Designing the Ring, part 2

Here's part 1 in case you missed it!  Although it was just yesterday...

About 6 months after I first saw the Tacori ring, I went up north to celebrate the holidays with Jer's family.  We took a day trip to San Francisco.  At some point during the day I found myself super grumpy for some reason!  I don't remember why now haha.  Anyways to cheer me up, we happen to walk by a Tiffanys (of all stores, lol) so Jerry suggested that I try on some stuff.  We're actually inside Saks in this picture, and so Tiffany's is just down the street.  Geez, you'd think I'd take a picture of the outside of Tiffanys, but that didn't even occur to me!  So here's the next best thing. SF was so festive!

All along we had no intention of buying from them, but I sure as heck wasn't going to turn down an opportunity to milk the experience for what it was worth! :P  We had our camera with us, but felt self conscious about busting it out, so unfortunately I have no pictures! Boo.  At the time, I didn't really know much (okay nothing) about the 4 Cs and I didn't really care.  I just wanted to see how a ring looked on my finger for reals.  And oh boy was it fun!  I think I tried on a regular solitaire ring, a princess cut, and something that resembled a halo.  Though it was fun, I also felt SUPER intimated.  The lady was nice...but still.  I just didn't feel comfortable there.  But maybe that's just me! 
 
Anyhoo about a couple months later, we went to Robbins Brothers to try on the Tacori ring.  I still had my heart set on it, and I wanted to see how it was in person.  Before we went, we made sure the Torrance branch had the exact model that I wanted to try on.  And with the exception of the side views, I wasn't disappointed at all!  However, I was really disappointed by how sleazy our experience at Robbins Brothers was.  I think the place is great for what it is: a one stop shop to browse all different kinds of designs and rings.  You can try on a bunch of stuff, and you don't feel intimidated at all.  Their selection is decent.

  Image via Yelp

However, the sales people there were just so shady and gave off the ickiest vibe!  They said things like, oh you have to buy this particular one b/c it's the last one in the store and it's discontinued.  Well, here I am 12 months later, and my 2502RD65 model is still on the Tacori site!  Liar!  And then they gave this spiel about how Valentine's Day was just around the corner and wouldn't it be perfect occasion?  Umm...who gets engaged on Valentine's Day?  So cliche!  And then the sales guy proceeded to give Jerry like 4 different phone numbers and 2 email addresses in case "you need to reach me."  Uhhh, desperate much?  There were other things, but I don't remember.  All in all, it came down to gut feeling and there was no way we'd give them our business.

Alrighty, so a month or so later, we checked out Liberty Diamonds.  Why do I not have a picture of this place?  Found this on the internets.   

Image via City-Data

Jerry found it...I don't remember how.  Liberty Diamonds is a family owned operation based out of Orange County.  After meeting with them, we realized just how bad our Robbins Brothers experience was:

me: hey

  so today we went to another jeweler's in irvine

  and they were good!

  no bullshit or anything fake

6:38 PM 

but anyways we liked this place

  they aren't really sales ppl

  they told us, don't come here looking for a deal

6:42 PM you get what you pay for

  and they said their prices are competitive

  and they can custom make anything

  and we got to see some of the loose diamonds in a sarin machine!

  that was so neat

  jerry wants one

  haha

During that first meeting, we had no intention of buying anything.  We just wanted to see if it was a place that we could go back and give our business to.  At the time, I was about 2 weeks away from the last ever final of grad sch, moving out of my apt, moving into Jer's place, and finding a job, so the process of getting engaged wasn't on my mind at all.  (Okay I lied.  It was on my mind some of the times.  Not all the time!)  Plus Jerry and I agreed that we wouldn't get engaged until I found a full time job.  I didn't know it at the time, but being gainfully employed was a mere 1.5 months away.  (If I had known at the time, I would have spent those 6 weeks not stressing out.  Instead I was driving myself crazy.)  Okay, so during that visit, I tried on some rings and we finally learned about the 4 Cs.  We got to see what some loose diamonds looked like and we got an idea of price ranges for custom designs.  We had a better idea of what to expect for a custom ring.  Jerry wasn't sold yet, b/c he knew he could get the loose diamond for cheaper online (no tax, etc).  But by buying online, he wouldn't get to examine them closely.  So after that visit, we took some time off to think about it.

I started working and we got super busy.  We had an East Coast trip planned so there was no time to design or buy before our trip.  However, Jerry knew to GET ON IT b/c I wanted a fall wedding and needed at least a year to plan.  We gave up trying to shop around other places.  So after our trip we headed back to Liberty Diamonds, this time with the intention to start the process!    

To be continued!  Thanks for reading along!