The Gatwards wedding series – choosing the right engagement ring

As the team recently attending a family wedding, we thought it was the perfect time to talk about wedding jewellery.

In our wedding blog series we will be looking at things to consider when choosing jewellery for a big day – be you guest, groom or bride.

This first blog in the series looks at engagement rings. Your engagement ring is the most important – and perhaps the most expensive piece of jewellery you will ever possess. Tradition suggests that the ring should cost between 1 - 3 months salary and even in today’s difficult financial conditions, it is worth going the extra mile. Diamonds really are forever and unlike all the other wedding expenses which are gone in a flash, your diamond engagement ring will be with you for the rest of your life.. Your engagement should be a happy occasion, and the perfect ring can be found to suit a variety of budgets and tastes.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend

While they may come in a variety of settings, a diamond remains the central stone of choice for almost every bride to be, which means when choosing an engagement ring you must familiarise yourself with the “Four Cs”: Cut, colour, clarity and carat weight.

Cut
This is often the most overlooked of the four Cs, but is one of the most important. Cut in this sense refers to how well a diamond has been cut, rather than to its shape. A diamond is cut to strict mathematical proportions to maximise its sparkle or ‘fire’ and a badly cut stone will lack the brilliance of a well cut stone. Only by physically handling a diamond with an expert in store can you be sure that a diamond has been well cut.



Colour
The perfect diamond has no colour at all, but most show subtle hints of yellow or brown.  Diamonds are graded from “D” (colourless) right down to “Z”. but the whiter the stone, the higher the price. For a diamond which looks white, try to choose colour “H“ or above.

Clarity
Most diamonds will contain small inclusions, sometimes referred to as ‘nature’s fingerprints’. Flawless or Internally Flawless diamonds are very rare and command very high prices.
The table below shows how clarity is graded.

 
The size and nature of inclusions are varied and depending where they are, may affect the passage of light through the stone. Very small inclusions (SI, S2 and above) are only visible with a 10x jeweller’s loupe and normally only with a trained eye. Clarities lower than this normally have inclusions visible with the naked eye. Gatwards hand-pick their diamonds to ensure that any inclusions are sited where they are least visible.

Carat
Diamonds are measured in carats, a unit of weight, not to be confused with carat, the measurement of gold purity. A diamond carat is divided into 100 points, so a half-carat diamond is equal to 0.50 points.

Remember that bigger doesn’t always mean better – a smaller diamond with a higher colour and clarity will always be more valuable pro rata than a larger one with a lower colour and clarity.

The perfect ring

So now you know how to find the perfect diamond, how do you find the perfect ring?

Where do you start? One stone or several? What shape? White or yellow metal? Will it sit with another ring? What sort of setting is best?

At Gatwards, our trained and friendly staff can help guide you through the maze to find your perfect ring. One that will reflect your taste and lifestyle, one that is “you”.  Sometimes it is only a trained eye that can spot a tiny detail that makes all the difference as to how a ring looks on your finger.

If a ring is a surprise, Gatwards will always exchange it after the proposal within 1 month of purchase if it is not to the lady’s taste.

Don’t forget that if you buy your engagement ring from Gatwards, you are entitled to a 20% discount off your wedding rings.