This is the summary of my overall experience with JannPaul. Sorry in advance, this is going to be a long post!
I've been extremely grateful for what they've done for me. They've done many extra things to help me with my proposal ring and photo collage. I know they already have many rave reviews about them here. I'm chiming in to share my experience and what to expect for newer folks.
Setting up an Appointment
It is recommended to book an appointment with them. They give a diamond education to share with you everything about a diamond. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. Not just the usual basic 4Cs knowledge but way beyond that. Although they mention that the session will take about 1.5hrs. Mine took almost 3 hours. Maybe because I had alot of questions to ask. But be prepared to spend a longer time there.
Before the appointment, they will ask you a list of qns about your diamond preference, etc. If you're going on a weekend, be prepared to book 3-4 days in advance. They're usually fully booked. If you want a more private and intimate session, I suggest to go on a weekday instead. Their weekends are always very crowded.
During the Appointment
William first showed me the Signature cuts like the Super Ideal, Octagon, Solasfera, etc. Then went on about the diamond basics then to the advance stuff like the light performance, why avoid flat carat sizes, diamond brownish tone, etc etc. This is where you decide on your diamond or the type you want. You don't have to decide on the spot. They are not pushy.
The 2nd half of the session is discussing your ring design. They have trays of designs and will tell you advantages/disadvantages of each of the design and so on. If you want to customise your ring, like I did, they will do the 3D renders and stuff before you decided.
After the session, they will send you the scope images of the diamonds you shortlisted.
Choosing the Diamond
This was the scope images of the Octagon diamond I ended up choosing.
They even brought the diamond outside the shop to show me how it will look in outdoor without those jewellery shop lighting tricks.
Here's a video of my diamond when its sunny and cloudy (later half of the video).
Very very sparkly! There are many things to say about the Octagon and you can research more about it on their youtube.
Choosing the Ring Design
There are 3 ways to choose your ring design with them.
1. From their stock design (this is the most straight forward method)
2. Editing from their stock design (combining different parts of a ring into one or editing parts of their existing design)
3. Full customisation (designing a whole new ring from scratch - which is what I did).
For full customisation, the communication is the key here. I told them what I liked and don't like, and gave them ring designs I found online that I like. They will talk about the features and will make recommendations. After that, they will create a 3D render for you which will be the first draft. After that, you can keep adjusting it until its perfect.
Doing the ring 3D and wax
I had the opportunity to see them doing the 3D as I asked if I could take some photos and videos for my collage. They were very friendly and even helped me further by editing them for me (I'll share more about this later).
Here's a snippet video of them doing my ring's 3D.
After they do the 3D wiring stuff, it will render out your ring design like this,
I requested for them if they could give me a higher resolution in my final 3D design as I wanted to use it in my proposal and wedding video. They were very willing to help and surprised me with this. These designs are done to scale to your diamond size, ring size, etc. They will also model the 3D design on a finger of the same finger size so you can see how it will look on her hand.
After I finalized the 3D render, I had an option to request a wax of it! They made a wax of my ring (reminded me of 3D printing). The wax is mainly to see the physical dimensions of the ring. It doesn't show the full design of it well but you can use it to see if the ring is too thick/thin, etc. And I got to keep my wax for momento!
SuperImposing
They have a cool feature that you can superimpose your ring's 3D on an actual photo of your gf's hand. I had a photographer friend to help me take some hand photos of my gf, then passed them to JP to help superimpose my ring. They worked together with my friend to come up with this.. Very very impressed!
Summary
My overall experience with them was 10/10. If I can rate them higher than a 10, I would. I know I'm not an easy customer to begin with and have many requests. But they've never turned me down and were very willing to help me. It didn't feel like just a jewelry shopping experience but an exciting journey doing up my ring. I definitely recommend anyone looking for a diamond ring to pay them a visit. There are many positive reviews about them for a reason and now I know why.
My only advise is if you want to customize your ring design, start early. They take about 2 weeks to do up the first 3D design draft. Then further changes will take a few days. After you choose the 3D design, it can take afew more days to superimpose your ring on her hand, and 1 week for them to do your ring wax. After everything is confirmed, they will need 4-8 weeks to craft the ring. So depending on how complicated your ring design is, from start to finish, it can take 2-3 months.
For now, I have to patiently wait for my ring to be crafted.
This is a photo with me and Casey in their office upstairs. That is their wax milling machine that does the wax. William wasn't in that day so Casey brought me up to show me how it look like and to add it into my photo collage. Double thumbs up to their service!!
