Newbie Needing E-ring Advice Please

[talamasca]

Hi, I'm based in the UK but can't find any decent UK forums so I'm really hoping someone here can help in my search for an engagement ring.

I have seen a ring I really love, an oval pink sapphire with 2 trilliant cut diamonds to each side, but was put off by an indentation/chip (I don't have any gemstone or jewellery knowledge, so please forgive me if I use the wrong terms) on the outside of the sapphire and since it's in a shop hundreds of miles away I can't just bob in to try it on. So we decided to book a free consultation with a high street Jewellers, but I would love to go in there knowing what I'm talking about as I have a feeling we could end up paying way more than we should and we're on a limited budget!

The ring I'd like would be a 1.50-2.00 carat oval cut pink gemstone with a clear trilliant cut gemstone on each side set in 9 or 18 carat white gold. Does anyone know what sort of price I should be paying, obviously it would depend on the gemstones used but again I'm not sure how much we should be paying for them either as I'm not particularly bothered what type of gemstone it is, just the colour and sparkliness of it!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Steph

 

[Pandora II]

Hi, I'm based in the UK but can't find any decent UK forums so I'm really hoping someone here can help in my search for an engagement ring.

I have seen a ring I really love, an oval pink sapphire with 2 trilliant cut diamonds to each side, but was put off by an indentation/chip (I don't have any gemstone or jewellery knowledge, so please forgive me if I use the wrong terms) on the outside of the sapphire and since it's in a shop hundreds of miles away I can't just bob in to try it on. So we decided to book a free consultation with a high street Jewellers, but I would love to go in there knowing what I'm talking about as I have a feeling we could end up paying way more than we should and we're on a limited budget!

The ring I'd like would be a 1.50-2.00 carat oval cut pink gemstone with a clear trilliant cut gemstone on each side set in 9 or 18 carat white gold. Does anyone know what sort of price I should be paying, obviously it would depend on the gemstones used but again I'm not sure how much we should be paying for them either as I'm not particularly bothered what type of gemstone it is, just the colour and sparkliness of it!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks, Steph

Hi, I'm also in the UK (London), where are you based?

Price isn't something we could say here as so much depends on what the stone is, what quality it is, if it's treated/heated etc.

Honestly, I wouldn't go anywhere near a high street jeweller in the UK. The quality is pretty dire, most of the sales people know bugger all about what they are selling and the prices are extortionate.

Do you have a ballpark budget? I would suggest that you look at pink sapphires as they are both hard and tough, or even a pink spinel. I can suggest coloured stone dealers here in the UK (they are London based but could email you pictures etc) and people who can do custom settings at reasonable prices or there are many, many top class dealers here on Pricescope most of whom are based in the USA. Many of us in the UK have bought stones and jewellery from overseas and from many of the vendors here and had them imported, it's very easy and very safe.

Not only that but we can all help you choose a great stone!

Please do not just buy whatever the local high-street chain has on hand as you will massively overpay and probably get a poor quality stone.

 

[maebelle]

Haha, so what you want is Elle Wood's engagement ring from Legally Blonde 2: It was designed with Reese witherspoon's input by Harry Winston.



I have no advice for shopping in UK, this image just pulled up in my mind as you described your ring. I myself would love it, if you changed the pink sapphire to blue. Definitely go the route of buying a separate gem and then designing the ring around it!

 

[talamasca]

Hi Pandora,

I'm based in Leeds. I've just spent all afternoon trawling through the coloured e-ring thread and there are some gorgeous stones, particularly the pink spinels!

My budget is £850 max for everything - is this too little???

I'm also wondering whether I should switch from an oval shape to something sparklier as a lot of the loose oval shaped stones I've seen seem to have very flat fronts to them and don't sparkle???

 

[talamasca]

Hi Maebelle, yep that's the style I like, at least it was until I went nosing through the coloured e-ring thread!!!

 

[maebelle]

Now don't discount ovals just because some look flat, a "Portuguese" or supernova oval can be very sparkly! I do think that rounds have a more engagement-y

http://www.gemfix.com/sapphire_pink.html - top row in the middle - just one example

 

[packrat]

Supernova ovals are spectacular, if that's the shape you like. I have 3 of them and they're gorgeous.

 

[Pandora II]

Hi Pandora,

I'm based in Leeds. I've just spent all afternoon trawling through the coloured e-ring thread and there are some gorgeous stones, particularly the pink spinels!

My budget is £850 max for everything - is this too little???

I'm also wondering whether I should switch from an oval shape to something sparklier as a lot of the loose oval shaped stones I've seen seem to have very flat fronts to them and don't sparkle???

I would definitely stick with an oval (or a cushion) as they are by far the commonest shape for coloured stones. I would guess that you have mainly seen poorly cut stones where only they edges show any sparkle.

You won't get sparkle with a coloured stone like you will with a diamond (except for a few that aren't really suitable for more than very occasional wear).

With your budget, I doubt we will find a pink sapphire (the colour you like is premium price) in 2ct, 1ct maybe... otherwise we could look at pink spinels, tourmalines and garnets. I would also be careful about going too big on the centre-stone as you want the proportions to look right with the side-stones. For those in the USA, we're working with a $1k budget allowing for 20% VAT and 2.5% import duty.

I would go for 18kt gold over 9kt any day and it won't make that much difference to the price.

I don't recommend anyone wearing an e-ring 24/7 and with coloured stones that is even more important. I have a garnet in my e-ring but I only wear it when I go out. They're reasonably tough but it's not worth the risk to me of taking chances while doing housework etc. Plus it can be easy to damage a setting by sleeping in it etc.

So, does anyone have a ballpark on a setting with trilliant diamond sidestones in 18kt wg? Could we get a mahenge in this budget?

 

[wakingdreams53]

I have nothing productive to add to your search, however I absolutely love your username! Good luck finding your e-ring stone and setting. Pricescope is a great source of knowledge and knowledgeable people!

 

[talamasca]

I have nothing productive to add to your search, however I absolutely love your username! Good luck finding your e-ring stone and setting. Pricescope is a great source of knowledge and knowledgeable people!

thanks, it's from one of my fav books The Witching Hour!

 

[talamasca]

Now don't discount ovals just because some look flat, a "Portuguese" or supernova oval can be very sparkly! I do think that rounds have a more engagement-y

http://www.gemfix.com/sapphire_pink.html - top row in the middle - just one example

Oooo very pretty! Think i'll stick to the ovals then.

 

[talamasca]

With your budget, I doubt we will find a pink sapphire (the colour you like is premium price) in 2ct, 1ct maybe... otherwise we could look at pink spinels, tourmalines and garnets. I would also be careful about going too big on the centre-stone as you want the proportions to look right with the side-stones. For those in the USA, we're working with a $1k budget allowing for 20% VAT and 2.5% import duty.

So, does anyone have a ballpark on a setting with trilliant diamond sidestones in 18kt wg? Could we get a mahenge in this budget?

Some of the pink spinels, tourmalines and garnets I've seen on here are simply gorgeous and I definitely wouldn't complain about having one of them, especially a supernova/portugese oval cut one!

I tried on a 1.50 carat emerald cut amethyst at the weekend and whilst the colour and cut wasn't to my taste, the size suited my finger so I would love something about this size with the trilliants more of a decoration to the shoulder rather than competing for attention with the centre stone.

I hardly slept last night thinking about colour, cut, size, etc and I'm so excited at the prospect of having a ring made! Should I start looking at websites for what I want or would I be best contacting one person in particular and asking them to cut a stone for me???

When it comes to the ring and diamonds how would I go about getting the centre stone to the Jeweller? Does everyone just use the post???

Sorry for all the questions, but my head is spinning at the moment and thank you for all the help so far.

ETA: I absolutely love Babyblue's umbalite garnet and the halo, but I bet this is out of my price range!

My new baby

ETA again: and this stone and setting:

Imperial Malaya Garnet 2.18 ct and 7.5 mm. This stone is so amazing in real life and it is a shame that none of the photos come even close. It is a color shifter that goes from a straight pink in indirect natural light to pink with red flashes under fluorescent lighting and a peachy pink in bright sunlight.

 

[talamasca]

In fact faced with all these lovely stones and different settings, I'm at a loss at to what I do want now!

How do you decide what style will suit if you're having a ring made and therefore can't try it on?

 

[talamasca]

Just wondered, am I able to post a pic of the ring I was thinking of buying to get an opinion on the stone - obviously I don't own the stone and didn't take the pictures so not sure about copyright, etc?

 

[talamasca]

Now don't discount ovals just because some look flat, a "Portuguese" or supernova oval can be very sparkly! I do think that rounds have a more engagement-y

http://www.gemfix.com/sapphire_pink.html - top row in the middle - just one example

Very pretty. I really like this stone too and probably more in my budget?? 5th row down, right-hand side:

http://www.gemfix.com/tourmaline_red_pink.html

and 5th row down, left-hand side:

http://www.gemfix.com/spinel.html

How are you meant to pick just one

 

[maebelle]

I love that pink spinel (5th row down, left-hand side) The size is good too. I think Gemfix is on vacation until 17th, so you'll have to wait until then to inquire about anything there.

Also, you can post the stone, as long as the picture doesn't have the name of the company on it.

 

[MakingTheGrade]

Carat weight and size are actualy two different things, a 1.5 amythest will be larger than a 1.5 sapphire for example, so it's usually best to tell a jeweler the size of stone you want in terms of mm.

I love garnets! The umbalite you posted is fantastic, and garnets as a whole are not terribly expensive, but they also aren't terribly durable either. You can ask Pandora, she takes very good care of hers. It's not really a ring you can mindlessly work and sleep in if you know what I mean.

I think for that reason many people choose diamonds, corundum, or spinel.

 

[talamasca]

This is the ring I was going to buy, but I have definitely decided to buy my own gem and have it set and I'm going to contact some local jewellers today to see about cost. Do jewellers usually offer some sort of insurance in case they lose or damage your stone?

I really loved the ring until I saw it on someone's hand and the colour just doesn't seem to sparkle any more, but may be that's because it's set into an enclosed setting???






I really like this sort of setting/mounting - are these these same thing? Does this one have a particular name?


*Photo from Google*

 

[LD]

I'm in the UK also - not too far away from you!

In answer to your question about insurance ......... if you provide the stone and setting then you're probably not insured against loss or damage by the jeweller. It's probably only going to cost between £20-40 to have a stone set in a setting and there is one place I can recommend but you'd have to send off the stone/setting to them (by special delivery) and they send it back the same way.

In terms of gemstones, have a look at all the regular websites mentioned on here including the Ebay seller gemburionline and odysseygems (owned by the same person). Tan (the owner) has a great selection of stones and they are very fairly priced. He can even send off to a lab for a report so you're assured of getting what he says!

In terms of setting, the one you've picked is actually quite an expensive one and I've never seen it available to buy "off the shelf" so to speak. I had one made in a very similar design but to fit the size of my stones.

Always get the stones first and then think about the setting. When looking at the setting try to get one that's as near to a calibrated size as possible i.e., 8x6, 6x4, 10x8, 9x7 etc. Typically a slight variance of a few .mm either way will be okay but anything more and you may be in trouble! Don't forget to think about the depth of the stone also.

So my advice is:-

1. Get the central stone first.
2. Decide the size of the side stones and then try to find them - this may be more difficult than you think if you're (a) set on diamonds - costly and (b) finding a matching pair in an exact size.
3. Find a setting. Many of us buy from an ebay seller called lanbo or Lordofgemrings (LOGR for short). They have ready made mounts and if you upgrade the diamonds they are very good quality. Do a search on this forum to see the range of settings. You'll be surprised at the number you'll find.
4. Once you've got it all together send it away for setting!

If you're flexible on side stones then your budget is most definitely do-able!

Good luck!

 

[talamasca]

Thanks for the advice LovingDiamonds. I've sent a message to LOGR asking for a quote for the ring setting I like with the trilliant cut diamonds so fingers crossed they can do it and it will be within my price range and if it is then there's 2 stones I'm trying to chose between at the mo, but I will check out some other websites before rushing in to anything. Trying to pick colour and size without seeing them in person is more difficult than I imagined!

Would white sapphires be an idea for the 2 trilliant side stones??

I'd love the details of where you've sent you stone and setting to before. I'm off on Sat to ask a local jeweller about their costs but knowing it shouldn't be more than £50 helps a lot and for a laugh I'm still off to the high street jeweller's design event next Wed!

ETA: If I were to upgrade diamonds on LOGR what would they upgrade to and do you know how much extra would it cost?

 

[LD]

There is a jewellers in the Birmingham jewellery quarter called Stanleys. I have a friend who owns a jewellers there and he said that Stanley's benchman is one of the best in the business! They will happily quote on the phone if you send them pictures BUT be warned that like all jewellers the quote may not be accurate if, when they see the setting/stone, there is a size variance and it becomes an incredibly problematic job!

I believe they also make settings BUT I've never used them for that and so can't vouch for their work or the costs they charge. I know others who have been happy but I do not have first hand experience of them for that and I am very fussy!

http://www.stanleysjewellers.co.uk/aboutus.asp

Just as an aside, have you asked LOGR to make the setting you linked to? I don't think it's one they make is it? Or have I misunderstood and you've emailed them about one of their settings?????

 

[Pandora II]

Insurance - You take the risk, the jeweller will not cover the cost of the stone if it gets chipped, breaks etc while it's being set - unless they have supplied the stone as well in which case their own insurance covers it 9 times out of 10 (always ask). I have a feeling TH March in the UK who are specialist insurers for jewellery and the jewellery industry will cover loose stones.

Otherwise, I would a) try and get the vendor of the stone to do the setting if they offer such a service, or b) have the stone prong set in a really cheap setting (literally enough to stop the stone from falling out if you pick it up and no more), insure the ring and then have it reset as that will be covered by your insurance (I have my rings as a rider on my household insurance).

If you source the stone overseas then I would think it works out a bit cheaper to have the setting done there too. Get some quotes...

Okay, here follows the 'Pandora's Wearing a Garnet E-Ring PSA/Lecture TM':

- Garnets are rocks, they come out of the ground, they have often been rolled around in riverbeds for eons. They are not made of glass.

- Garnets do not have cleavage, they are reasonably tough and, other than demantoid, they are a 7 or over on the Mohs. The Mohs Scale merely indicates the resistance to scratches, it has nothing to do with how tough or otherwise a stone is. Diamonds are the hardest material known to man but they are nowhere near the toughest material known to man - jadeite which scratches easily is tougher than diamond.

- If you are not careful with your garnet ring then it is liable to acquire small chips and scratches. You can have these polished out from time to time - if you can find a reputable lapidary and if you are happy to potentially loose a bit of weight.

- Careful, for me, means not wearing your rings while you:
- do the housework, this includes washing the dishes: household cleaning products can spectacularly ruin gemstones - dip a peridot in Cilit Bang for 10 seconds and it will loose all the polish and start pitting.
- carry heavy bags: This can warp settings and cause you to loose stones.
- do the gardening: my grandmother has a cabochon sapphire in her engagement ring - not that many years ago it was a faceted stone, she basically self-polished it in the flower-beds!
- bath or shower: soap scum in your rings is unattractive and if you loose a stone you may need to spend a lot of money having your plumber round.
- sleep: constantly rubbing against the sheets can badly damage your prongs.

- do not put your ring in an ultrasonic if a) it has a pave setting, b) there are inclusions in the stone, c) it belongs to the banned list of stones for ultrasonics (ie emeralds). Garnets don't usually have any issues with ultrasonics - although I might not put a demantoid in - but the setting could be a no-no. Otherwise, just clean with a baby toothbrush and dish-soap.

- if you have to take your garnet ring to a jeweller for resizing, repairs etc, make sure to tell them that they must not steam clean it.

- inspect your ring at least every 6 months with a loupe to check that the stone is held in properly and that the prongs don't need re-tipping. (I checked my mother's sapphire & diamond e-ring last year, which has very pretty OECs on the sides and the stones were literally held in place by dirt. The prongs had totally worn away. Needless to say she took in straight in to be reset).

Here endeth the lesson...

Personally I only wear my rings when I go out or when we have people over, otherwise they go into a box as soon as I come through the door. If you want a ring that you can wear pretty much all the time then either a garnet is not for you, or you need to be open to replacing/repolishing more frequently. I'm not only sentimental about my tsavorite, but it would take a fair amount to time, possibly months to replace it with an stone that was identical in terms of above all colour, size, clarity and cut - unlike a diamond that would probably take a couple of hours to find an identical match.


Looking at settings - I send people off to New Bond Street London to look at Tiffany, Graff, Cartier, Harry Winston etc and try on as much bling in as many styles as possible. I also tell them to either go alone or with a female friend, never with the boyfriend/fiance as the ability for shops to put pressure on and people to get caught up in the moment is fairly high.

 

[snoopkat]

Another website worth checking out is The Natural Sapphire Company (www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com) based in NYC. NSC has copped alot of flak from PS-ers here and they are by no means the cheapest vendor, but IMHO they have the largest inventory and probably most well presented website that I've seen. Like you, my boyfriend and I were searching for a pink sapphire e ring with exactly the same specs (we ended up getting a 2.02carat, which was an upgrade from what we originally purchased. story for another thread...)

NSC also has an Education page on their website re properties of sapphires, what to look for, treatments etc. I've found it to be really helpful for newbies like us when I was doing research on what e ring to get.

As mentioned above, we were looking for an e ring with exactly the same specs (1.5 - 2c pink oval sapphire with 2 trillion cut side diamonds), however we ended up doing away with the trillion cut diamonds because the sapphire was big enough and the trillion cut diamonds would merely detract from the main stone. To make the ring more 'blingy', we got the ring set in a 4 claw pave setting. Having looked at your pictures, I'm glad we did that!

This is just my 2 cents worth Like I said before, NSC has had mixed reviews so I could only share my own experience which has been generally positive though not perfect. Even if you decide not to buy from NSC, it's worthwhile having a look at their website to get an idea on the kind of stone, setting and finished product you have in mind.

Good luck with the search, we had heaps of fun going through the process and I hope you and your boyfriend will enjoy it too

 

[snoopkat]

oooh one more thing...make sure you ask your vendor if the sapphire has been heated/treated because it makes a MASSIVE difference in pricing (in our case the price of a heated stone was half that the natural...) you will also need to decide for yourself if you're ok with a stone that has been heated/treated. Alot of PS-ers here accept gentle heat treatment because that is something that would eventually happen had the stone stayed underground. Me, I'm a purist and would prefer untreated/unheated stones. Treatment is treatment, no matter how gentle. But again, it's a matter of preference. If you're happy with heat treatment, you could get a heated stone for a price that's well within your budget

 

[talamasca]

Just as an aside, have you asked LOGR to make the setting you linked to? I don't think it's one they make is it? Or have I misunderstood and you've emailed them about one of their settings?????

Hi, I asked if they could do something similar to this, but with trilliant cut accents instead of baguettes. I didn't ask if they could make a setting as my preffered pic above as I didn't know how to attach a pic to an eBay message!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/6x8mm-Oval-14K-Gold-Diamond-Semi-Mount-Ring-3-13g-/250802413688?pt=US_Fine_Rings&hash=item3a64fd2078

 

[talamasca]

Just as an aside, have you asked LOGR to make the setting you linked to? I don't think it's one they make is it? Or have I misunderstood and you've emailed them about one of their settings?????

Hi, I asked if they could do something similar to this, but with trilliant cut accents instead of baguettes. I didn't ask if they could make a setting as my preffered pic above as I didn't know how to attach a pic to an eBay message!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/6x8mm-Oval-14K-Gold-Diamond-Semi-Mount-Ring-3-13g-/250802413688?pt=US_Fine_Rings&hash=item3a64fd2078

 

[Pandora II]

oooh one more thing...make sure you ask your vendor if the sapphire has been heated/treated because it makes a MASSIVE difference in pricing (in our case the price of a heated stone was half that the natural...) you will also need to decide for yourself if you're ok with a stone that has been heated/treated. Alot of PS-ers here accept gentle heat treatment because that is something that would eventually happen had the stone stayed underground. Me, I'm a purist and would prefer untreated/unheated stones. Treatment is treatment, no matter how gentle. But again, it's a matter of preference. If you're happy with heat treatment, you could get a heated stone for a price that's well within your budget

Gentle heat still means 1000 degrees centigrade plus. Stones will have been heated during their genesis rather than continuing to be heated at the present time or in the future - I suppose they might if they land up near a volcano or similar but otherwise they don't continue to be heated.

Personally I don't have an issue with heat treatment - it's a bit of a PITA that sapphires can be heated at temperatures low enough to improve the colour but can have no or minimal effect on inclusions. So it's actually quite hard to be 100% certain whether any stone has or hasn't been treated.

What I do have an issue with is Beryllium diffusion - unfortunately this requires expensive laboratory tests to determine (plus some blue sapphires naturally contain beryllium just to mess things up again).

On the whole beryllium imparts a yellowish colour by reducing the blue component - hence why it is most often used in pink sapphires to turn them the more expensive padparadscha and orange colours. It can also turn greenish sapphires (which are generally not exactly attractive) into gorgeous yellow sapphires. However it's use is becoming more common in blue sapphire - especially stones that have become overly dark with heat-treatment. These can be cooked up with beryllium in a reducing atmosphere which lightens the colour. There are some very pretty looking stones coming out although IMO, the before and after effects aren't nearly as jaw-dropping as they can be with the fancy colours.

 

[talamasca]

Another website worth checking out is The Natural Sapphire Company (www.thenaturalsapphirecompany.com) based in NYC. NSC has copped alot of flak from PS-ers here and they are by no means the cheapest vendor, but IMHO they have the largest inventory and probably most well presented website that I've seen. Like you, my boyfriend and I were searching for a pink sapphire e ring with exactly the same specs (we ended up getting a 2.02carat, which was an upgrade from what we originally purchased. story for another thread...)

NSC also has an Education page on their website re properties of sapphires, what to look for, treatments etc. I've found it to be really helpful for newbies like us when I was doing research on what e ring to get.

As mentioned above, we were looking for an e ring with exactly the same specs (1.5 - 2c pink oval sapphire with 2 trillion cut side diamonds), however we ended up doing away with the trillion cut diamonds because the sapphire was big enough and the trillion cut diamonds would merely detract from the main stone. To make the ring more 'blingy', we got the ring set in a 4 claw pave setting. Having looked at your pictures, I'm glad we did that!

This is just my 2 cents worth Like I said before, NSC has had mixed reviews so I could only share my own experience which has been generally positive though not perfect. Even if you decide not to buy from NSC, it's worthwhile having a look at their website to get an idea on the kind of stone, setting and finished product you have in mind.

Good luck with the search, we had heaps of fun going through the process and I hope you and your boyfriend will enjoy it too

Hi, thanks for this. NSC was one of the first I looked at though I thought they were quite expensive and now I've decided on a portugese oval cut pink spinel!

I'm still def going for my trilliant side stones, but I don't want them as big as in the pic I posted before. I'm not really into bling, but I also don't like plain bands and decided that smaller trilliants would just add a bit of sparkle to the ring without overshadowing the main stone, well that's the plan at the mo!

 

[talamasca]

Insurance - You take the risk, the jeweller will not cover the cost of the stone if it gets chipped, breaks etc while it's being set - unless they have supplied the stone as well in which case their own insurance covers it 9 times out of 10 (always ask). I have a feeling TH March in the UK who are specialist insurers for jewellery and the jewellery industry will cover loose stones.

Otherwise, I would a) try and get the vendor of the stone to do the setting if they offer such a service, or b) have the stone prong set in a really cheap setting (literally enough to stop the stone from falling out if you pick it up and no more), insure the ring and then have it reset as that will be covered by your insurance (I have my rings as a rider on my household insurance).

If you source the stone overseas then I would think it works out a bit cheaper to have the setting done there too. Get some quotes...

Thank you. I'll look into the insurance.

With regard to wearing coloured stones, how would a spinel fair on a day-to-day basis? I never wear jewellery for bed and I def wouldn't wash up, do housework, etc, etc. Should I re-think the setting I like above or would this be perfectly safe?

I'm currently getting quotes from a couple of local jewellers on putting the stone with the settings and I'm asking for a separate quote for making the setting since what I seem to like isn't readily available, typically

LOGR would be happy to make something up for me once I have the stone's dimensions, but I was a little put off by the shipping method so will wait to see what I can get done here.

I've expressed interest in a stone from Gemfix, but they're closed till Monday so again, will have to wait and see....hehe I'm all excited.

I def think more people should shop for their e/rings this way. It makes it so much more special

ETA: Would white sapphires work as trilliant side stones instead of diamonds?

 

[marymm]

ETA: Would white sapphires work as trilliant side stones instead of diamonds?

White sapphires will work as trilliant side stones - I've attached a couple pics of my three-stone ring which has white sapphire trillions - but white sapphires do perform differently than white diamonds - diamonds are sparklier and sapphires are "flatter" for want of a better word - for me they worked very well with the Tanzanite center stone; in fact, I preferred the sapphire trillions over diamonds in this particular setting and with this particular center stone.

If I were you, I would wait until you have your center stone in hand before you decide on side stones... depending on the color and cut of your center stone, you may decide white sapphires work very well with your center stone... but for me personally, when I was creating potential three-stone line-ups of various center stones between the white sapphire trillions, due to its inherent characteristics the white sapphires did not "work" with every center stone.