Engagement Rings
Buying your own stones

Buying your own stones for a unique engagement ring can be a wonderfully romantic thing to do, but beware as there are many pitfalls along the way!

Price
It's generally assumed that buying precious stones abroad can save money - this is not often the case. During our travels, we have seen unsuspecting couples being charged what they think to be a bargain price for a gemstone which is in fact much more than our stone dealers would be charging in the UK. This is especially true in tourist centres throughout the world.

The same is true of many internet sites that claim to be able to offer better prices because you are "buying direct". Again, in our experience, these prices are not generally better than you would expect to pay from us and are just marketed as being so!

Remember, if you buy from us, not only are you going to get the best possible price, but also the benefit of our experience and knowledge in finding the perfect stone to match your budget.

Quality and fakes
We have had many people through our doors with stones that have been sold to them as one thing but are in fact another. Even reputable sources will often get it wrong and we have seen first hand, in the far east, what appear to be "official government" shops selling stones which aren't correctly identified.

Setting customer's own stones
Harriet is always willing to set customer's own stones in their engagement rings, although, in common with other jewellers, this is done at the customer's own risk. Quite a lot of pressure has to be applied to a stone during the setting process and there is always a risk of damage. Although this has never happened to us, it may do one day!

Conflict Diamonds
We have put a considerable amount of effort into guaranteeing that our stones are conflict free. We are one of only 66 worldwide members of the Council for Responsible Jewellery Practices and together with them, the British Jeweller's Association and our stone dealers, are working extremely hard to ensure that no conflict diamonds are used in jewellery.
Part of this commitment is that we are not prepared to work with customer's own diamonds, that have been sourced by them, that do not have adequate guarantees that they are conflict free. We are, however, prepared to remove and reuse stones from old jewellery where it is impossible to know one way or the other because the stone was purchased before the Kimberley Process was introduced.
Visit our conflict diamonds section >

Of course it is entirely your choice, but we would always recommend that we source the stones for your engagement ring. It is more than likely that we can find you a better quality stone at a more competitive price than you would be able to yourself and we are always happy to source a selection for you to choose from.