see whether it’s included or flawless. The only visible “C” that most people will notice is colour – and that’s only if the diamond is VERY discoloured… so really – it’s about what matters most to the Bride!
[Diamond Alternatives]
Back in university, I was teaching a statistics course and one of my students came into our seminar with a bounce in her step and a smile from ear to ear. She’d just gotten engaged!! I asked to see the ring, and saw something similar to this:
It was stunningly brilliant – and when I asked what kind of stone it was, she explained that she didn’t believe in large diamonds (because of the conflicts) – so she opted for a 3.00+ carat topaz surrounded by tiny, pave-set diamonds (much more easily mined, therefore much less expensive).
Typically referred to as “cocktail” rings, these alternatives cost anywhere from $300 to $1000 – less than 1/3 the cost of a real diamond, and 6x the size! (diamonds this size are typically unheard of, and/or priced at $30,000+)
I’ve since learned that all kinds of gemstones are used as alternatives to diamonds in classic engagement rings. If you’re not a fan of the colour, look into white sapphires. You’ll be remarkably surprised at their resemblance to a traditional diamond!
[Conflict-Free | Eco-Friendly | Synthetic | Man-made diamonds]
If a “diamond” is still on top of your engagement ring priority list, but you’ve got champagne tastes on a beer budget… consider the revolutionary man-made diamond.
I did a tremendous amount of research on the processes that go into these works of art. Did you know that lab-made diamonds are chemically identical to naturally-mined ones? Labs all over the United States have managed to mimic the pressurized process of “growing” a diamond that takes billions of years beneath the earth’s surface and replicate identical diamonds in a matter of days (thus, making them less rare and in turn, decreasing their retail value).
According to RingEnvy.com’s “Should I buy a synthetic diamond?” article, lab-grown diamonds are at minimum 10% less expensive than their natural counterparts, and on average are priced 30% less. If you’re on a budget and every dollar counts, this translates to a substantial savings! Though synthetic diamonds don’t typically come in as wide a range of carat weights as mined diamonds (they usually go up to about 0.60 carats), they are virtually always colourless and flawless (the labs can keep out the natural impurities that otherwise go into the growing process).
Furthermore, because synthetic diamonds pose a threat to the lucrative jewellery industry, they must be explicitly engraved with a marking that they are man-made (ofcourse, invisible to the naked eye) and most brick-and-mortar jewellery stores will not carry them on site. This means that if you’re interested in buying a synthetic diamond, you must do so online and without the standard certifications that are granted to appraise natural diamonds.
– although, with that said…. the natural diamond market online is booming! If you trust the online shopping process, you can save a tremendous amount of money by buying genuine diamonds online through websites such as Canada’s own BlueNile. These diamonds come with certificates of appraisal, and the retailers don’t have the overhead costs of a storefront, showroom, security, etc – meaning your prices are significantly lower!
|| but back to synthetic….
Once only available in certain shapes and sizes, synthetic diamond engagement rings now come in as wide a variety as real diamonds and other precious stones. Websites such as Quorri + Co. deal with high-end synthetic diamond jewellery design and production. Can YOU tell the difference?
So all-in-all, all of this to say….. do your research. Be educated in making the engagement ring choice that is right for YOU. and never forget that what matters most is what that ring represents: the love the two of you share… because without that love and bond that exists, the ring is nothing more than some metals and minerals mixed together and put on a finger.
… and as for the proposal planning – one lucky girl is in for a BIG surprise!! – allow me to be the first to congratulate them!! (soon!)
