...one of the more enjoyable experiences in wedding planning. It was a lovely almost-spring Saturday as we hurried to Central London. Our first stop was Old Bond Street followed by Regent Street and Hattons Gardens.
De Beers (South African)
This was our first stop for the day. One thing I really liked about De Beers is the store itself! I really like the set up and the atmosphere; lots of space and great display counters, which made viewing all the more enjoyable. The service was polite and sufficiently pleasant. For the ladies, it's definitely a place to go if you want to have loads of diamonds on your wedding band! Plus, De Beers has an interesting trademark: inside the band of each De Beers ring, there's a little diamond. We tried on a few rings and here are our favourites.
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| HERS - Platinum band set with three round brilliant diamonds, 2.5mm wide. Colour grade G+, clarity grade VS+. Total carat weight 0.06. Definitely the type of style I like! Neither bling-y nor plain. Forgot to ask how much it was though. |
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HIS - The platinum Fused Lines Band, streamlined and contemporary, 5mm in width. Asking price was £1,050. |
We went into two Cartier stores and we much preferred the service at the Old Bond Street store. Why? Well for starters, we were served by a lovely French gentleman, Gerard Thiriet who was not only extremely friendly but he was attentive and gave us tips on how to care for our rings. He was attentive and humourous. Most importantly, we had a great experience looking at rings and didn't feel rushed or pressured to buy. The service at the New Bond Street store was poor. The person who served us actually told us it didn't really matter if the ring was a 3mm or 4mm band and I was flabbergasted at his cheek! We are paying customers and surely if we have a question, it was his duty to answer that question. Anyway, our favourites were the ones below.
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| HERS - Platinum wedding band set with a diamond, 2.6mm wide. Asking price was £925. |
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| HIS - Platinum wedding band engraved with Cartier's signature, 3mm wide. The squarish style suited my Fiancé very well. Strangely enough, the elegant finishing of the ring made it look a little wider than other 3mm wide rings. Asking price was £1,275. |
Tiffany (American)
I've always been less than impressed each time I've gone into Tiffany's. I admit the brand team at Tiffany's has done an amazing job. The "blue box" has come to signify the ultimate romantic proposal (cue the scene in where Reese Witherspoon (acting as Melanie Smoother) gets proposed to in Sweet Home Alabama) but honestly, the customer service is sub par at best. Maybe this is an American thing! Here were our picks from Tiffany's.
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HERS - Elsa Peretti platinum band with one diamond, 2.75mm. 0.02 carats. Diamond colour is G, clarity is VS2. Asking price £890. |
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| HIS - Platinum flat band 4mm. Asking price £1,175. Very nice width for his finger but the finish was extremely shiny. |
Bvlgari (Italian)
I thought the layout of this Italian jeweller on Old Bond Street was quite old-fashioned, but the service was good. What I liked about it the most? Well, in a lot of the stores that I went into, you would have to stand and look through the displays whereas here, Marina Barca who served us, sat us down and took a selection of rings out for closer inspection. It felt more personalised and relaxed. He didn't find anything he liked but I found a ring that I thought was quite lovely, similar to the styles above but with more diamonds!
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| White gold band with 7 diamonds, 3mm. This can be made in platinum as well. The diamonds are not as high quality as the others above (when we enquired, Marina said that the diamonds are E-H in colour, SI-SI2 in clarity) |
As you probably know, my dearest Fiancé bought my ring from a US website called White Flash. Also, he bought my ring a size larger than my actual size, which is a UK size I, EU size 47 and US size 4.5 (gosh! so many different ways to measure the ring size). As a result I've been wearing my engagement ring on my third finger since the Proposal. If you want to read more about my engagement ring, click here. Anyway, it was high time to get it resized (I am sick and tired of people coming up to me and asking me two things: "Are you having problems with you Fiance? Is that why you're wearing your ring on the wrong fingers?" to "Do you know you're wearing your ring on the wrong finger?") and we were planning to do so at Hatton Gardens.
The lovely Gerard Thiriet, who attended to us in Cartier, suggested Mappin & Webb on Regent Street. Gerard echoed our concerns about the reputation of the jeweller, the quality of the resizing (if they do a shoddy job, your band may look worse off) and of course the safety of your rock (heaven forbid they swap it for an inferior one). As this UK-based jeweller is well established, there is a lower risk of rock-swapping. I must say I was very impressed with the polite and professional service. Arte, a lovely lady who assisted us, informed us that if we brought in our certificate, she would take down the serial number and confirm that through a microscope (it has been quite a feat trying to find the watermark of the serial number on the rock. We would then leave (SCARY!) the ring with them for not more than a week. As I'm going a whole size down, they would have to cut the platinum band and resolder it. The charge was £70, which I thought was very reasonable. Plus, the ring would be cleaned and polished as well.
We then nosey-ed around Mappin & Webb looking at wedding rings and we actually found a pair of plain MATCHING rings that looked alright on both of us! Miracle! However, we were quite surprised how expensive the rings were compared to the other jewellers. Their platinum flat band suited both our fingers, mine 2.5mm would cost £950 whilst his 4mm would cost £1,795. Unfortunately (or fortunately), my other half thought my finger looked very bare when I wore one without diamonds.(secret yay!)
Marina recommended two with loads of bling-y diamonds that I tried on for fun. We were surprised at how pretty it looked! But decided it's too pricey and not practical for an everyday wedding band. I'm always paranoid about the rocks falling out, especially since I'm not exactly the most careful and graceful of girls. I couldn't find a good photo to show you but it would look something like this:
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| Platinum half eternity ring, brilliant cut diamonds. Picture is shown as illustration only. Diamonds are not as large as shown! Mappin & Webb asking price for 0.16 carats £1,450 (but £795 with white gold). |
It was quite late by the time we got to Hatton Gardens, so we only visited two stores:
Hirsch London (UK)
This was one of the stores that was packed with couples looking for engagement and wedding rings. We went in and had a quick browse through (over and under elbows and shoulders of other couples). The prices were quite reasonable although the variety of designs was quite limited. We also enquired about the cost of resizing rings - £75.00. The main selling point for Hirsch is the engagement rings which are all handmade in platinum. Best to avoid this store if you're short on time as the range of wedding bands is quite limited.
Dynasty Jewels (UK)
I was attended by the Manager, Sarah Downham, who was very attentive and helpful. We were quoted £900 for a heavy weight 2.2mm platinum court wedding band for me and £855 for a 4mm platinum soft court for him. This was in addition to a complimentary resizing of my engagement ring as well as a clean and polish before our wedding in December! The ring resize would normally cost £55.
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| HERS - Platinum slight D-shaped court wedding band, 2.2mm. Asking price £900. |
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| HIS - Platinum flat court wedding band, 4mm. Asking price £855. |
All in all, Hatton Gardens is a good bet if you're tight on your budget but be wary of the finishing of the wedding bands as we did see some shoddy workmanship. My favourite for great service goes to Cartier.
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