Congratulations! You’ve decided that you want to spend the rest of your life with your special someone.  Now comes the moment for you to pick out a diamond engagement ring.  This can be almost as difficult as deciding how to pop the question, especially for those men who are clueless about jewelry, and those women who have trouble making a decision!

What’s more, online diamond and diamond jewelry retailers are popping up like daisies online and they are making it faster, easier and cheaper to find diamond jewelry at great prices. They have huge inventories of diamonds that you can scroll through online.  The information about each diamond and each setting is at your finger tips, giving you, the consumer, more control over what you buy, but also giving you lots more information to sift through.

To help you navigate your way through these diamond inventories and ring-building tools, I’ve compiled a list of tips on how to build your perfect diamond engagement ring online.

  

Tip #1: Window Shop. Look at different styles of settings, shapes of diamonds, and kinds of metals to get an idea of what kind of ring you want. Are you looking for something vintage style? Are you more concerned about the diamond? Is your heart set on a platinum band?    
 Tip #2: Compare Retailers. Look for review sites that review the biggest and best online diamond retailers.  Try to

take a look at Excel Diamond reviews  or Blue Nile reviews.  By reading reviews of an online retailer, you can get an idea of general customer satisfaction, price range, and store policy.  If, for example, you find that most Excel Diamond reviews, are happy with the store’s diamond inventory and setting selection, but are unhappy with their return policy, then you might want to reconsider buying from their website. 

Tip#3: Choose a Starting Point. Most online diamond jeweler retailers offer you the option of starting your ring-building by selecting a setting or selecting a diamond 

Start with a Diamond! If you know that you are a princess cut kinda girl, if you are simply obsessed with marquise cut diamonds, or if you are dead set on a 1 carat diamond in your engagement ring, then you should definitely start with a diamond.  I recommend outlining your diamond budget first to narrow your diamond list, and then narrowing the list to a shape.  Then you can keep narrowing by carat weight, cut grade, clarity grade, etc.