On accepting my fiancés proposal I never once considered how difficult it might be to choose an engagement ring.  After the surprise engagement we decided not to announce our good news to our family and friends until we had picked a ring.  What a few weeks this was trying to keep it a secret.  On planning our first day of ring shopping we didn’t know what to expect.  We wondered if we would come home that day with a ring, would anybody see us ….. We decided to head to Belfast and hoped that we would find a ring that day so that we could announce our good news to family and friends.  

Our first stop was Beaverbrook’s in Belfast and I must admit it was one of my favourite jewellers in terms of the treatment we received.  We were immediately greeted by a sales assistant who asked me to select the rings that I would like to try on.  On this point what I didn’t like about the many shops we visited is that their main collection of rings was displayed on the window of the shop so you had to go outside onto the street and look at the selection of rings through the window.  This is probably the most uncomfortable part of ring shopping as most couples don’t want passers by on the street to know that they are shopping for an engagement ring.   Haven chosen a few rings to try on the sales assistant then asked if she could select a few others for me to try on as she advised that some girls end up going for a ring that they didn’t think they would.  The amusing thing about this is that you don’t know what value you are putting on your finger. While the lady selected the rings we were seated at a table while another assistant made us some tea.  Some of the other jewellers we visited were Ernst & Jones, Lunn’s, Murray & Co, Gardiner Bros, Goldsmiths, Joseph Rea, H Samuel and Gems. 

It was only after we had visited about three jewellers that a sales assistant asked us did we know about the Five Cs of Buying an Engagement Ring.  At that stage our answer was ‘no’ which I am sure is a pretty common answer among couples.  I will not go into too much detail however here is a summary of that they represent.  

“Carat” refers to the size of the diamond, the higher the carat the higher the cost, e.g. 0.5, 0.75, 1, 2 carat. 

“Colour” measures the extent of discolouring in a white diamond 

“Clarity” refers to the purity of the diamond 

“Cut” measures craftsmanship, taking into account symmetry, cut and polish 

“Certificate” A diamond certificate / report will describe in precise terms the weight and the quality of the diamond in your Engagement Ring.

Once we were clearer on the five C’s we found ourselves asking more questions on the rings we liked.  Finally after visiting all the jewellers listed above I had narrowed my choice down to two rings.  One was a cluster ring in Joseph Rea Jewellers were they could get my size that same day and the other was a twelve diamond illusion ring in Goldsmiths were they could order my size from another of their stores and have it delivered to their Belfast store within a couple of days. Some of the jewellers I visited that day said that it could take up to 6 weeks to get my size ordered in, so bear this in mind when shopping for yours.  As it was approaching closing time and I hadn’t made up my mind I decided to leave it and come back to Belfast the following Saturday.  During that next week I surfed the internet viewing ring upon ring.    

Before we left for Belfast the following Saturday morning I was still not convinced that I had found my dream ring so we decided to visit a few more jewellers before going to Belfast.  We went in the direction of Cookstown.  Having visited Cahoons we decided to travel a further seven miles in the direction of Kildress and visit D&K Jewellers.  This was the best decision I could have made.   When we arrived at D&K Jewellers the lady that served us (Katrina) set 10 trays of rings in front of me and told me to pick out the rings that I wanted to try on and set them aside.  Once I had done this she told me to go back through each tray and make sure there were no others that caught my eye.  Having selected six rings to try on she pointed me in the direction of a big wall mirror and told me to look at each ring though this mirror.  It was immediately obvious that there was one ring in particular that I didn’t want to take off and I knew immediately this was the ring for me.  I liked the whole experience in this shop as firstly it is out in the country so it offers easy parking, secondly they have two doors that you have to buzz through to enter the shop so when other customers arrive they ask the couples to check that they don’t know them before letting them in to avoid any embarrassment for couples trying to keep their engagement a secret, plus they have tinted windows, finally all the rings are displayed within the shop so you don’t have to stand outside to view then and the staff don’t put any pressure on the couples to buy from them.  The ring I had chosen that day was a size bigger than any other ring I had tried on but it felt ok.  The lady advised that I could take it home and wear it for a few days and if I felt I wanted to get it resized I could so I did exactly this.  I left the ring up on the Thursday and had it back again on the Friday.  They have also advised that when we come back next year to get our wedding rings they will clean my engagement ring complimentary. 

I hope you find this blog useful in shopping for your engagement ring.

Editor@Bookourwedding.com