Finding the perfect Ring: Engagement Buying Guide
Should I involve my partner?
Although there’s nothing that compares to old school romance, the reality is that these days it’s more common to include your partner in the bespoke engagement ring experience. This is reflective of the shift from people wanting very simple solitaire engagement rings to people wanting something more unique and reflective of their individuality.
If you are buying an engagement ring for your partner and they're not involved it's helpful if you do a little research into what style of engagement ring they would like. Questions that we might ask include:
- The metal colour they like to wear; yellow, white, rose gold or platinum.
- Do they prefer diamonds or coloured stones
- Is their style classic and conservative or do they like to be more unique?
- Do they tend towards delicate feminine styles or more bold, chunky, androgynous styles?
Know your budget
Knowing your budget before you arrive at your appointment is very helpful and makes the time spent in the appointment more personalised to your needs as we can guide you towards options. Different designs will have different starting prices based on the cost to make them.
The type and size of gemstone or diamond will play a big part in the overall quoted price for the ring. If we don’t have an idea of your budget before the appointment it makes it really difficult for us to guide you through the options and the appointment is not as effective.
Choose a design and metal
Sometimes people will have an idea of the design that they want before the appointment and sometimes they won't. Being able to visit our Showroom and try on the designs makes it easy to work out which style feels right for you. If you’re really not sure, we have a wide range of beautiful rings in our collection that you can propose with and return in their original condition for a credit within 14 days.
Regarding the metal choice, often people will want to stick with the metal colour that they already wear. The three options are 18 karat yellow, 18 karat rose gold and 18 karat white gold or platinum. Trends are always changing so we encourage customers to choose the metal colour that they feel best suits their skin tone and the gemstone they choose.
Choose a centre stone
As with choosing a design, choosing a gemstone is normally an instinctual choice that comes from within. We have all the options in our showroom for you to see and try. Normally people will gravitate towards a particular stone naturally. People tend to lean towards either a diamond or coloured gemstone and either rounded or more geometric shaped stone.
ANTIQUE & MODERN DIAMONDS
All of our diamonds are meticulously hand selected by founder, Hamish Whiting (GIA Gemologist, HRD Antwerp Diamond Grader). With 20 years of experience in buying diamonds, Hamish has developed a buying strategy that secures for our customers the top performing and best value diamonds in the world.
UNDERSTANDING THE 4 C'S
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CUT
Cut refers to the angles, proportions and symmetry of a diamond, which determine how a diamond’s facets interact with light, giving brightness, scintillation and fire.
CLARITY
Clarity refers to the level of visibility of natural inclusions within the diamond. Whether they can be seen by the naked eye, or whether they require magnification. The less visible the inclusions are the more rare the diamond.
COLOUR
Colour refers to the level of natural colour or lack of colour visible in a diamond based on the GIA colour scale from D - Z, with D - E being colourless and most rare.
CARAT
Carat refers to the unit of measurement used to describe the weight of a diamond, with 1 carat translating to 0.2 grams. The higher the carat weight the more rare the diamond.
PRECIOUS COLOURED GEMSTONES
At Cushla Whiting all of our coloured gemstones are sourced directly by our inhouse Gemologist Hamish Whiting. Whilst we recommend only sapphires for engagement pieces due to their durability for daily wear, we also have in our collection rare and high quality Muzo emeralds, tourmaline, garnet and spinel. These softer gemstones come in a range of incredibly unique colours and are wonderful options for fine jewellery pieces.
Ring size
If you're organising the engagement ring without your partner knowing, we will need to make our best effort to get the ring size as close as possible.
- If your partner has a ring that they wear on either of their two ring fingers that you can sneak and use to size on our printable ring sizing sheet.
- If there is no ring to sneak we can see if there is a family member like a sister who has a similar size who can help us ascertain the size
- We can also help you guess the size if you can send us a few photos of your partner.
HAND CRAFTED
Our jewellers workshop is located onsite in our Melbourne flagship Showroom giving us full control and oversight of the crafting of our rings. Our team of jewellers and setters are highly experienced masters of their craft using a combination of hand making techniques and top quality cad design, casting and handcrafting.
All of our precious metals are ethically sourced from an Australian gold supplier and accredited member of the Responsible Jewellery Council. All scrap metal is recycled and reused in our workshop with no waste.
Warranty and Insurance
In addition to the legislative protections provided to consumers under Australian Consumer Law, Cushla Whiting offers a voluntary 1 year jewellers warranty against manufacturing defects on all of our jewelery. The warranty does not cover damage to jewellery that has been handled in contravention to our care instructions or damaged by accident. It also excludes any jewellery where unapproved modifications have been made to the piece by an external jeweller.
To protect yourself against loss or damage to your jewelery we highly recommend investigating insurance for your piece. For more information on this please contact our team.
SHIPPING (DOMESTIC & INTL.)
We offer complimentary, insured international and domestic shipping for all of our pieces over A$500 in value so you can have peace of mind.
International customers will not be charged the Australian GST sales tax but their import will be subject to any relevant import duties and taxes on arrival into their state/country.
AFTERCARE
When you pick up your jewellery one of our team will run you through the care instructions on how to care for your jewelery. Our aftercare service includes a complimentary clean and professional assessment of your ring biannually. Jewellery that is regularly checked and well maintained will protect against issues or problems arising from wear and tear.
TIME TO PROPOSE
We love being a part of your engagement story. One of the most beautiful parts of what we do is hearing your story, sharing in your story and creating a piece of jewellery to symbolise the love and commitment that reflects you as a couple.
At CUSHLA WHITING our relationship with our customers doesn’t end at the creation of their engagement ring. Customers return to enjoy the experience again for their wedding rings and then again to mark future life milestones.
