Choosing an engagement ring: where to start
Choosing an engagement ring can feel enormous. In truth it is a series of small questions, and none of them has a wrong answer: there is only yours. This guide offers pointers to help you decide, not rules.
Where do I start?
With the person, not the ring. How do they dress, what do they already wear, is their jewellery quiet or assertive, yellow, white or rose gold, silver? An engagement ring is worn every day: it should look like the person wearing it, not like a shop window. If you cannot quite put words on a taste, a short image test can reveal it better than any questionnaire: we recognise what we love before we know how to name it.
Should I settle the budget first?
A budget is not a confession, it is a frame that sets you free. There is no salary rule, whatever the legend says: a beautiful ring exists at every price, and the price of a piece turns mostly on the weight of the metal and the size of the stone. Deciding on a range early lets you choose calmly within it, rather than falling for a piece out of reach.
Which stone, and does it have to be a diamond?
The diamond remains the most common choice, for a hardness that stands up to a lifetime of everyday gestures. But nothing makes it compulsory: sapphires, rubies and emeralds carry other stories. At LAB IMAGINE, diamonds and coloured stones alike are laboratory-grown: real stones, always described as such. What matters is that a stone is named for what it is, and certified where it can be.
Which stone shape will suit them?
Round, oval, pear, cushion, marquise: the shape changes a ring’s character more than its value. A round is timeless, an oval lengthens, a pear makes a statement. No shape belongs to an occasion or to a hand: look at what they love, not at what is done.
How do I get the size right?
It is the most practical question and the easiest to solve: several reliable methods exist, and a mistake can be put right. Our ring size guide covers them, along with the pitfalls that skew a measurement.
What if no existing ring looks like them?
That happens more often than you would think, and it is exactly why LAB IMAGINE exists. You can create the ring yourself, made for you: describe it or compose it step by step, watch it come to life as an image, check that it can be made and know its price as you create. The house then makes it in our workshops in France, and delivers it worldwide within 6 to 8 weeks.