I’ve been with my girlfriend for years now and I’m planning to propose to her next month. I’m looking for a good place to buy a diamond ring that has a good reputation. I don’t mind if it’s lab grown. Tiffany, of course is an option but the prices there are much higher compared to other shops.
For those who are married for those who proposed, Where would you recommend buying a ring?
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I went to the hub and got a good deal from a guy called slick rick
My hubby proposed with a diamond bracelet instead and we wear our wedding rings. When he was musing about getting an engagement ring though, he really liked the selection at i-primo. We got our wedding bands from there.
Are you sure she wants an expensive diamond ring?
Save that money for the inevitable EnGLiSh SpEaKiNg divorce lawyer a few years later.
I recommend “Ginza Diamond Shiraishi”.
They are a chain so they are all over Japan. But what I’ve been happy with is the service before and after. Before I got the ring, we did step by step of the diamond and different attributes that fit my budget, then building up the ring as I requested.Now that we have the ring, we also bought our wedding bands there. They clean what we bought there for free and also have free adjustment sizing for up to 2 sizes in either direction.
EDIT: They probably have more service available but I don’t remember.
Friend and his GF (both Japanese) just did the ring making thing together. No details but I’m sure someone here knows about it. Had I known about such things when I proposed it would totally have been a thing I’d have done with the wife.
My only suggestion is – for your own sanity – make sure this proposal isn’t a surprise. Hopefully you guys have been talking about this and planning for it. While the actual proposal might be a surprise you proposing should absolutely not be.
Personally I got a very inexpensive (like thirty bucks) placeholder ring to propose with, then me and my fiancee went ring shopping together. I figured if it’s something she’s gonna be wearing the rest of her life, she might like a say in what it looks like. This is just one option.
Vendome Aoyama is a nice store to check out. They have a few outlet stores too that offer up to 50% off. Depends on what your partner wants I guess. Personally I would prefer a 300,000 ring from an outlet (real value 600,000) than one that’s 300,000 at a main store for example but that’s entirely up to you. If its not a surprise proposal then a day out to Shisui Premium Outlet with your partner is fun and they can also choose with you. Good luck!
James Allen. You’ll have to pay import tax though, so add whatever % it is now to the price. But you’ll get a much larger, better cut/clarity diamond than most you’ll find in Japan, and at a lower price. You can scout out rings in Ginza beforehand though to get an idea of size and what they look like at different grades.
I’ve dreamed of getting a ring from https://www.sora-w.com/en
Does it have to be a diamond? Rubies, sapphires and emeralds give you so much more bang for your buck.
4℃ is a major chain that can give you a lot of options at decent prices.
My wife found an independent jeweler/silversmith who made her a ring based on her own original design.
Wasn’t as expensive as shop bought, my wife got exactly what she wanted and it’s unique to her.
Also helped to support an independent business and that’s important to both of us too.
We got our rings from 4 Degrees C (however you write it, I can’t get the symbol to show up on my keyboard).
I agree with others who pointed out that it’s sometimes nice to let the girl choose her ring. I’m personally a pretty picky person when it comes to jewlery, so once hubby and I talked about wanting to get married, he had me come with him to choose rings together. Then I left the actual date/timing/method of the proposal up to him, so it would still be romantic~
I’m glad we did it that way, because he and I have totally different tastes, and I didn’t like the kinds of rings he would have picked out had we not done it together
Spoke to my wife’s sister so that it would stay a surprise. We picked one that we both knew she would like. Got it from a small independent ring maker back in UK and got an emerald one rather than diamond, so was able to get an incredibly nice ring without it breaking the bank.
Surprised her with it at the peak of a mountain. She laughed for about 5 minutes
We got the engagement ring at “First Impression” in Okachimachi (an area famous for jewelry shops).
Having the wedding rings made by K-Uno.
I did a mix of my country’s culture and the Japanese one.
Well, importantly I discussed things like price and expectations for it, then I chose one that I liked and I thought she’d like, not very expensive at all, 2-3 万 from 4c in an department store. Then we went to look at the wedding rings together and bought ones for around 8-10万 each .
I don’t remember if we went looking at an engagement ring but we might have, good chance to discuss price and design.
Worth noting, and I had no idea about this, there seems to be a tradition that the woman buys the man a gift for roughly the same value as the engagement ring? Which seems crazy for the people using 3 months salary to do it. So maybe less.
Don’t know if anyone else here had this happen to them
Before proposing, I went back home to the US and went to all the local pawnshops. You’d be amazed at what you can find. I found an absolutely ugly 3-diamond setting for $750, but the stones appeared to be good. I wanted to have it appraised, so I left an unsigned traveler’s check and the pawnbroker allowed me to borrow it. After appraisal, the main stone was .95 carats, ideal cut, E color, and VVS1 clarity. The two smaller stones were around half a carat each, excellent cut, F & G color, and VS1 clarity. I went back to the pawnbroker, paid cash (got back the traveler’s check), and took the ring to a jeweler. Had the large stone made into a solitaire setting with the smaller ones as matching earrings, all in platinum. My wife only wears the solitaire for our anniversary, but wears the earrings all the time. We got simple platinum bands for our wedding that we wear daily. Still happily married after 20+ years. Good luck!
Blue Nile is a very comprehensive online retailer that has everything you can imagine at every conceivable price and will usually be as cheap as you can find.
Or travel to South Africa after their currency crashes (happens about once a year) and buy it before they re-price all the stock 🙂
I got a brand name loving girl, thus a got a Cartier for her. I subsidized it by getting a tungsten ring for myself that was like 50 bucks.
Depending on the initial amount, no one said you can’t splurge years into the future when you may be earning more. Then keep the first engagement ring as a secondary ring.
My wife wear the “promise” ring (I purchase when I was still a poor student) when we go on trips overseas.
I bought it from Costco! Good quality price
if you are going the lab grown route probably best to buy from blue nile or james allen
going to be so much cheaper than buying in Japan
Do you know what she likes? Do you know if she would prefer a brand name (also within the brand, low-tier, mid-tier, top tier?). My husband knows I only like simple, smaller diamonds but I like Tiffanys or other brands lol so thats what he proposed with. We then chose our wedding rings together. Most Japanese women only wear the wedding band though afaik especially after kids, at least all the moms I have interacted with anyway… I have only met a few who wear diamonds… so she may end up just leaving it in the box and wearing the band… cheaper might be better!!
I got my wife’s engagement ring at [Boucheron](https://www.boucheron.com/ja_en/neo-pivoine-ring-jsl00326.html). They have designs that are a bit more unique than the standard “band with a diamond slapped on top”, which she really appreciated.
As another option, friends of mine worked with a jeweller in Okachimachi to have it custom-designed and that seems to have gone very well too.
Don’t get suckered in by the diamond trend. If that’s her jam then yeah it matters, but at least for my wife we talked about it and she decided she didn’t really like diamonds and generic looking rings, and was more interested in a stone that had a colour that she liked or had meaning to her.
How it looks is way more important than how much it costs. I’d suggest a smaller independent jeweller over any chain, particularly if they can make something to order.