How Long Should it Take to shop for an engagement ring?

If you’ve begun the preliminary process of shopping for an engagement ring, then you’re likely a little overwhelmed, and for good reason! We completely get it. Most likely, your research has begun online browsing infinite design options, metal colors, gemstone types, center stone shapes, and most notably, a wide range of prices. These components above could each take a few hours to even a few days to uncover the best possible variation in order to balance all of your wants, needs, and goals for your perfect engagement ring.

Let’s start off with a few important questions:

• What type of experience are you seeking? 
• What aspects of the engagement ring are most important to you? 
• How involved do you want to be? Better yet, how much of an expert do you want to become before pulling the trigger and moving forward with a decision? 

Your answer to the questions above will greatly influence the amount of time you can expect the process to take. We’ll be uncovering how much time you can expect to spend in order to become familiar and confident in your decision making process.

As you may already know, engagement ring shopping requires balancing many variables. Not only do these variables range from emotional to financial, but also the entire process is wrapped in an element of surprise...the proposal! 

Generally, our clients begin the process of engagement ring shopping a few months before their intended “need-by” proposal date range. If you’ve got a specific trip planned or special occasion you're basing your proposal off of, it may be best to reverse engineer this date in order to remain on schedule.

Keep in mind, every jewelry store has a different product selection, sales process, and production process with varying levels of involvement and decision making in order to complete your purchase. For example, our ecommerce site sohadiamondco.com allows engagement ring shoppers to learn about the 4Cs of diamonds, select a ring design and your corresponding lab-grown diamond size, color, and clarity, and you’re done! Three to four weeks later, your made-to-order engagement ring arrives and you’re ready to pop the question. The shopping experience above is effortless, efficient, and time saving.

On the other hand, the online-only experience above isn’t for everyone. Some like being able to chat directly with an expert and experience the tangible nature of being able to learn, see, and compare the different elements that make up an engagement ring side-by-side. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to physically visit a store or confine your search to your local jewelry store. For those unable to physically visit a store, a hybrid of the two experiences does exist in the form of video chat and screen sharing technologies. Working with a jeweler who’s willing and able to provide the same benefits of “shopping local” across the nation allows for a wider range of jewelers to take your business to.

For the ease of this in-store or hybrid example, let’s start the day of the week off on a Monday. On that day, you initiate the conversation with a jeweler and begin the process of engagement ring shopping. The two main elements of shopping are the actual ring itself and the center stone. Everything else is basically a subcategory of the two elements above. Assuming you’re speaking with a knowledgeable staff member, in about an hour or so, you should be able to understand the two main components. Depending on your liking of the ring design and whether or not you would like to modify the design and to what complexity, this can take anywhere from one to five business days to finalize. Concurrently, it’s your best use of time to discuss the center stone type, likely a diamond, colored gemstone, or moissanite, and their varying levels of size, shape, and quality which will dominate the conversation as each of the above have their own corresponding price implications. This can take anywhere from one to five business days to potentially source, review, compare, and decide upon.

After you’ve landed on a design and choose your center stone, off to production! Production will be variable jeweler to jeweler, but generally, made-to-order rings can take anywhere from three to four weeks to produce depending on the intricacy of the design and precious metal selection. So, all-in-all, the entire process from start to finish can take anywhere from three to four weeks to comfortably and confidently make an informed decision that meets your wants and needs. 

If you’d like to get the process started on your own made-to-order ring, contact us today and speak directly to a certified Gemologist to get on the right path toward your dream ring!