What to Know Before Buying a Custom Engagement Ring

Finding your person should be the most difficult part of getting married. Designing a ring as special as they are, should be fun.

When you collaborate with a jewelry designer to create a custom engagement ring, your options are only limited by your imagination and, perhaps, your budget. Lest you feel daunted by the endless possibilities and the fear of messing it up, we’ve put together this guide to getting it right.

Let’s start with phase one – the design process. At Five Star Jewelry, we begin with an initial consultation to go over which elements you’d like to include in your ring. Clients often bring photos or Pinterest boards to share examples of the type of ring they’d like us to design, which is extremely helpful. Seriously, the more photos the better!

Chances are if your partner knows a proposal is pending, they’ve probably already hinted at what type of ring they would like or have even gone as far as making explicit requests with photos. This makes your job easy, and it then becomes our job to bring that vision to life.

If, however, the proposal is going to be a surprise (Yay! We love surprises!) and you feel like you’re flying blind, we can help you customize a ring that feels just right. We also have options that are totally exchangeable within one year of purchase.

Start by considering these questions about your future fiancé:

Do they wear yellow gold, rose gold, platinum or white gold?
Do they tend to wear bold statement pieces or prefer more subtle elegance?
What type of job do they have? Do they work with their hands?

Still feel like a deer in headlights? Don’t worry; after 25 years of designing custom engagement rings, we’ve seen it all and know how to help you make the right selections. You can even bring us some photos of your soon-to-be-fiancé and we’ll help you tap into their personal style.

In truth, there really are just a handful of variables in any design such as

Ring size
Type/color of metal (yellow gold, white gold, rose gold, platinum)
Type of gemstone (natural diamond, lab grown diamond, ruby, sapphire, and so on)
Size and cut of gemstone
Type of setting
Due date (a custom ring design can take anywhere from 3 days to 8 weeks depending on the design, number of alterations and your schedule)

If you need extra guidance making your selections, we’ll walk you through your options, show you prototypes and sample designs and answer all your questions. This is your special moment too and we want to help make it perfect!

Now it’s time for phase two – creating a 3D image of your one-of-a-kind custom jewelry design. After our initial appointment, we either create a sketch of your design or create a CAD rendition, depending on the complexity of the design. From there, you have the option to make final adjustments before we create your ring. At this point, your hard work is done and it’s time for our jewelers to get to work crafting your custom engagement ring. (This frees you up to devise a romantic way to pop the question!)

On to phase three – the great reveal! When your ring is complete, you’ll come in and view the final product before taking it home.

This is a good time to mention we have a large in-store collection of luxury engagement rings to look at for inspiration. And if you find you are short on time or are just too excited to wait, many of our complete rings can be modified within just a few days. (That’s faster than you can get a reservation at your favorite restaurant, so you might want to book that first!)

Between buying flowers and hiring caterers, booking the venue and designing a seating chart where exes and in-laws are strategically distributed, there are countless variables in planning a wedding. At Five Star Jewelry, we promise to be the one variable you can count on to come through for you. In twenty-five years we have never missed a deadline and we continue to provide impeccable quality for a fair value that is certain to delight your person-to-be.

Need a Virtual Appointment?

Working with one of our personal jewelers doesn’t mean you have to meet “in person”. Through virtual conferencing, we create custom designs with clients from around the world.