He finally looked in to Stauer.com when he saw an ad in Popular science. He bought me a beautiful 3 stone 2 1/2 total carat diamond ring for around $350. I work in a place where I interact with a LOT of wives of doctors and lawyers who are dripping in mined diamonds, and I ALWAYS get wonderful comments on my ring. They cant tell the difference and I have no interest in letting them know that theirs cost 20 times what mine did.

My ring is beautiful, no one can tell the difference.

And you don’t actually have to spend a lot of money to get a real diamond. Some of the loose diamond sites will sell diamonds for dirt cheap – even cheaper than blue nile and way cheaper than local jewelers.

The other issue is traveling. If you happen to find yourself in a really terrible situation while traveling – I know it sounds far-fetched but it’s added security – you might be able to buy your way out of it with a real diamond.

I got a platinum band with 12 inset diamonds from the late 50′s very reasonably. It was great, someone else had enjoyed it, and my husband has a white gold artdeco band from the 30′s. They’re both gorgeous, they were reasonable, and the design sensibility is more timeless. And at this point for these rings, the big issues: conflict, regulated mining, cyanide from gold slag, etc, no longer apply. There’s still the gorgeous art deco mine-cut diamond, platinum and sapphire ring at slightly more than a carat for 2K that got away… One day, I’ll find it. And yes, it was pretttier than any ‘new’ diamonds.

Lets get real for a second here…places like nexus diamond offer GIA certified synthetic diamonds. The same ppl that rate the REAL diamonds. Also, unless your a certified diamond expert with expensive machines, you really can’t tell the difference between a real and synthetic diamond. The process to make these synthetics is the same as a natural diamond just much faster (therefore the minor flaws)

My girlfriend didn’t want to take the chance in getting a blood diamond and would rather have a larger diamond for much cheaper too. She was more interested in a beautiful ring design than the size of the rock.

Personally i love synthetics…people are too superficial these days…think what you can do with the money you save…its just a ring with a rock on it that people have hyped up as a tradition throughout history. The insane amount of money ppl spend on rings can easily go towards funding your future life together and not put yourself in further debt.

There is one merit to the “natural”s, though; their individual florescence “thumbprint” which is just damn cool. The smithsonian article is here – http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Glow-in-the-Dark_Jewels.html

My engagement ring is a synthetic sapphire on a platinum band, which I love but don’t wear because it doesn’t sit well with my silver wedding band. Someday I’ll either have it sized up for a different finger or have it melted into a pendant.

Perhaps we should break with “tradition” and think of more meaningful symbols of love. I personally wouldn’t wear a symbol of conflict and a result of the influence of good marketing as a symbol of my forthcoming marriage.

I think the most important thing is to talk to your future-spouse and see what they think. I talked with mine about it, and we decided that synthetic was fine, and not what people would be looking for in a comparison.

Besides, it’s still a “real” diamond. It’s just not pulled out of the ground.

The point is to make the girl happy, because if it was up to a guy then he would just buy her a 12-gauge and call it even. Honestly, if a guy had a choice, would he spend $2000+ on a tiny rock or a motorcycle?

I do think that there is a stigma against Synthetic vs Man Made. I would feel slightly cheap if I got a man made instead of a synthetic ring. Doesn’t really have the same appeal I guess, maybe it’s because I always hear, “Are those real?!” whenever people see diamonds. If they aren’t blood diamonds then why get a fake one? They aren’t cheaper that I can see.