Morning ladies!! So, BF and I went on our diamond district shopping excursion yesterday - so much fun looking at sparkly things!! I have to back-track a minute though . . .
Sunday night, BF's mom called me. He had told her we were going engagement ring shopping. Awesome. Until she tells me that she has this OTHER diamond/jewelry guy and that we just HAVE to check him out first. So I said sure. I'm all for getting a diamond discount because he's a family friend!! But then she said he wasn't open Mondays so we'd have to go see him another day. Right then and there I knew we wouldn't end up buying anything in LA. I knew BF would want to check out the other guy before buying someplace else. And, I was right.
Continuing on, so we drive out to LA and look in a lot of shop windows before going in the first place that we had on our list. Honestly, everything looks good under their sparkly lights!! But, we went to the first shop and they had a fantastic selection. I tried on a lot of different styles there but came back to that cushion-cut halo style that I posted a picture of the other day. So we narrowed it down to a couple options and decided to go in and look at the center diamond options. The girl who helped us was awesome. I had already done a lot of research online but she really walked us through what everything in diamond grading means and showed us a lot of options. We picked a diamond that would go well with the setting and I really liked it. I would have been fine with that one but we really wanted to look at some other stores first.
So, we went to the next place, recommended to me by a guy at work. They were a little smaller and I didn't think they'd have anything to beat the first ring. BF told her what we were looking for and she said, "I have just the thing." She proceeds to tell me they have their own line inspired by Harry Winston (proprietary so I couldn't take pics) and brings out this SPECTACULAR setting. BF and I both were a little open-mouthed-gawking at it. I'm not sure what it was but something about it was different from the first one and absolutely amazing. So then we started picking a center diamond and worked on bringing the total price down and I was starting to get really excited that maybe we would actually "order" the ring. But then (sad face), BF told the guy we wanted to look at one more place (it was on our list of recommended places) but that he thought he would be coming back there. They said they could hold the diamond for a couple days if he needed to make a decision.
Then we go to lunch, look in some other shops but didn't find anything remotely close to that second, amazing ring. So I asked him if we should go back to the shop and put a deposity down. Of course, he said no, that he wanted us to see his mom's guy first and that he wasn't ready to buy anything today. I know it's horrible but I got really upset. Last week we had an entire conversation about our expectations for the day and had agreed that we didn't necessarily need to buy anything but that if we found the perfect thing, we would leave buying as an option. Anyway, it wasn't really a great car ride home as I was upset and he was irritated. I WISH I hadn't been upset but I was so disappointed and sad. And feeling like it's-never-gonna-happen.
We talked more when we got home. He said I should go check out his mom's guy and see if he has anything I like or can get it. Then, if not, we would go back to the LA guy. Ugh. Honestly, I really don't think I'll find anything with the other guy since his mom said he doesn't have a huge selection. But, I'm gonna try to go see him tomorrow so at least we can move forward.
So, in the end, it was fun shopping. We really had a good time looking at everything and learning about the diamonds. I'm just let-down and bummed that we didn't purchase. *le sigh*