Proposal Ring - Part 4

[shadowex]

Hi has anyone proposed with a lab-grown diamond and regretted it? It saves a lot of money but it just feels like it’s not the real deal.

I know how it is literally the same thing (except for a certificate which labels them as “natural” and “lab-grown”) and how diamonds are actually intrinsically worthless and made expensive because by the industry players, but we’re still proposing with diamonds because it is a social norm right?

I am afraid that one day I will regret not paying that few thousand dollars and getting a natural diamond for this once-in-a-lifetime moment of my life (unless I marry again lolz)

My close friend received a lab-grown diamond but that was because she specifically told him that a lab-grown one was fine as they were saving for a house then. She was perfectly happy with it but did receive alot of negative comments like "Your fiancé cannot even spare 5k to buy you a real diamond ah. Does he really love you?" Even her own parents asked her why she did not ask her fiancé to get a real diamond instead before accepting the proposal.

Like someone else above said, make sure your GF is 100% okay with it or else just get a real one to be safe.

 

[Kaypoh_kia]

The short answer: Don't propose with lab-grown unless she is perfectly okay and in fact, requests for it

The long answer to this question ultimately lies in whether the person you are proposing to is okay with anything else other than natural diamond. I have a friend that proposed with Sapphire, but only because the GF loved the gem.

If you have no clue what her preferences are (like most of us), always better to be safe than sorry.

After we propose, her friends will see the ring, and the comparison will begin. "Wah so nice! How many carat? How much? Buy from where?". From there, her peers may find out that it is a lab-grown diamond and possible bad comments may surface. Even if she didn't mind at first, there may be some peer pressure and make her feel bad.

Of course, this is pure speculation. But if you are afraid of regret, then don't get lab-grown. Just get a natural diamond within your budget.

Yeah I agree with your views and points raised! But with the same budget, you can only get a much smaller diamond and you may also get the “harh so small only you should have gotten a lab-grown diamond which would be much bigger” comments which may also cause regrets hahas

 

[Kaypoh_kia]

My close friend received a lab-grown diamond but that was because she specifically told him that a lab-grown one was fine as they were saving for a house then. She was perfectly happy with it but did receive alot of negative comments like "Your fiancé cannot even spare 5k to buy you a real diamond ah. Does he really love you?" Even her own parents asked her why she did not ask her fiancé to get a real diamond instead before accepting the proposal.

Like someone else above said, make sure your GF is 100% okay with it or else just get a real one to be safe.

I think I can spare 5k, but 5k can’t get you a decently sized diamond with decent cut, colour and clarity though

 

[ke3bbs]

I think I can spare 5k, but 5k can’t get you a decently sized diamond with decent cut, colour and clarity though

I guess it boils down to what you think it's decent.

 

[god2077]

I get the quotation for diamond by JannPaul with the below spec
0.763 F VVS2. Diamond type: Round (10 Hearts and Arrows).
AGS 104114685019
Price $7,300

Is the price reasonable? Anyone can recommend whether can further reduce the price without affect the beauty of this piece.

 

[sunsh!ne*]

Hi everyone.

Can I check on the estimated price for wedding band with JannPaul?
For guy will be plain, female with melees.
I understand they will give a slight discount when engagement ring is from them too?

thanks in advanced!

Visited JannPaul few weeks back to enquire about their wedding bands, and was quoted $2K for a pair (18K white gold). We were looking at simple designs eg. male - mixed finishes and female - with melees. They mentioned that we were given discount cos my engagement ring was also from JannPaul. But seems that it's not that cheap actually

 

[Nitron]

I get the quotation for diamond by JannPaul with the below spec
0.763 F VVS2. Diamond type: Round (10 Hearts and Arrows).
AGS 104114685019
Price $7,300

Is the price reasonable? Anyone can recommend whether can further reduce the price without affect the beauty of this piece.

yea it's normal, diamond prices going up so if u don't buy the current inventory, you will pay even more. Is this white series or SIC? u can reduce price by going down from F to G. Naked eye can't tell the color difference especially once it is set on the ring.

 

[Nitron]

I think I can spare 5k, but 5k can’t get you a decently sized diamond with decent cut, colour and clarity though

I guess it boils down to what you think it's decent.

Yeah what ke3bbs said. No way her girlfriends/ family will suggest lab-grown, I would put probability 0.1%. If your proposal is not going to be a surprise, then just ask your GF what she thinks.

If your GF is petite with slim fingers, 0.5 - 0.7 carat still looks perfectly great. I think if other ppl comments why the rock is so small etc. are just a**holes as everyone's financial situation is different. Unless of course, they know you are earning $10K+ a month and just being giam on a "worthless" item. If you are concerned on this part, then can follow the De Beers method 2 - 3 months salary.

If your budget is indeed 5K but want a bigger rock, I suggest you go online and check out Blue Nile or James Allen and look for ideal triple excellent. Won't get the JP light return specs, but u can find a decent 0.70 - 0.85 carat rock (make sure you research well what is a good table/depth/ etc for diamonds). G-H, VS1/VS2 grading. Lowest color to be "white"-ish is H, eye clean I think is VS2.

Too many permutations so you have to see what is your priority. Don't even need a triple excellent ideal cut, you can go even lower. See if your GF prefers a watermelon or a golden peach.

If you can go slightly higher than 5K, u can consider Brian Gavin Black series. They are similar to JP Super Ideal cuts but pay maybe 20 - 30% less. Make sure you look at scope images for light return, and look at the hearts & arrows well.

Once you get the diamond online, then go to Canary or sth to fix up the ring for $600 - 1K. At least in this way you can easily resize, and have aftercare services locally. Just be aware of upgrade policies for online diamonds (if you want to pamper your wife with a bigger rock when you earn more in the future).

That is all the research I have done the past 4 months, going down to physical stores, searching online, HWZ. I ended up like most of HWZ brothers and bought from Jann Paul as I can get the size I want for my budget and their diamonds are okay considering they are top-top tier (but some marketing la of cuz, haha). I could have saved 20% going for Brian Gavin but I get more psychological comfort buying from a well-known store in SG, get good aftercare services, and a good upgrade policy if I decide to buy a bigger one for my wife next time.

Good luck and hope this info helps.

 

[god2077]

yea it's normal, diamond prices going up so if u don't buy the current inventory, you will pay even more. Is this white series or SIC? u can reduce price by going down from F to G. Naked eye can't tell the color difference especially once it is set on the ring.

Based on the AGS cert it show SIC, Which one will be cheaper SIC or white series?

 

[freewilly5000]

Hi has anyone proposed with a lab-grown diamond and regretted it? It saves a lot of money but it just feels like it’s not the real deal.

I know how it is literally the same thing (except for a certificate which labels them as “natural” and “lab-grown”) and how diamonds are actually intrinsically worthless and made expensive because by the industry players, but we’re still proposing with diamonds because it is a social norm right?

I am afraid that one day I will regret not paying that few thousand dollars and getting a natural diamond for this once-in-a-lifetime moment of my life (unless I marry again lolz)

Yeah what ke3bbs said. No way her girlfriends/ family will suggest lab-grown, I would put probability 0.1%. If your proposal is not going to be a surprise, then just ask your GF what she thinks.

If your GF is petite with slim fingers, 0.5 - 0.7 carat still looks perfectly great. I think if other ppl comments why the rock is so small etc. are just a**holes as everyone's financial situation is different. Unless of course, they know you are earning $10K+ a month and just being giam on a "worthless" item. If you are concerned on this part, then can follow the De Beers method 2 - 3 months salary.

If your budget is indeed 5K but want a bigger rock, I suggest you go online and check out Blue Nile or James Allen and look for ideal triple excellent. Won't get the JP light return specs, but u can find a decent 0.70 - 0.85 carat rock (make sure you research well what is a good table/depth/ etc for diamonds). G-H, VS1/VS2 grading. Lowest color to be "white"-ish is H, eye clean I think is VS2.

Too many permutations so you have to see what is your priority. Don't even need a triple excellent ideal cut, you can go even lower. See if your GF prefers a watermelon or a golden peach.

If you can go slightly higher than 5K, u can consider Brian Gavin Black series. They are similar to JP Super Ideal cuts but pay maybe 20 - 30% less. Make sure you look at scope images for light return, and look at the hearts & arrows well.

Once you get the diamond online, then go to Canary or sth to fix up the ring for $600 - 1K. At least in this way you can easily resize, and have aftercare services locally. Just be aware of upgrade policies for online diamonds (if you want to pamper your wife with a bigger rock when you earn more in the future).

That is all the research I have done the past 4 months, going down to physical stores, searching online, HWZ. I ended up like most of HWZ brothers and bought from Jann Paul as I can get the size I want for my budget and their diamonds are okay considering they are top-top tier (but some marketing la of cuz, haha). I could have saved 20% going for Brian Gavin but I get more psychological comfort buying from a well-known store in SG, get good aftercare services, and a good upgrade policy if I decide to buy a bigger one for my wife next time.

Good luck and hope this info helps.

I think this is very tricky. I do fully agree with Nitron and ke3bb that if you considering lab growns, best is to check her on her thoughts on this. If not, you might end up having to buy a natural diamond later or get nagged for the rest of your life. The more challenging part will be her family if they are ok with it or not. And that's also gonna be a tough topic to ask when talking to her parents (esp if they are the older mindset).

What size are you looking at? 5k is a very decent budget to work with. And ''small'' can be a relative term. I got friends that find a 0.5ct to be too big already and some that insists on 1ct.

Lab growns is a very grey area and have different growing methods and quality too. From what I read, most lab growns have stria or strain issues. Alot of ppl are talking about it on reddit. Apparently it happens when they use a low quality seed or speed up the growth. So this is something you will need to look out for. And from what I see, most of the lab growns are IGI certs which is a crap cert (very loose grading).

If I'm not wrong, JP sells labgrowns too in their white series. I think its $3-4k for 1ct? and I think its AGS certified. This one I'm not too sure and its better to check with them.

I think at the end of the day, it's really about the visual appearance and what she likes. For 5k budget, it probably will get you a natural diamond 0.6ct? (best cut) or a 0.7-0.8ct? (bad cut). And if you got lab grown, you can get a 1ct (best cut). If main concern is size (assuming she ok with lab grown), it's more worth it to get a lab grown that looks better than a not so good cut natural diamond as it's going to look visually better. But note that lab growns won't have any resale value. Either options, I think you shld go for the better Cut one for the best sparkles.

Btw, Brian Gavin black series isn't the same as JP's SIC. I compared them before and also thought about it. Apparently Brian Gavin uses a black lit ASET scope and then photo crop it out into a white background (it's a big difference when they use black or white lit ASETs). Naughty naughty.. And if you take that into account and compare with the HOH's Ideal cuts, the HOH's Ideal cuts ends up being cheaper apple for apple. But it really depends if you're willing to sacrifice on the Cut.

I don't have any friends that bought a lab grown for their engagement ring before so not sure about the feedbacks for them. But I think it's horrible for any friends to give bad comments on someone's engagement ring regardless what they get. Might want to reconsider them as ''friends''.

 

[freewilly5000]

Based on the AGS cert it show SIC, Which one will be cheaper SIC or white series?

That is a round 10 hearts and arrows (111 facets) which is their white series. It's a better cut that their SIC (57 facets).

 

[Nitron]

Based on the AGS cert it show SIC, Which one will be cheaper SIC or white series?

That is a round 10 hearts and arrows (111 facets) which is their white series. It's a better cut that their SIC (57 facets).

Yea based on what Freewilly said, this is the White series, which means this is more expensive than SIC (Super Ideal Cut).

To give an analogy of the differences in quality, it is like scoring 92 marks for a test (JP SIC) vs 99 marks (JP White Series).

The White series is very impressive because the large increase in faceting makes it reflect more light, making it appear whiter in shaded areas as compared to SIC, but you can really only tell when you put the diamonds beside each other.

You would have probably already seen it though, as it's part of their education, so I'm a little confused you didn't know that you have selected the White Series.

 

[durain]

Hi has anyone proposed with a lab-grown diamond and regretted it? It saves a lot of money but it just feels like it’s not the real deal.

I am afraid that one day I will regret not paying that few thousand dollars and getting a natural diamond for this once-in-a-lifetime moment of my life (unless I marry again lolz)

I bought a JP natural diamond ring for the proposal, as you really dont want to have any regrets. You also put alot of pressure on her when her friends and family ask "where did you get your ring from?" , as the ring is the focal point the moment you propose and news gets out. A good and pretty diamond will put you in good standing.

However we were both convinced by the quality of lab grown diamonds, and the pricing, as they really represented a true value proposition, just not at the engagement stage.

Fast forward to wedding prep, we were looking for a pair of earrings to pair with the wedding gown, we ended up with 2 X E/VVS2/0.7ct lab grown for 1.2k SGD(before tax) each, with platinum setting. We had alot of fun picking diamonds using the knowledge we learnt from JP (and yes as others mentioned IGI is loose in their grading, the consensus is a 1 grade variation, so rmb to "up one grade" and avoid the non eye-clean inclusions and you will be fine).

Boy, are they beautiful, we have no regrets, and she also gets the occasional wow about the earrings. Best of all, her job is very active, so if she loses one side my heart also not so pain than if she were to lose a 0.7 decagon.

Edit:had to shorten the story to keep it in the context of the thread, was excitedly going abit off topic

 

[Elly888]

Visited JannPaul few weeks back to enquire about their wedding bands, and was quoted $2K for a pair (18K white gold). We were looking at simple designs eg. male - mixed finishes and female - with melees. They mentioned that we were given discount cos my engagement ring was also from JannPaul. But seems that it's not that cheap actually

Thank you for the reply!
Congratulations on your proposal!

for the melees on female rings that you enquired, does it cover more half of the rings?

Yes I agree. I have been asking around both online and shops on some simple design too. But seems like the prices are around the same. $2.2k-$2.5K.

Or shifu here have recommendations for wedding bands?

 

[sunsh!ne*]

Thank you for the reply!
Congratulations on your proposal!

for the melees on female rings that you enquired, does it cover more half of the rings?

Yes I agree. I have been asking around both online and shops on some simple design too. But seems like the prices are around the same. $2.2k-$2.5K.

Or shifu here have recommendations for wedding bands?

Thank you! The female ring is just some melees at the centre part. We've also been to Love & Co, Gold Heart, SK, Lee Hwa.. they do have wedding bands below $1.5K

 

[donut24]

Hi has anyone proposed with a lab-grown diamond and regretted it? It saves a lot of money but it just feels like it’s not the real deal.

I know how it is literally the same thing (except for a certificate which labels them as “natural” and “lab-grown”) and how diamonds are actually intrinsically worthless and made expensive because by the industry players, but we’re still proposing with diamonds because it is a social norm right?

I am afraid that one day I will regret not paying that few thousand dollars and getting a natural diamond for this once-in-a-lifetime moment of my life (unless I marry again lolz)

I think it boils down to two things
1. whether your gf is ok with lab-grown
2. your budget and if it allows you to get her the ring she has in mind

My bf brought me ring shopping recently, and we looked at both options and compared prices across stores. The difference is significant, you can get a 1-carat lab-grown diamond instead of a 0.5 natural diamond, and their overall specs are similar in terms of cut/clarity/color, for about the same price.

I'd rather receive a 1-carat lab-grown than a 0.5 natural but this is just my personal preference. We just committed to a house so definitely watching our expenses plus this won't be the last ring I'll receive from my husband-to-be so I'm happy to go with a more value-for-money ring that still meets my expectations visually. Of course in the future, if money is not an issue, I'd love it if he can get me the real deal for our anniversary

And honestly, I think if the couple doesn't say out loud, no one is going to know it's a lab-grown diamond unless you buy from some unknown shop then some kaypoh ppl will suspect. But it's really none of anyone's business except the couple.

If your budget is <4k, I think you can consider lab-grown provided your other half is cool with it.

Has anyone bought lab-grown diamonds from JP? Please share your experience

We found out after consultation that they have started selling but maybe it's a new thing since I don't see many comments in this thread. He claimed the process they used can prevent the stria issues lab-grown diamonds tend to have.

Also, has anyone bought from Diamondlite?

 

[donut24]

Thank you! The female ring is just some melees at the centre part. We've also been to Love & Co, Gold Heart, SK, Lee Hwa.. they do have wedding bands below $1.5K

Are you referring to half eternity wedding band styles? I think they go from 1.2k upwards.

 

[sunsh!ne*]

Are you referring to half eternity wedding band styles? I think they go from 1.2k upwards.

Nope, not half eternity! Half eternity will be more ex

 

[god2077]

Yea based on what Freewilly said, this is the White series, which means this is more expensive than SIC (Super Ideal Cut).

To give an analogy of the differences in quality, it is like scoring 92 marks for a test (JP SIC) vs 99 marks (JP White Series).

The White series is very impressive because the large increase in faceting makes it reflect more light, making it appear whiter in shaded areas as compared to SIC, but you can really only tell when you put the diamonds beside each other.

You would have probably already seen it though, as it's part of their education, so I'm a little confused you didn't know that you have selected the White Series.

I only remember I did not select the decagon, I go for the round cut but I did not specify SIC or white series, so is the price reasonable for this spec for this diamond?

 

[Butterscotch28]

Visited JannPaul few weeks back to enquire about their wedding bands, and was quoted $2K for a pair (18K white gold). We were looking at simple designs eg. male - mixed finishes and female - with melees. They mentioned that we were given discount cos my engagement ring was also from JannPaul. But seems that it's not that cheap actually

Yeah, I agree that it’s not that cheap too. We were quoted $1950 (after discount) for a pair. Our design is just simple plain dual-tone (white & yellow 18K gold) with matte finishes on the top center shank. There were others who are cheaper but eventually, we got it out of convenience since we’re also getting the proposal ring from them.