Just got engaged and a good experience with The Natural Sapphire Company

[vinkalmann]

My apologies in advance if this posting appears weird, I have a few pictures and couldn''t get more than one on at a time

Hi everyone, I wanted to start by saying thank you for all the good information that I found on your forum. It made a daunting process that much easier! There’s loads of good information on here and I wanted to thank everyone for taking the time to write it down. I’ve got to say, you all sure do love your gem stones. At first I was wondering how anyone could have 10,000 posts on gems, but now I get it

I wanted to share the great experience that I had with getting my fiancé’s engagement ring through The Natural Sapphire Company.

My fiancé and I had been talking about getting engaged a few months ago, or more accurately, she had been dropping really subtle little hints. I was really relived when she said that she either wanted a sapphire or an emerald since I’ve never really been into diamonds, too much strife associated with them and the whole diamond cartel business is a big turnoff. I went into all this knowing nothing about sapphires other than the inky looking stones that I would see around town in jewelry stores. From my research on this site, I knew that I wanted to get her something really special and started looking for reputable dealers that had natural, untreated stones. I found the Natural Sapphire Company website and went to work! After I read more on this site I found that there are a few more people I could have gone through, but to be honest I was pretty overwhelmed.

I really like the way the site has clear pictures of the stones from three angles (even more if the stone you’re looking at has a video associated with it), a full 3D rendering of the stone so you can see exactly how the stone is cut, and digitized images of the GRS grading report. Below is an example of the stone I ended up choosing as pictured on their site:

 

[vinkalmann]

I wasn’t originally planning on getting the setting through them, but I found one that I was interested in. I sent in a request through their online form asking for more information on the stone, the setting, and whether they had a picture of what the setting with a sapphire would look like. Presto! The next morning (I sent the request in at night) I had a response from Livia with all the information I requested! I loved that timely response.

 

[vinkalmann]

Note that it wasn’t just a sample image, it was the actual stone I was looking at. They have an in-house 3D artist that does mock-ups. This was just the first image, it gets better!

I have to be honest and say that I had no idea what a stone of a particular size looks like. I wanted to get something big enough, but not gaudy. The stone I was looking at was 1.8 carats and I didn’t know what that would look like on my fiancée’s small hands. What do I get when I asked what the NSC rep what she thought? The picture below, brilliant!

 

[vinkalmann]

Pretty much everything on their site is nice, but this particular stone had a high per-carat price compared to some of the other stones in the same carat range. I asked why this was and she explained that it’s because of the color, the clarity (IF) and that the color is evenly distributed across the stone. I admit that I double-checked on whether this is cause for a stone to cost more and it of course turned out to be true.

After thinking about it, and looking at the stone about a thousand times, I decided to go for it. At this point I was just certain that I wanted to see the stone, but wasn’t sure about the setting yet. I let her know that I was interested in the stone and wanted to see it in person. The Natural Sapphire Company has a policy where they ship you the stone and then you have five days after you receive it to examine it, appraise it or whatever you want to do. I think you actually have seven days, but five was enough. They put a hold on your credit card for the amount of the stone and send the stone to you overnight UPS with signature required. You pay for the shipping to you and the return shipping. This only applies to when you are trying the stone out, not to the shipping if you decide to purchase. They will send out multiple stones to you at the same time if there is more than one that you’re interested in. This was the only one I wanted to look at so I only had one sent out.

I looked at the stone for a couple of days and fell in love. I was never interested in this sort of thing before, but after seeing it in person I couldn’t stop looking at it . I then returned the stone again through overnight UPS. One nice thing is you don’t need to cover any insurance costs, that’s all taken care of on their end.
Once I sent the stone back, I agonized a bit more on the setting. I wanted it to be a surprise so I didn’t have the luxury of the guarantee that she would like it. Since the settings that they make are custom jobs you can’t just return them if it doesn’t go over well. They will, however, take the ring back and apply a credit towards another ring. The credit is based on the cost of the metal in the ring and you will basically have to pay for the labor costs of creating a new ring. Note that I don’t know the hard fast rule on this, so someone might want to double-check before purchasing.

I was really worried about whether the ring would fit. I stole one of my girlfriend’s rings to get an idea, but knew this wouldn’t necessarily be accurate. I was assured that they could resize it up or down (at no cost) to whatever it needed to be. Perfect, one less thing to stress about!

I already had the one picture of the stone in the setting but wanted to know whether there was any way to see what it would look like from the side. Livia let me know that she would request a 3D mockup of what I could expect. Literally the next day I got this:

 

[vinkalmann]

No guess work there, right? If you look at the original image (higher in the post) that she sent, it has the stone going East/West instead of North/South as above. I thought I liked it East/West more since it makes the ring look chunkier. I asked whether this was possible, and the next day got this:

 

[vinkalmann]

Perfect! I knew the second I saw it that this was the ring I wanted and let Livia know I wanted to go ahead with having the ring made. They charged my card for the cost of the stone and the setting and got started. Two weeks later the ring arrived and I couldn’t have been happier with the end result!

I proposed the following week and got a big “Yes!”. A very happy ending!

(sorry for the funny pic but she was REALLY excited)

 

[vinkalmann]

pic 7

 

[vinkalmann]

(side)

 

[vinkalmann]

The pictures don’t really do the stone justice. It has a variety of moods, from being sleepy in the evening to being nothing short of radiant in the sunlight. This thing is mesmerizing to look at. I really couldn’t have been any happier with how it all turned out. I was able to get her something really different and special.

In a day and age where it seems that everyone is out to get you when it comes to wedding related things, it was so refreshing to be dealing with The Natural Sapphire Company. Livia’s emails were timely, helpful and she always took the time to answer the questions that I was asking. A big thumbs up from me. We’ll definitely being going back when it comes time to purchase the wedding bands.

It goes without saying that I would recommend working with Livia if you get the chance. She can be reached by email at [email protected]. One final thing I wanted to add is that all the sales people (unless I’m mistaken) are Graduate Gemologists, so you’re dealing with someone that actually knows about the stones that you’re discussing.

I hope can be helpful to those just diving into this. I admit that it was really a lot of fun choosing the special stone and setting for my fiancé. I can imagine it isn’t this much fun for those choosing a diamond.

Update:

I actually wrote this in October, but didn’t get around to posting it because I didn’t know how to include images. Since then we sent the ring back to be sized down a half size. I had to pry the thing off her hand, she really didn’t want to give it up. It took a few days and we now have it back. They did a perfect job, you can’t tell at all that anything was done. I know it doesn’t matter that much, but I was worried that there would be a blemish where the sizing was done. It came back polished and beautiful. Note that I needed to pay for shipping there (overnight UPS), but the return shipping didn’t cost me anything (2 day FedEx).

I saw a post recently where someone was questioned on their recommendation for NSC because they had a low post count and I would guess this post might get the same treatment, but I hope it doesn’t. I’m just trying to help out some clueless bachelors like myself .

My thoughts after doing some more reading on this site is there are definitely cheaper places to get stones and settings, but I really valued the help that I got with the whole process. We’ll definitely be going back for the wedding bands. Now to start saving…

 

[FrekeChild]

I love that color blue! Beautiful!

 

[Kismet]

The ring is gorgeous! I love that blue. Love the picture of your fiancee.

 

[T L]

Congratulations on your engagement. Nice ring!

 

[LtlFirecracker]

Congrats! The sapphire is a lovely blue

 

[Fly Girl]

Beautiful sapphire, lovely ring, and congratulations on your engagement. Thanks for sharing your story and pictures.

 

[movie zombie]

well done and congrats on your engagement! i love the sleek lines of the setting. compliments the stone!

mz

 

[chrono]

Welcome to the CS section of PS and thank you for the well thought out written experience. I''m glad you found a lovely stone, setting and of course, the lady said YES! Some people value great service and I''m glad you felt comfortable and enjoyed the shopping experience at NSC. Your review will be very helpful for all future NSC customers.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

What a stunning blue! And that picture is fantastic beyond words, congrats!

 

[gingersnap]

Nice comprehensive review. I''m sure it will be very helpful!

Congrats on being engaged, and I must say you did a fabulous job. That blue is aboslutely unreal. Beautiful stone!

 

[Linda W]

Beautiful beautiful ring and congratulations. I love the color of the sapphire. I am also a big fan of NSC, they are wonderful to work with.

 

[luckynumber]

that ring looks like it fits your girl''s personality to a T!

well done!!!

 

[vinkalmann]

Thanks so much for the kind words everyone, I''m really excited!

Like I said in my post, I appreciate everyone''s efforts on this board, it really helped me when I went to purchase the stone .

It''s funny now that I''ve seen what a nice stone looks like in person, I want one of my own. I''m not about to get something like her engagement ring, but a band with stones is definitely not out of the question.

I was looking at this for me (blue sapphires and white sapphires):

 

[vinkalmann]

And this one for her. Do you think this will be durable enough not to worry about losing stones? The metal is platinum which I would think would help. I wanted the one without stones on the bottom since I thought I could bang it around a bit more and not worry. Thoughts?

 

[vinkalmann]

LOL...yes I managed to hit the nail on the head with the ring. I was SO nervous about whether she would like it, but knew that I was doing the right thing.

The funniest thing is the conversations that she has with her friends:

"Wow, nice ring! Who picked it out?

"Matt did."

"Wow, he''s got good taste."

It''s nice to get something right

 

[partgypsy]

Beautiful classy ring. You done well!!! It''s not a traditional solitare but totally works as one especially as you have a nice sturdy setting and durable stone so she can wear it. Congratulations!

 

[Arcadian]

Great ring! If she loved it then its a job well done indeed!

The wedding bands you picked out look very nice!

-A

 

[vinkalmann]

Thank you! It's funny, I didn't even know about Padparadscha sapphires until I saw your avatar a couple of months ago. I like those a lot, they seem like they'd be special.

 

[Linda W]

Date: 12/18/2009 3:02:32 PM
Author: vinkalmann
Thank you! It''s funny, I didn''t even know about Padparadscha sapphires until I saw your avatar a couple of months ago. I like those a lot, they seem like they''d be special.

They sure are. I was hooked on them, once I received my first one from NSC. They are so beautiful. I didn''t know about Padparadscha sapphires either, until I joined Pricescope. LOL.

 

[vinkalmann]

Date: 12/18/2009 3:20:36 PM
Author: Linda W

Date: 12/18/2009 3:02:32 PM

Author: vinkalmann

Thank you! It''s funny, I didn''t even know about Padparadscha sapphires until I saw your avatar a couple of months ago. I like those a lot, they seem like they''d be special.

They sure are. I was hooked on them, once I received my first one from NSC. They are so beautiful. I didn''t know about Padparadscha sapphires either, until I joined Pricescope. LOL.

I like the way that there seems to be a large variety in the colors pads seem to come in. It''s almost hard to qualify what color pads are. Not pink, not orange, almost another color entirely. I hope that makes sense...

I think I''m going to have to lay low on sapphire purchases for a while though

 

[oddoneout]

Lovely colour.

 

[Arkteia]

Congratulations! The stone looks amazing. I wanted to ask you about the origin of the stone. Maybe I have missed it. Also, is it a native cut? I do not know what you consider "high price", and of course I can not ask you how much you paid, but what do you consider a decent price per carat/per origin? Prices vary to the extreme with sapphires.