sonuva72

I'm approaching the point when I'm going to ask my girl the big question, and I'm planning to use a cheap placeholder ring for the actual event. Afterwards, I'll take her shopping for the actual ring. She's the type of girl who, after my roommate got engaged, started ranting about Debeers, monopoly, worker exploitation, etc (I know, she's great). So I'm assuming we won't be looking at diamonds. There are guides all over the place for diamond shopping, but much less in the way of other colored stones. If I were to get a diamond, I'd be looking at a few grand, so my price range is anywhere from there on down. Does anyone have advice on where to go and what to look for?

I live in a big city, so finding locations shouldn't be a problem. Any places I should look online as well? Are most jewelry stores going to be able to help me out, or do most just focus on diamonds? Should I look into buying a loose stone, and getting a custom ring? What stones do you all like? Ruby, emerald, tanzanite, sapphire? Any advice on how to judge the stones, and what size I might be looking at?

Finally, what about the band? Platinum or white gold? Looking at past threads, there seem to be supporters both ways.

Thanks all!