A Guy's Guide to Building an Engagement Ring

A Tutorial to Help You Build Your Own Engagement Ring

Alright, here is the step-by-step ring-building tutorial I've been promising you.

There's a reason the text is all pushed to the left, and you'll see the reason in a minute.

So, let's proceed.

If you are ready, you can press the button a few lines down.

This button should

• cause a page to pop up
• rearrange the two windows, so that this guide takes up the left half of the screen, and the ring-building tool takes up the right half of the screen.

Go ahead and push it now.

Did it work?

If it worked, great. Let's go.

If it didn't work, feel free to email me and let me know. If I get complaints, I'll do some more testing. And for now, just resize the new the windows manually. Sorry :(

Alright. Here's what we'll do:

• First, we'll take a minute to build my wife's DREAM ring.
• Unfortunately, I can't afford her dream ring. So next we'll take a couple minutes to build a more realistic ring. We're aiming for something with a slightly lower perceived value, but significantly lower price.

• build your own ideal engagement ring.
• build your own realistic engagement ring -- one that's close to ideal, but much more affordable.

Build Your Own Engagment Ring: My Wife's Ideal Ring

OK, so here's my wife's dream ring.

It's a flawless, ideally cut, perfectly clear and colorless one carat diamond in a platinum double tapered sapphire baguette setting. (Now there's a mouthful).

My wife is a white gold woman, so platinum is right up her alley. And she loves sapphires . . .

. . . "because Princess Diana had one." *Sigh*

This may not be your bride-to-be's idea of an ideal ring, but we'll get to that in a couple minutes.

So let's build this ring.

1. First, in the Mondera window, press "Create Your Own Engagement Ring." (It's under the big picture of an engagement ring.)

2. Next, find the heading that says "1. Start by choosing a diamond or setting.", and click on the button that says "Select Your Diamond".

3. Under "Select a Shape", click on the radio button under "round."

4. Under "Select a Cut", select "Heart & Arrow", and "Ideal".

5. Leave the "Select a Price" option blank.

6. Under "Select a Size", after "from" type in '0.95', and after "to", type in '1.05'

7. Under "Select a Color", after "Color from" select 'D', and after "to" select 'j'.

8. Under "Select a Clarity", after "Clarity from" select "IF", and after "to" select "VVS2".

9. Under "Select a Sorting Method", select "Select all of the diamonds in my price range" (this is probably already selected).

10. Finally, Click on the "Find" button.

    Scroll down until you see a list of diamonds. At the time of this writing (2/9/2004) there was a 1.01 carat D, IF, Ideal H&A diamond for $18,708 available. If this is in your list,

11. select it by clicking on "view details" (You'll probably have to scroll to the right a bit).

    If that diamond isn't available, choose the highest priced diamond in the list.

12. Now click on "Select this Diamond".

This would be my wife's ideal diamond (for a wedding ring anyway).

Now, let's choose the band.

Build Your Own Engagement Ring: My Wife's Band

1. Now scroll down, and under "Select your Setting" click on "Gemstone Accent Setting".

2. Now scroll down to the second row of rings, and under the "Platinum Engagement Setting with Double Tapered Baguettes Sapphire (0.70 ct. tw)" click on "View Details".

3. You still have to select the setting. So scroll down, and under "2. Your Setting" you'll see a picture of the setting. To the right of that, and below it a bit, you'll see a button that says "Select this Setting". Click on it.

4. Now scroll down, and under "3. Buy or Compare", you'll see the ring. As of this writing the ring costs $19,908.

I don't know about you, but I don't have twenty thousand dollars sitting under my mattress.

Let the price sink in for a minute.

This isn't even a terribly gaudy ring. It's amazing how much a nice ring can cost isn't it. It almost makes you want to freak out, huh.

Well, don't freak out yet. We're about to create something similar for a fraction of the cost!

For now we'll add this to your shopping bag. Don't worry, you haven't given Mondera any information, so you're not going to buy this ring. We just need a place to put it, so we can compare it to the ring we're going to build now.

So first, let's select a ring size. My wife's size is 5.5, but it doesn't really matter what you choose.

Now press the "Add to Shopping Bag" button.

Now look at the menu bar just under the big "Mondera" on the top of the page. Click on "Engagement". And now we can build a more affordable ring.

Buid Your Own Engagement Ring: A Realistic Ring

1. Just as before, in the Mondera window, press "Create Your Own Engagement Ring." (It's under the big picture of an engagement ring. You might have to scroll down a little to see the "Create Your Own Ring" button.)

2. Next, scroll down, until you see "1. Start by choosing a diamond or setting.", and click on the button that says "Select Your Diamond".

3. Under "Select a Shape", click on the radio button under "round."

4. Under "Select a Cut", select "Very Good". I will compromise a little on cut, but not much, since a good cut is the very most important feature of a diamond.

5. Leave the "Select a Price" option blank.

6. Under "Select a Size", after "from" type in '0.48', and after "to", type in '0.55' I'm thinking a half-carat diamond will be more affordable, and yet still be a very respectable size for most women in America.

7. Under "Select a Color", after "Color from" select 'H', and after "to" select 'L'. We'll compromise some on color.

8. Under "Select a Clarity", after "Clarity from" select "VS1", and after "to" select "VS2". Hey, as long as the inclusions aren't visible to the naked eye, ...

9. Under "Select a Sorting Method", select "Select all of the diamonds in my price range" (this is probably already selected).

10. Finally, Click on the "Find" button.

    Scroll down until you see a list of diamonds. At the time of this writing (2/9/2003) there was a 0.52 carat H, VS1, Very Good diamond for $1,591 available. If this is in your list,

11. select it by clicking on "view details"

    If not, choose one that is very close to this.

12. Now click on "Select this Diamond".

This is not my wife's ideal diamond. But it is quite respectable. She would not be at all embarrassed to have this diamond in her ring. Now if you and your bride-to-be are in the top 5% of income earners, or run with a higher-class crowd, you will have to do better than this. But 90% of women would be quite satisfied with this stone.

Notice that, though it is half the size of the other diamond, it is less than 10% of the cost. You can stop freaking out now, and start breathing a little easier. No you don't have to spend $20,000 on a ring in order to get something respectable.

Now, let's choose the band.

Build Your Own Engagement Ring: A Reasonable Band

1. Now scroll down, and under "Select your Setting" click on "Gemstone Accent Setting".

2. Now scroll down to the second row of rings, and on the left hand side this time, under the "Platinum Engagement Setting with Tapered Baguettes Sapphire (0.70 ct. tw)" click on "View Details".

3. You still have to select the setting. So scroll down, and under "2. Your Setting" you'll see a picture of the setting. To the right of that, and below it a bit, you'll see a button that says "Select this Setting". Click on it.

4. Now scroll down, and under "3. Buy or Compare", you'll see the ring. As of this writing the ring costs $2,491. Now this I can afford. Sure, I can think of some other things I'd rather do with twenty-five hundred dollars. But my wife is worth it, so I'll have to come up with another way to make some money for those other things.

Now add this ring to your shopping bag.

Now scroll up and down in your shopping bag, and compare the two rings. I think you can see that we've done pretty well. (Do you want my honest opinion? I actually like the less expensive ring better anyway. But maybe that's just my pocketbook talking).

Build Your Own Engagement Ring: What's Next?

So what's next?

Well, do the same thing for your bride-to-be's ring.

First, create her ideal ring.

Then save it in your shopping bag.

Next, build another ring, and compromise some on size, color and clarity (but not too much on cut).

Tweak it until you arrive at a ring you like and can afford.

Save that ring in your shopping bag.

But DON'T CLOSE THE TUTORIAL YET.

You'll want to leave it open. Once you get a ring you like, you'll want to continue and read part five of this guide.