An unnecessary blog post about buying a Tiffany’s engagement ring
I acknowledge that coveting a designer engagement ring plays into our oppressive consumerist society. It’s not my favorite aspect of all this. But oh boy, do I love my Tiffany engagement ring and the story that it represents.
When we began this process, we tried to do some research about what to expect and found there was a startling void when it came to first-person experiences buying an engagement ring at Tiffany & Company.
So welcome, nerdy readers, to a brutally honest blog post about what it’s like to buy a diamond ring at Tiffany’s as an average person. Also a few things to think about before you even walk through those doors. If you stumbled into our corner of the internet, welcome! We’re Alex and Dani and we’re seriously nerdy about a lot of things, but I’m the half of this couple who is seriously nerdy about getting a ring that came in a little blue box.
Look, I know that Meg Ryan is supposed to end up with Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle. But tell me you didn’t instantly recognize the robin’s egg blue box Bill Pullman whips out and think “wow, Tiffany’s decades of service leading up to the resizing of his mother’s ring is awfully impressive…”
Image property of Tri-Star Pictures and Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group.
Subconscious Quest for the Blue Box
There is a lot of pop culture that led to this quiet lust for Tiffany’s products. Sleepless in Seattle. Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Sweet Home Alabama. Literally any awards show red carpet. I love movies, and I’ve been wonderfully brainwashed to think that someday, maybe, I’d get one of those über-gushy moments. No one said dreams had to be inexpensive and practical.
It’s okay if I have this one secret corner of my heart that dreamt of wearing a Tiffany diamond someday. But what was more important to me was being able to talk about all my dreams with my romantic partner. I knew that if I wasn’t ready to talk to Alex about what I wanted out of an engagement ring, I wasn’t ready to commit to a lifetime with him.
And let me tell you: it is not easy to tell someone that the thing you want costs five times more than non-designer things just because of its brand name. This is a step in a relationship.
Every couple is different, and every romantic partner will have different hopes and expectations when it comes to rings and proposals and engagements. This is not a post to convince you that you need to spend more money to give your person a Tiffany ring. This is a blog post to remind you that you need to be able to talk about all your wants before you put any rings on any fingers. If a conversation about engagement rings comes up, muster the courage to talk about your expectations. Both sides – the ring-giver and the ring-receiver.
Here are some thought-starters -- because every blog post needs a sexy bullet-pointed list:
Do we want to go shopping together, or is your expectation that all aspects of the ring are a surprise?
Does the ring-receiver have a particular ring in mind? Or a wish list or mood board they can share?
What are both parties’ expectations when it comes to cost?
Are you both helping to pay for the ring, or just the ring-giver?
If the ring-giver is going to use credit or financing to pay for the ring, is the ring-receiver comfortable accruing that debt or credit score impact after the marriage?
What is the ring-receiver’s exact ring size?
Are there people in your lives that need to be involved before the engagement? Parents’ permission or blessing? Great aunt’s expert shopping eye? Bestie’s jewelry store discount? Know that in advance and avoid hot water.
Welcome to The Americana in Glendale, California, where everything is overwhelming when you emerge from your pandemic cocoon. Here you’ll find a variety of fancy stores filled with kind and patient staff members … but you’ll still feel underdressed and out of place. Image Source: Mapquest
Just a couple normies walking into a bougie jewelry boutique
Okay, okay. Enough of the pre-engagement lecture. You found your person and now you just want to know how you buy a ring at Tiffany’s without looking like a total noob!
Well, the good news is, the kind people at Tiffany and Company are all about customer service. Even walking in off the street in sneakers and a t-shirt, we were made to feel welcome and cared for. Zero Pretty Woman snobbery from salespeople.
Alex and I wanted to find our ring together, so I got to be a part of every aspect of the selection. When you arrive, you’ll likely be greeted by an associate who will ask you if there’s anything you need help finding. You can decline and just take a lap around the store to browse, or you can dive in and ask for help looking for engagement jewelry. I’ve read that while these folks do have sales incentives to reach, their commissions are fairly low by industry standards. (For me, that means that if I’m browsing and decide to buy, I’m going to make it a point to return to the associate who first greeted me because I respect the unwritten rule of commission dibs. That’s just common dibs decency.) You can also make an appointment and know exactly who you’re meeting and what you’re there to do.
You probably won’t find the exact ring that day…
The amazing thing about our sales associate Corrine was that she showed us around the ring selection just to get an idea of our style. She let us know that the store would order in rings to match our wish list. Could you walk in and buy a ring right out of the case? Sure, I guess. But keep in mind that Tiffany stores have access to a whole network of other rings that aren’t displayed in-store. If you have a great sales associate and a little time, let them order options for you to view. It doesn’t cost you anything and it gives you an even better selection.
You probably won’t take the ring home at the selection…
In early July, Corrine texted us to let us know that some ring options had arrived. We met her for a private consultation session where she sat us down and opened a leather case with three beautiful options: a princess cut in white gold, a princess cut in a pavé band, and the absolute winner: a yellow cushion-cut diamond in a yellow gold band. A sunny yellow diamond was at the top of my wish list, but I wasn’t sure we could fit it in our budget. That’s when Corrine said the most impressive words any salesperson can speak: “all of three options come in under your budget.” It was a no-brainer. We paid for the yellow ring and Corrine had it shipped off to be resized. But if we hadn’t loved any of those, we could have kept ordering options and meeting until we found something we loved.
After you take it home, you’ll always be delighted to take it back to the store…
A few magical weeks later, your ring greets you in its perfectly-customized blue box. You’ve done it! You’ve Tiffan-ied! Now here’s the best part: Tiffany offers complimentary jewelry cleaning for life. It’s part of their Lifetime of Service for their engagement rings. So whenever my ring is looking a little less-than-stunning, I can pop into any Tiffany’s store and have her cleaned by a professional at no cost. Even beyond you home store; we just tried this in Las Vegas and the staff was so accommodating.
A beginner’s guide to engagement rings at Tiffany
I will probably always feel a little uncomfortable in high-end environments. It’s the Eliza Doolittle in me; imposter syndrome is real. To combat that feeling, I usually try to do as much research as possible for those situations. What terms will they use? What should I expect? Well, in the case of buying an engagement ring at Tiffany, I couldn’t find many research references. Which is why I’m writing this little mess. Based entirely on our excellent experience with Corrine at the Glendale Americana, here were a few learnings we’re excited to pass on to you:
Most engagement rings come with complimentary resizing, but not complimentary engraving. Because engagement rings are dainty, most are engraved by hand at around $25+ per letter. We didn’t budget for engraving in our cost, so we opted not to have any sweet sentiments carved in the ring. But many of their wedding bands do have complimentary engraving, so you can save those bits for the bands, should you decide to purchase from Tiffany.
They’ll ask what you want for your customized blue box at the time of purchase. I hadn’t given much thought to what our custom blue box would look like, so we made some fast choices the day we also selected the ring. We selected “AF x DI” in the Tiffany typeface with a blind emboss. They have a few different typefaces and colors for the stamp that goes on top, and there is a character limit. My pro tip: think about that in advance.
There is far more selection than what you see online. Tiffany really is giving you a personalized experience when you choose them for your engagement ring. You may see a couple dozen options online, but they have a full catalogue of hundreds of rings behind the scenes and can work with you to get you exactly what you’re looking for. They offered to swap metal colors or diamond cuts in many of the rings we looked at, giving us something that felt right for us. I’d recommend going in with a budget and some general ideas for ring style and see what possibilities open up. I’m delighted to have a personalized Tiffany ring I never saw listed online. And seriously – Corrine respected our budget and never tried to trick us or upsell us, which won major points in my book.
It must technically be an engagement ring for all the bells and whistles. This was a learning for me! You may see other ring styles on Tiffany.com that could pass as a non-traditional engagement ring for just a few hundred bucks. And if that is the right ring for you, go for it! But bear in mind that to get the custom blue box or Lifetime of Service program, it needs to be categorized as an engagement ring, which doesn’t apply to some of their gemstone or simple solitaire rings.
You can have your jewelry insurance policy in effect before you leave the store. If you, like us, are nervous about the many casualties that could befall an expensive piece of jewelry, you can open a policy for a few hundred bucks a year that protects against loss or theft. We just used the purchase receipt and paperwork from Tiffany and shopped insurance options online. We had our policy start on the day we picked up the ring from the store for extra peace of mind.
If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Being part of this whole process with Alex just reaffirmed what a kickass, thoughtful human being he is. But we hope that our learnings help you feel a little more informed before you start your own engagement journey.
Whatever your story, and whatever your ring, we wish you nothing but happiness.