And regarding tanzanite, its actually my favourite stone also and CynidFi and sheas might be interested to know that by Carat weight Tanzanites are actually more expensive than Diamonds. That’s comparing the Grade A tanzanites to your bog basic J/K colour SI clarity. I still think they’re amazingly beautiful. Along with Teal coloured tourmaline which is also quite rare.

My beloved was quite perplexed by this choice and asked me several times if I was certain this was what I wanted. Eventually he said: but don’t engagement rings have stones?

My reply was that he could spend $83 on a ring that would make me smile every day for the rest of my life, or he could spend several hundred to a thousand dollars on a diamond, which frankly I would only care about at all because he gave it to me.

He saw the light.

Fifeen years later, my frog prince makes me smile every day, and those extra bucks have come in handy for more important things. He was willing to spend whatever it took, and I got exactly what I wanted at a bargain. What’s more, my frog gets squeals of delight from practically every woman I show it to, but nobody else has one quite like it.

Do some research on the cost of other gemstones. Ruby prices are also “jacked up.” Do some research on the minerals required for using our computers as we are right now – that’s a nasty story. Google “coltan”

I’ve always been horrified by the diamond industry. It’s a complete and total sham. When I was engaged, my husband gave me a beautiful Tanzanite ring, which at that moment in time was currently considered “conflict-free”.

I now wear a beautiful three-stone Moissanite ring as my wedding band which I would heartily recommend to anyone who is looking for a diamond alternative. Moissanite has many of the same qualities as a diamond and looks just like a diamond to the naked eye. Not only that, but it has more fire than an average diamond and frankly I can’t stop staring at it. Yes, I stare at my own finger.

Some people complain that Moissanite can have a slight green cast, but that’s why you shouldn’t buy Moissanite from JCPenney’s! Many higher-end jewelers are beginning to work with Moissanite and there are a lot of options out there at the same cost as JCPenneys. My three-stone came from a trunk show at Marshall Field’s where the selling manager told me that the interest in Moissanite has just exploded.

The best part about Moissanite is that it’s much more affordable than a diamond. This may come off as self-absorbed, but my Moissanite ring is much bigger and flashier than most of the diamond rings I see and it was a fraction of the cost.

Not to mention that Moissanite is created in the USA. It feels good supporting a company at home.

(Sorry for my long-winded rant… My sister received a Moissanite engagement ring that just knocked my socks off and I’ve been obsessed since!)

The sites adds, “Prince Charles chose a blue sapphire for Princess Diana’s engagement ring.”

I would recommend tanzanite, which I love, except that I have since heard that Al Qaeda is effectively in control of the tanzanite mines and subsequent profits, which takes a bit of luster off the stone.

My birthstone is diamond…I don’t find it particularly pretty or enchanting of a stone. Compared to others, even amythest, it tends to come up lacking in my eyes.

So, Since my husband knew that going into it, he bought be a very beautiful sapphire ring.

Three years later, when I was pregnant with our daughter for mother’s day he bought me a similar sapphire ring with three sapphires in it…sort of symbolizing our three years of marriage and linking the mother’s day present with the original engagement ring.

Further the engagement ring is all I wear I do not have a wedding band.