picking a ring - platinum or white gold?

Originally we wanted platinum but after speaking to several jewellers decided on white gold.  We were told the platinum could go very dull and tarnish badly after a few years and would be difficult to restore.  One jeweller showed us an older platinum ring and it was black! So we went with 18 carat white gold, which I know may yellow after a time but is easy to get re-whitened.  It wasn't that much cheaper than the platinum though so don't be fooled into thinking you'll save money that way - maybe if you have 9 carat but not so much with 18.

One jeweller showed us an older platinum ring and it was black!

Wow, I had not heard that about platinum! Has anyone had an experience of their platinum ring getting tarnished?

Wow, I had not heard that about platinum! Has anyone had an experience of their platinum ring getting tarnished?

My dads first wedding ring was platinum and 40 years later it was exactly the same.

I have my grandmothers platinum engagement ring from the 1930's and it's still spotless.

We picked out a ring today! It is an antique-style platinum setting with two small diamonds, one on either side of where the main diamond will go. There are also some tiny diamonds in the band. It's so lovely! The tcw is just over 1 carat. The salesman said they may have it ready for us by Thanksgiving! Yipee!

It will be especially nice as my sweetie has not officially proposed, so I haven't been telling people we're engaged or that we're ring shopping (except for a couple of close friends). I told him he is not going to end up getting me down the aisle without officially proposing! We've basically been talking about getting married for so long that it's sort of been a given. Anyhow, I think once he has the ring he'll make the official proposal and I can finally tell Mom!

If I can figure out how to post a picture, I'll post one of the ring when I get it.

Congrats on finding a ring! It sounds a lot like mine, actually. Except that we did the proposal/ring scenario the other way around. He proposed without one, and then we picked it out after the fact. So we had sort of a secret engagement as well.

Congrats on finding a ring! It sounds a lot like mine, actually.

Thanks! Do you mind saying what size you center stone is? We got a smaller rock than I originally wanted for the center, but I couldn't tell much difference and it was so much cheaper that I said let's get it. I opted for it, had it been up to my sweetie he would've thought the standard thing to do is get a 1 carat or at least .90, which was pretty darn expensive. I wanted a .80, but they had a .63 carat for $1,000 less and I couldn't tell much difference in size, so I picked that out. And it was a SI2, whereas the larger ring was an SI1. I just looked at a size chart online though, and that .63 looks a lot smaller than the .80! A friend told me the main thing women end up wishing is that they had gone larger with their diamond. I don't know, I think it will be fine, though. I really didn't want to break the bank on this, and it still cost a lot (I'm very frugal -- I told my guy he had better not dream of spending the two months pay DeBeers recommends).

I couldn't figure out how to insert an image here (I did see the button to insert a pic, but didn't know what to put between the image code). Anyhow, for anyone who's interested, here's the link to the pic:

http://www.washingtondiamond.com/StoreBox/3601/36-ru80.htm

I totally love it, and I'm not going to wonder anymore if I should've let sweetie get a bigger center stone after all. The one we got together is perfect. I can't wait to see it with the stone actually set in the band!

That's a very pretty setting, groovy!

Man, I am so ready to get married. 

ok i love that setting

also, those online size charts are not accurate at all as rings are cut so differently.....so even if you look at a 1 ct center on two different rings, they can look totally different (one larger than the other) if the cut is different.

all that matters is that YOU are happy!!!!!!  that's it.  size etc. who cares!!!!

we kinda did it your way....we went shopping and i tried some on with him having the final say in what he proposed with.

but i ended up going to see him before he had the ring in his hand, we went to paris (where he had planned on proposing), he sulked as he didn't have it and wanted to propse and i said 'ok let's plan the wedding now without the ring)

So i had my venue, photographer and florist booked before having the ring. A bit unconventional but i knew it was at the jewler in boston (and he was in london) and on the next trip to london it would be mine!!!!

Here is mine, i love rings! (ignore the scruffiness of it.....i don't clean it nearly as much as i used to.)

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Groovy-yank. The center stone is about a carat, but mine has just the smaller inlaid diamonds on the side--not the larger side diamonds. But very similar! I didn't have any specific thoughts about what size I wanted--this one just fit with the setting nicely. We got a really good price on it, and as I've mentioned above, it is a vintage diamond which also meant it was cheaper (I believe it was around $1,500 less than the modern cut he showed us of similar weight/clarity/color). I liked the vintage stone better, so that was icing on the cake for me! I'm very frugal as well, and I definitely didn't to break the bank on a ring.

You're ring looks beautiful! Looking forward to seeing it all together when you get it.

Sounds gorgeous...can't to see it all put together!

My ring finger is itching to have it on! And I should've taken a picture with my cell phone when the salesman rested the diamond in it, because now I can't recall exactly how the center stone looks with it. I'm a little nervous that I'll see it and think, why didn't I take the larger stone? I'm trying to get that out of my head as I know that I was never bent on having a big rock and I'll love the ring. And I know I don't want my guy to realize how totally (and probably annoyingly) indecisive I can be. I'm big on buying something, like clothes and shoes, and deciding how much I like it and if I want to keep it after I get home. I could do that with this rock, but my guy would probably think I was nuts and I'd have to go longer without the ring if I took it back to change. And I am so ready to have that ring on my finger!