My own experiences in this area being in the not-too-distant past, I’ll try to answer some of your questions.
First of all, there are four major criteria in judging the stone itself: shape, size, color, and clarity(these are probably not the official terms). Size is pretty self-explanatory, but remember that bigger isn’t always better. How big is your intended? My wife is 5’0" and very petite, and so a two carat ring would look absurd on her hand.
Shape may not matter to your (potential) future wife, but then again, it may. There are a lot of possible shapes; I’ve seen funky rings where the stone is cut into a triangle. If you want to stay fairly traditional, though, you’ll be choosing from a few basics: round, square, pear-shaped, or marquis (shaped like the diamonds on playing cards, pretty much).
Now with size and shape, there’s no definite agreement on what’s ideal; you pretty much go by your own taste. Color and clarity are different matters. Color ranges from perfectly clear to a little cloudy to sickly yellow - the clearer the better, because clearer diamonds sparkle more in the light. There’s a letter system for judging color, which is usually posted in jewelry stores; learn it, understand it, live it. Most of the women I’ve talked to think the color of the stone is the most important thing.
Clarity basically seems to refer to the number of flaws - ie, tiny cracks in the interior of the stone. Lower quality diamonds have visible flaws; avoid these. Some diamonds have flaws that are visible only with the aid of a magnifying glass - in some cases, these are the way to go because you don’t have to mortgage a kidney to get them but the stone still looks as pretty as a flawless. If your honey is really set on perfection, though, you’ll want to get a flawless or nearly flawless stone.
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Again, don’t make the mistake of buying a huge stone without inquiring into the color and clarity. A yellowish, obviously flawed stone, no matter how large, just looks cheap. Assuming your intended falls somewhere in the middle 80% of the population size-wise, there’s no reason a 1 carat stone shouldn’t be perfectly acceptable, if it’s crystal clear and without flaws.
Next up - do you want a simple ring-and-stone arrangement (called solitaire)? Or do you want other frilly diamonds or assorted other stones all over the place. It can never hurt to ask your beloved’s friends and relatives what she likes, or to pay attention to the hints that she’s no doubt been dropping you. Do you want to buy wedding rings that go with the engagement ring; in those cases, the engagement ring kind of snaps into the wedding ring, making a neat little package?
I know, lots of questions. Simple way to handle this: set a budget, a maximum, “I will not spend more than this amount,” and go into a jeweler. Inform the person who helps you that you have a maximum, and state a figure that is about 80-85% of your actual maximum. This will get them to take rings that are way out of your price range and drop them into your real price range, in an attempt to tempt you out of your real price range.
And credit cards are acceptable. Happy hunting!
