Wedding Ring Shopping...your opinions

I'll prob get something from http://www.zsdiamonds.com/wedding-rings.html as I got my engagement ring from there

We went to the jewellery quarter in bham a couple of weeks ago. Cant speak for smooch as never looked at them, but at independant shop in jewellery quarter the price was nearly half what some of the high street jewellers were. We had two platinum plain bands 3mm and 5mm for less than £600, we did even look at palladium which was around £300. All rings priced on weight and yes like you say the prices are rising very quickly! I dont know how much rings with diamonds were as I never looked.

We also went to the jewellery quarter and found them much cheaper than the high street. We found the independant jewellers much more flexible and prepared to negotiate.

Independent jewellers anyday! Cheaper than Smooch and the high street for our platinum bands.

I had to get a wr to fit a funny shape er, and after tons of searching found it in h samuel of all places. Tbh the independant jewellers were only as good as high street jewellers but alot more expensive imo. No experience on smooch though.

I have to change trains in Birmingham New Street in a couple of weeks, I might go a bit earlier and have a nosey

We also went to the Quarter for both my engagement ring and our wedding rings. The latter were £234 for both of them in palladium, 5mm and 3mm I think - cheaper than the high street and also if you are looking for palladium, we couldn't find many on the high street but there was lots of choice in the Quarter.

That is really good and probably cheaper than Hatton Garden (depending on what weight they were).

I would go to the jewellery quarter (or Hatton Garden for those closer to London than Birmingham). High street is always far more expensive. For Mr RB's 5mm platinum band, we were quoted over £2,000 from one high street shop! ?

? what the?!?>!?!

Independant jewellers everytime! Mines an antique but OH got his from an independant jewellers and a few of my friends who are gotting amrried used a small local family one, who dipped my engagement ring and they were fab, you seem to get loads better quality for your money with the independant ones! I didnt go to smooch but did see them at a wedding show and the guy right royally p****d me off refused to listen to what I wanted and basically told me I had to get either a shaped ring (which I hate) or get my engagement ring reset in a palladium band in a completely different style ring and then buy another palladium ring as WR and added unless of course you are sentimental about your ER, like that was a really bad thing! Well actually Mister I am sentimental about it and I love it and do not want in melting down into a completely different ring!! mororn!

Rant over, hope that helps!

Smooch was definitely cheaper, by hundreds, for a bespoke shaped ring to go around my ER with diamonds, and a thick white gold ring for OH at half the price with them.

Independant jeweller was a lot cheaper for my diamond band. We bought Mr K's plain platinum band from a jeweller on ebay and saved hundreds. Had it valued and then engraved by the independant jeweller

Definitely independent jeweller and not a chain, but be careful which one.

We wanted two plain bands, one bespoke shop in St Albans quoted us £1,300 for Mr C's 18ct yellow gold court shaped band, and £400 for a plain white gold band for me.

Our jeweller in Hatton Garden made both rings for less than the other price quoted for mine and polished up my engagement ring for free (which he also made!)

I can give you his number... he is lovely!!

I used Mrs C's jeweller and he was fab, our rings were completely bespoke and mine was handshaped and they came in at a grand total of £700. they are excellent quality. i would avoid smooch, I found them rude and I would never recommend them to anyone after the experience I had.

A few of us have used him. Karl Karter in Baldwin Gardens (near Hatton Garden). CB also went to him.

I can tell you here!!

www.karlkarter.com

Karl Karter London
16-16A Baldwins Gardens
London
EC1N 7RJ

020 8616 6992 ‎
**** 542

****@**********.***

Can be a little scatty but is lovely and excellent value for money...

Same here! I thought I was the only one!

We went with Bliss Rings in the end. Lovely service and they were cheaper.

I had my plain band shaped around my ER for a bargain price, my OH had his 8mm Band designed too.

Flow, if you are going to do the home visit thing, can I strongly suggest calling Bliss Rings too, they do free gifts too!

I have seen the shape that I want on weddingringsdirect, but will go and see Karl in Hatton Garden to compare prices

I would also recommend independent jewellers, they were much cheaper than Smooch and we are getting more for our money.

I would recommend an independent jeweller every time. I have no desire to step into a high street shop and buy a ring that plenty of other people can also buy - thats my personal opinion. Don't get me wrong, for earrings, watches etc I think they can be great but I knew when it came to my engagement ring that I wanted a one off, something special, and we spent a few good months trawling the independant jewellers far and wide until we found the ring I had always dreamed of.

High street jewellers will severely mark up their prices because they have overheads to pay for such as their factories, staff and all the upkeep and maintenance of their other stores around the country. You have to bear in mind when you buy a ring from H. Samuel, Ernest Jones etc you aren't just paying for the ring, you are also paying for all that as well in the price so you will never get a ring valued at more than you paid for it.

I have heard so many stories from people I know who have had bad service from a high street jeweller, mistakes happening and jewellery being sent away for weeks on end. I have never found this with an independant jeweller and I would take their advice and years of experience anytime over a high street jeweller.

We got ours from Quality Diamonds in MK. Lots cheaper than the prices quoted by high street stores and the quality is very good.

Me 3!

The service from Smooch was awful- we found ours in an independant shop and they were much better for a cheaper price.

PLUS Flow- if you buy it now you can sneak it on whilst S MrFlow is out of the house and gaze at it in a fluffy way (I of course never do this)

Pah! posted to wrong thread and it won't let me delete!!

Please ignore

Mine is from a small jewellers in town- im havin a clogau gold white gold ring and that was £280 but am using my grandad's ring to be re-made into a wedding ring for chief and that costs an extra £100 - we did look high st but we preferred the small business in town

Sorry again I have no experience of Smooch. I got my ER & WR from jewellery quarter. Crazy place & mix of master jewellers who make on site & a couple are essentially high street making a big profit. I got my engagement ring for over less than half what the insurance value is for it & we went to J Lynall's for wedding rings, they were great & have so many fab designs, my WR is stunning ( if i do say so myself!) diamonds & has a twist in the top which meets my ER perfectly. You should be able to pay in installments too in shops in JQ too so that may help you!?

I just thought I should let you know that since my post on this thread yesterday, I am having a disagreement with Karl Karter at the moment. Without going into too much detail, I had my ring valued for insurance purposes elsewhere and the valuation I received suggested that less materials were used in my ring than I was led to believe.

As you might expect, I brought this up with Karl and questioned it as I was concerned that I might have paid more than I should. Since posting yesterday I received a pretty rude response.

Gosh! That really does surprise me... hope you get it sorted out.

I was really surprised too given what our previous correspondence was like (very polite). I was extremely surprised to have received such a rude response.

Our Smooch experience wasn't great either, the rep was very pushy and in the end we had to practically force him out of the door! We then went for a wander round the high street and found rings pretty much identical to the ones we'd seen through Smooch for much much cheaper prices - mine is from Goldsmiths and Mr Spoon's is H Samuel.