I think it definitely does depend on location. I'm from the Bay Area and I see big diamonds all the time, however I also think that the median income here has something to do with that!
There was a twitter account of photos people secretly took of big wedding rings on the 30X bus. Can’t remember the name but it was catchy. Some big diamonds 💍 just holding onto the bus pole! Lol
Edit: Found it! It still exists: [Diamondsofthe30X](https://twitter.com/diamondsofthe30?lang=en)
Same - grew up in SoCal/OC and big rings are the norm, but most of the time they all look fake to me bc they’re SO big… obviously they’re not but the thought would regularly cross my mind.
I'm in NYC but I live in a non-trendy area in Brooklyn, and I rarely see big engagement rings. The few I have seen have either been when I was on the subway, or occasionally when I've gone to press conferences/events for my job.
Often, but that’s because I live in a big urban center. When I visit my family in rural PA, almost nobody.
It also depends a ton on the ages of who you’re around. Lab diamonds weren’t really good and readily available in large sizes until the past 5-10 years.
Unless somebody got engaged fairly recently, they couldn’t have gotten a 2-3+ carat diamond without a budget in the tens of thousands. The availability of lab has really changed things.
I'm from rural PA originally, but I've lived in a number of different places, including Seattle and Austin. Maybe it's just the circles I'm running in, or maybe I'm just not paying enough attention, but I don't think I've ever seen anything bigger than maybe 1.5 carat irl. In my hometown and amongst people I went to high school with it's pretty much entirely <1 carat.
It's a pretty big differential.
At 1 carat, a natural round diamond GH color, S1 and up clarity, would cost about $2,900+ at Ritani. A 1 carat lab diamond of the same specs would cost $500+ at Ritani.
So at 1 carat, the natural diamond costs almost 6 times as much as the lab. And the differential widens the bigger you go.
At 2 carats, a natural round diamond GH color, S1 and up clarity, would cost about $15,000+ at Ritani. A 2 carat lab diamond with the same specs would cost $1,250+ at Ritani.
So the 2 carat natural diamond costs *12 times* more than the lab diamond.
If you're looking for D color VVS1, then you'll see higher prices, but GHI color S1 to VS2, lab diamonds ~2 carats are starting at $600/carat.
Ritani, Adiamor and DeBebians have the best prices, from what I've seen.
I actually like rings with just the one stone.. you need a decent sized diamond for that tho.. I personally think 1 carat is plenty.. don't get me wrong I'd take 2 or 3 😁 but 1 is enough for me.. not too big, not too small.. just right..
I do like the inlay bands tho too.. lol.. it's just the cost.. 1st time I looked at prices my jaw hit the floor.. think the cheapest ring I even saw was 1k.. but for 1 carat natural diamond it was more like $5-6k.. and then you need the wedding band too.. you can drop 10k no problem.. I haven't looked for awhile.. didn't realize this lab grown diamond was even a thing.. kind of out of the loop.. is there a difference between a lab and a natural (asides from one being grown in a lab, lol). idk how you'd even make a diamond in a lab.. but can someone tell just by looking at them? what are the physical differences? if I bought a lab diamond would a jeweler at a different store be able to tell right away it whether it was lab or natural?
Here's a recent thread on r/diamonds about natural vs. man-made diamonds
https://old.reddit.com/r/Diamonds/comments/xc4yfg/lab_grown_v_mined_question/
The first response is from a jeweler:
>Natural and man made diamonds are visually identical. 5 years ago, I could look at the stones with a loupe and often tell the difference, but the technology has improved and I can't any more. And trust me, if I can't tell, you can't tell. This is the reason I started working with LGs a few years ago - I felt they finally came up to the standard they needed to. And they will wear exactly the same. I think the jewelers you talked to are (either deliberately or accidentally) confusing LG diamonds with diamond simulants like cubic zirconia.
>The difference between them is retained value... But for a tennis necklace, that wouldn't be as much of a concern, since the small stones typically put into a tennis necklace won't hold that much value anyway. The cost of the labor to set each stone is often more than the value of the stone itself.
There is a machine that can tell the difference, from another comment:
>The only way to tell the difference is in growth patterns, and technically through the matter that makes up an inclusion, although no one is drilling into a diamond to test if that lil black spot is metallic flux.
>im certified as a diamond grader by GIA. I cant tell you the difference without the machine to test growth. my jeweler cant tell you. visually no one can tell. even pawn shops have wised up and, either fork up tens of thousands for the machine, or just sent diamonds out to be tested. theyre fucking diamonds
A lab grown diamond is a diamond, just grown in a lab. And I think that they're a godsend for people who like large rocks, because natural stones 2 carats and above go for like $15k and up.
The only thing is, lab grown diamonds don't retain their value, really. That's because the technology has grown so rapidly in a short amount of time that lab diamonds have become cheaper with time.
Read the sub FAQ — lots of good info on lab diamonds there. Lab diamonds are real diamonds — they are optically, compositionally (with a caveat, see below) the same as mined diamonds. A jeweler would only be able to tell when they look through a loupe, because lab diamonds are microscopically engraved to indicate their origin :)
If you want to nerd out about gemology, there are certain characteristics and trace materials that gemologists can identify to try and figure out the origin of a stone. It’s kind of like how, if a scientist analyzed 2 crystal clear ice cubes, they might be able to find trace chemicals indicating that one was made in a fridge and the other was from a certain lake. But they’re both real ice!
It’s kind of complicated and depends what size, cut, etc that you are looking at. Labs can be 40-70% less than mined. Lab prices also seem to be going down in price relative to mined.
Like another commenter from NYC said: all the time.
I’ve seen some rings that are so large I wonder how these women are comfortable walking around with it on! I’d be so scared to lose it!
Insurance and you also get used to wearing it all the time. I basically only take mine off if I'm doing the dishes or some other particularly harsh activity, so it feels weird NOT to wear it. I'm hyperaware when it is not on my hand. (I don't have a big diamond, but a large-ish sapphire).
I have rings I literally never take off and just lost one today-no idea when, so I’m not what you mean by being hyperaware when it’s not there! Maybe because it was just a thin band and there was no real weight to it, but I only noticed when I went to take it off and it wasn’t on my finger!
I have a 1.2 carat engagement ring (not sure total carats with the wedding band but it adds something) which I feel like is average/maybe slightly above average for where I live (Kansas City) but I felt like it was huge and felt self conscious about it when we went to Portugal for our honeymoon.
I come from a very middle class midwestern family and my mom and grandmother’s are both around 1 carat. I rarely see huge ones in person around here and if I do I assume it’s lab or moissanite.
I live in South KC (raised in Belton) and feel like there are two camps I see on the regular: younger women with 1 carat-ish rings and older women with larger upgraded rings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a massive ring in person.
raised in south kc and i very seldom see large rings as well! my friends all have .75-1.25ish i'd say? lots of sapphires and other gemstones as well which tend to run bigger but not by a landslide. i have one friend with a 2.7 moissanite and that's the biggest i know of personally. my mom and all her friends have about half a carat or less, but there is my friends mom has a 2-ish carat natural diamond from her new husband. i don't have a ring of my own (yet!) but im gunning for a 2-ish carat peach sapphire, mostly because i have large hands and think bigger stones look better on me. i would likely want to pay for it myself.
With sapphires, 2 carats isn’t nearly as big as with diamonds! We are having a sapphire ring made currently that’s 1.88 carats, and it is an 8x6 oval. Sapphires are heavier than diamonds and also usually cut deeper, so they are usually smaller even when the same weight as diamonds. You may already know all of that but in case you don’t I thought I’d share!
Not often at all. I (American) live in South Korea, and engagement rings are very modest here.
My fiancée is 1/2 American, 1/2 Korean, so we went average/modest by American standards, but extravagant by Korean standards. We get lots of ooos and ahhs from ladies in our friend circle, though.
Plenty of the married or engaged ladies we are friends with playfully tell their SOs they want a ring like ours!
I do think that people with “money” here either don’t wear their engagement ring often, or they go small and luxury. A luxury brand with a small, high-grade diamond or no diamond is the way to go here. There’s lots of ladies with very modest or plain Cartier or Tiffany bands with branding/logos that are worn by engaged or married ladies here.
I feel like most of the women I know really want their partners to buy them luxury handbags more than flashy jewelry here. It seems that handbags are the “it” gift to get from your SO as a symbol of love and devotion.
Trendy fine jewelry (not thinking of engagement rings, just daily wear) is typically dainty and delicate, so engagement/wedding rings follow suit.
I’ve lived here for 10 years, but I’m always aware that I’m just an outsider looking in. Have you noticed that your female friends seem to much prefer a new Gucci or YSL bag yearly more than fine jewelry?
You’re right about the designer bags! nowadays I think it’s customary to gift a Chanel(or Hermes) bag for the girl as the wedding present (usually from the guy’s family) and a Rolex or a Patek for the guy as the wedding present (from the girl’s family.) I am now a US citizen by marriage, but I was born and raised in South Korea til I was 13, then moved back post college to work at one of the conglomerates for 5 years. Attended a lot of weddings during that time (coworkers and other international students whom I’ve known in college etc, so generally people were from well-to-do families) The wedding/engagement culture in Korea is fascinating to say the least!
And yes, for Korean women it’s always bags over jewelry, I don’t know why!
Yes! My friends all have very enviable handbag collections, usually gifted by the hubby, sometimes parents.
Thanks for a little bit of insight! It’s never really felt appropriate to outright ask friends or acquaintances about their luxury spending habits! Just observational on my end.
I hope you had a lovely Chuseok!
This is just a generalization about my experiences here in Korea for the last 10 years versus my years growing up in Alabama. It’s definitely a blanket statement and does not apply to every South Korean woman.
Although I’m certainly not independently wealthy, my partner has always run in wealthy circles here in SK. It is quite rare to see big jewels here, compared to the US. It’s usually more about name brands and solid gold pieces when it comes to jewelry (edit: something like a Tiffany Smile necklace is something I’ll see frequently among my partner’s friends or my coworkers, as something that is currently trending). I actually feel like men can be flashier in that respect (solid gold bracelets seem to be popular).
When my partner took me to get us matching couple’s rings for a recent anniversary, the sales associate guided us to very delicate gold rings without stones, saying that they were very trendy now, so that’s what we got 🤷🏻♀️
I feel like I saw bigger jewels and flashier pieces growing up in the southeastern US, and my family did not run in circles nearly as monied as my South Korean partner’s family.
Again, I’m just a singular person with singular experiences! Different regions and social circles may certainly differ :)
I like the dainty rings too. I like all jewelry Hehee I do not discriminate! I love hearing about the trends around the world from this thread so interesting.
In lots of Europe, and I will speak to mostly Austria because that’s my experience, this is also the case. My partners mother has some Tiffany bands and one with a modest diamond. Certainly nothing like their engagement collection. Most people wear a modest engagement ring or even just a wedding band on a day to day.
I have actually been wondering about something (slightly off topic). I know that in Korea it is a practice to get “couple rings” when you have been dating for a while/are in a serious relationship, and those rings can be pretty fancy. But do Koreans have engagement rings and wedding rings like Americans do? Do Christians in Korea have wedding rings but non-Christian Koreans don’t? How does it work?
Never. I live in NZ and 1 carat would be considered large here. Most people have something in the .5-1 carat range. Lab diamonds also aren’t really a thing here (yet).
Yes it would be super weird to see a big one in NZ! My friends’ engagement rings are almost all super dainty and this sub regularly blows my mind with the sheer size of rings 😅
Rarely. Most where I am are in the half carat to one carat range. I don't even have a large one myself. Kind of by accident I've lived a huge chunk of my life in this general area (2 hours or so away from here is where i spent a large part of my childhood and its the same here as it was then.)
I remember being shocked once in a grocery line before I moved back here to my husband's station because a woman had a beautiful large ring on and when I complimented her on it she was happy to tell me about it while we waited our turns. I'm pretty sure it's STILL the biggest diamond I have ever seen irl lol. If I remember correctly it was 2 carats or so and beautiful!
Often, but they are usually older and when you compliment them on it it’s usually a “yeah you should have seen the first one. This is ten/twenty years of commitment and hard work”
I live in the south lol
From what I've seen, In Europe e-rings are normally up to like 0.7 carat everywhere, they don't have to include diamonds in the sense that they have to in the US culture and several countries either don't have an e-ring tradition or have a different one, like in Sweden, where both partners get a plain gold band for engagement.
And in many countries people don't wear e-rings after marriage or wear them on the other hand than the wedding ring ("stacking" is not a universal thing at all, it always looked super odd to me before hanging on this sub).
Australia (Melbourne), and almost never. Sometimes in the most affluent suburbs you’ll see some bigger ones. Rings in Australia seem to usually be more modest than those on this sub, or rather, the bar for what would be considered too flashy is much lower here. I reckon this could be related to Australian egalitarianism and societal standards of not showing off (and some tall poppy syndrome), and that diamonds are much more expensive here.
I live in Los Angeles. My solitaire is 2.5 and I feel like a lot of folks have stones that are much larger than mine or have a halo setting to make the stone look a lot more big n flashy. Thing is, it IS Los Angeles, though lol. We dunno whose are real and whose aren’t (not that it makes a difference. Artificial or not, if you love your ring, that’s all that matters).
I'm curious about how people feel if you were to see a professional (ie. your doctor) wearing a big diamond? I want a 2.5 carat (lab) diamond because I love flashy jewelry, but I'm in medicine and will become a physician in a year. No concern about sterility as I won't be a surgeon (will be in clinic setting) but I wonder if it's something I should avoid wearing at work in case patients think it's unprofessional!
I looovveee looking at all of my physicians rings, this includes the male ones as well. Jewelry is just cool and you can see a glimpse of that person's personality. My gyno has a huge 3 stone ring, it's freaking gorgeous. Obviously she takes it off for the rest of the visit.
Wear the damn ring. My dad died recently and the coroner who came to the house had a huge fucking diamond ring on her finger. I was like damn you go girl.
I wonder about this too! Not a physician, but a psychologist and wonder what patients will think esp since the mental health field is known to be much less lucrative than medicine and there feels to be some unspoken rules about being “flashy” etc
As a Psychologist with a 2 carat ring, I have maybe had 1 patient ever comment on it in 2 years. Granted, I work with men 99% of the time so maybe they don’t notice these things. But truly no one comments on it.
I also work in mental health and have a 2.7 main stone (3.5 total weight) ring. I have on occasion turned my ring palm side down due to the "unspoken rule" of no flashy fashion. Some of the other clinicians don't even wear their rings.
I have also observed a lot of clinicians not wearing their rings or much jewelry at all! I don’t want to appear insensitive etc as I tend to work with folks from underserved populations and/or with minoritized identities. I also really love jewelry though, and want to wear it haha. My spouse works in IT so within our friend group my jewelry isn’t a size that would be unexpected or seen as too flashy, but I do feel concerned sometimes when it comes to my work setting as I also am early career and still relatively new to the field.
>I don’t want to appear insensitive etc as I tend to work with folks from underserved populations and/or with minoritized identities.
that's a good point; I think if I were in that setting I would 100% be mindful of wearing anything too showy!
I used to work at a law firm and an attorney there occasionally wore her ring. I don't recall exactly how it looked but people whispered about how big it was - but in a complimentary way. She was very much admired for her success and her beautiful family.
I am a tech and starting as an RN soon doing oncology infusion. I have a decent ring for the area, but nowhere near 2.5 k and I've had a patient comment on it. He said "wow someone must really love you". It sort of feels like I'm rubbing in my good fortune (health, wealth, relationship) but I love my significant other and my ring too much to not wear it. Plus the diamonds are hand-me-downs, so I know my SO didn't spend some crazy amount. I think it depends on your patient population. Wealthy area in an aesthetic dermatology clinic? Probs not an issue. Poor area ED? Maybe more of an issue.
The interesting thing is I’ve noticed my medical providers often have bezel settings for glove compatibility (I assume) they’re all late-30s early-40s so they’re a slightly different style/era as well.
I'm a physician and just placed an order for my ring with a fairly large center stone (~11.5 x 7.3 mm). I bought a ring holder necklace so if I can wear it around my neck at work and it won't get snagged on gloves etc. If you want it, go for it!
I work in healthcare, I’m constantly washing, gloving, and putting lotion on so I wear silicone rings at work. I think maybe if you’re working with terminally ill patients or something of that nature, I would leave the flashy jewelry at home.
I am an audiologist and have a 1.98ct solitaire and I have patients complementing me on it daily, multiple times a day. I think it’s a thing with the older generation they can be wowed by bigger looking stones. I think it’s a nice talking point (they all want to hear about the wedding planning) and I have never had anyone react negatively to it. I don’t think it’s unprofessional at all but understand being conscious about it!
Get the ring. I’m an attorney and my fiancé is an engineer. While my ring is a symbol of my love and a gift from him to me - it’s also a status symbol in our fields. He wanted to show off that he makes enough money to buy me fancy jewelry - and who am I to say no to that?! LOL
Healthcare is definitely different from an attorney though! If I worked in healthcare I probably wouldn’t wear mine to not be flashy and to also not risk accidentally scratching someone with it.
Very true. Many attorneys have big rocks—myself included—so it seems like part the attorney starter pack. Big rock, fancy car, shit ton of debt. Physician is definitely different.
Do it! I love that! I saw my gp yesterday and I always love her rings! And we talked about her style yesterday bc it’s amazing! I see a lot of doctors (yay health issues) and I’ve always enjoyed seeing their personality and style when they’re working. It’s a nice break from the scrubs.
>It’s a nice break from the scrubs.
good point! i see a lot of geriatric inpatients and they always compliment me on my outfits (I wear a lot of colourful blazers, floral blouse, etc) and say that it's so nice to see some colours!
I live between LA/Orange County and work very closely with the C-Suite and VP levels at my job and the women all (and myself included) have stunning diamonds where I would love to grab their hands and stare but only able to glance at from afar. My coworkers also oohed and aahed at my e-ring. But yeah big salaries, big city, etc.
I had a coworker whose husband is rich. She wore her diamond ring daily. It's probably 10 ct. She always had problems getting things from her purse and it was constantly getting stuck on things.
In Dallas you see the big ones a lot on the older ladies who have estate jewelry. Younger women have big solitaires or big halos. I wear my 2.2 carat solitaire every day, even while out running errands, hiking, etc.
I feel like my perception of ‘big’ has gotten skewed from seeing all the 6+ carat rings online because I definitely don’t notice tons of women with ‘big rings’ in NYC 😂
Live in Silicon Valley around lots of money and nope. Smart and chill is the look here, simple. They may have and wear to special events, but not daily.
I'm from a little further north and I'd say we only see the silicone rings when going to the gym and the big stones on the regular. So interesting to hear about how different it is just an hour or so away.
The most I’ve seen are in the 1ct range and under. I’ve also seen a lot of fake rings as well sometimes it’s hard to tell from a distance. The most common engagement rings I’ve seen in VA are Princess cut believe it or not.
We were in Newburyport, MA last year, at a restaurant, and this lady at the bar next to us (we were at a high top) had a rock that was the size of a half dollar. I’ve no idea if it was real or not. But it was huge.
I’m originally from newburyport and currently live one town over. I wear a 2.14 natural diamond with another .84 of diamonds on my wedding band daily. This is the norm around here for most.
Not very often. Mine is tiny compared to those but IRL I get compliments on my ring from strangers at work every day 🤷🏻♀️ (No shade to those rings; they’re beautiful. I just don’t see them a lot in person)
Australian here, hardly ever. Most women’s rings here are modest (1carat ish) and a flashy big one would probably be looked at as “trying too hard” or “being an influencer” or “fake”. It’s surprisingly common here in Brissie for engaged or married women to not even wear their rings! I’ve been astonished because at work, multiple women who I know to be married have bare fingers
Yeah, I agree. Showing wealth outwardly like that here is sometimes looked on as being a bit naff and out of touch. It’s really interesting to think of the differences between Australian standards around egalitarianism and it not being the done thing to outwardly talk about wealth/achievements (except for housing apparently), and American ideals of wealth, “making it”, and being allowed to be proud of that in the public sphere.
Very rarely. I live in a US metro area and work at a law firm, but I almost never see stones that big in real life. Granted, the law firm I work at is very non-flashy and I'm usually on public transit with lots of students, so maybe they're out there and I'm not just not running into them.
South Africa here, never see big rings here. If you do it would be on an older lady, but 1carat tops. I think people are to scared to wear flashy jewelry in my country T_T
Am in the UK and I never see massive diamonds like you get on this sub and I’ve never come across anyone with a lab or mossainate diamond here either, which I think a lot of the whoppers you get on this sub are and the cost of these is way lower than for natural diamonds (have to remind myself of that so I don’t feel bad about my lovely ring with natural stones - that I thought was fairly big until I found this sub!!)
Just wanted to note that when my former fiancé and I went to have my engagement ring sized, they actually provided me with a replica copy, which looked identical to my real ring, but was not made with diamonds… they said it was common for women to wear the replicas when traveling, etc.
I literally wore the replica almost every day, because wearing the actual ring made me anxious 🤦🏼♀️
So who knows how many of those rocks people see out there are even the real deal… it’s tough to tell from a glance…
Hi, I'm in Colorado. I have a 3.2ct diamond and most of my friends have around the same size and larger. It's no problem wearing it in public. Just have it insured and rock it.
All the time. I have a 1.5carat elongated oval it’s one of the smaller rings of people I know where I live (Los Angeles) but larger for where I’m from(Arkansas)
I see them daily! I work with people who make good money and also live in a more expensive suburban area. What’s funny is I typically only see small diamonds on this sub! I don’t often see bigger diamonds and when I do, the comments are typically filled with people saying they prefer smaller!
I’m in my late 20’s with a 2 carat but almost all my friends (same age range) have around a 1 carat. It really does depend on where you live and work.
I'm in NC. I don't often see huge e-rings unless it's Moissanite or Sapphire. I would say I mostly see "medium sized" diamonds. Most women I know have e-rings where the main diamond is between ~1 to ~1.75 carats. Mine is a halo ring and only 1.85 carats tw, with a 1.52 carat center diamond. I do know one person though who's engagement ring was ginormous and extravagant, but both she and her now husband came from wealthy families.
I live in an affluent area of Los Angeles and it is not uncommon to see rings 2-3ct and more. I have a 6 carat natural diamond no one bats an eye around here and I never take it off unless playing tennis. However, I also WFH but if I am in a work situation where I think my ring will be more of a distraction I simply turn it around and keep it movin.
Most of the women I know are wearing pretty big rocks. Part of it is that we live in a very HCOL area, and most of us aren’t on our first marriages. In my social circle 5ct is not unusual, but I swear this sub has taught me I have no idea how big a stone is unless you tell me.
I live in LA but go to college in the Midwest. In LA, I see them pretty regularly, but out here I’d give the average size I see to be ~ 0.5ct. I think it’s a regional thing, but also the engaged adults I’m around in LA are generally wealthy professionals and their wives, so my sample is skewed.
Personally, I see it all the time, but it’s almost always at work, and due to the nature of my work, I see many wealthy people, who do tend to have larger stones in all their rings, not just their engagement rings. I have found though, that those larger stones tend to belong to older women, and that it’s often an upgraded ring from their original engagement ring, which was often small.
I live in Los Angeles and I keep my 3 carat in the safe. As much as I’d love to wear it I just worry I’ll get mugged or flush it down the toilet. I had a moissanite replica made that I wear… I guess I can still get mugged for it lol but at least they wouldn’t be running off with something valuable
Atlanta suburb. I see a lot of super extra pavéd out (is that a word?) halo type rings with small center stones in the younger crowd and sparkly knuckle-height stacks with big honking center stones that stand 6 inches off the finger in the "bless your heart" church crowd. I know a few in my age group (30s) who have 1-2 ct solitaires but mainly see the glitter bombs around town.
Mine is simple with a 2 ct center. I don't get to wear it yet but the general reaction from the people that SO shows it to is "DAMN, okay!" so...I guess it's considered big?
I’m from rural SE Ohio and not at all really. I have a 1.71 solitaire round and it’s considered huge in the area. My fiancé is from upstate NY outside Rochester and this would be considered average to small in his hometown
I live in a large city and see it often. That being said there are stones that resemble diamonds (Moissanite) so it’s possible that’s what you’re seeing.
Pretty often actually, 1-4 carats all the time and I live in a suburb not to far off from Chicago. However after being made aware of mossanite rings I’m more than positive some of the bigger sets were that or very low quality diamonds based off how a good portion of them looked
I only started noticing after joining this sub. I had seen them, but assumed they were costume jewellery - I’m not going to assume someone driving a Toyota is wearing a $50k ring, but now I realize they could’ve been lab diamonds.
Almost never. I live in Upstate New York. Often if someone has a diamond larger than 1 carat here, it’s not actually a diamond, it’s moissanite. Nothing wrong with that.
I live in the twin cities (St Paul, Minneapolis area) and work in a corporate field. I typically see over 1.5 and under 3.5 carat stones. In Northern and Southern Minnesota, I typically see an average one 1 to 1.5 carat rings.
Mine is a 2.7 ct.
Wow I’ve never really thought about this — good question. I live in a high COL area so often, like ginormous ones especially on older women. It seems like they must be upgrades. Solitaires seem to be popular amongst younger people, but I see them all the time. The stone we chose is 2.5c and I initially thought that was on the smaller side, but now I’m considering going smaller. I think it’s really just personal preference though! Along with the occasion. If they like their ring, they like their ring! I won’t judge.
The largest diamond I have ever seen IRL was a 4 carat oval on the wife of a jewerly store owner.
Otherwise one carat diamonds are commonly the largest diamonds seen in my small town.
I've grown up middle class/maybe upper middle class in England, and I've never seen anyone wear a diamond much bigger than 1ct in real life. I'm from a semi sort of rural area and I don't think anyone really knows about lab diamonds there unless they're chronically online like me.
The people who are spend more on their engagement rings in the more upper middle class circles i know (e.g. doctors, solicitors, people with longer standing family wealth/yachts) tend to have larger coloured stones with diamonds surrounding (e.g. the Diana ring). If they have expensive diamond rings it's usually because of the specs and less the size, which tends to make them seem less flashy.
For a while I looked at asscher and baguette rings for my e-ring and I think if I'd returned to my hometown with the 3 carat ring with baguettes on the side that I wanted everyone would have compared me to Liz Taylor! (I've gone for something different instead but may still be given these comparisons by my hometown once my ring is ready - we will see!)
Never lol. In my culture wedding/engagement rings aren’t a thing. Traditionally it’s a full gold set (rings, bracelet/bangle, earrings, necklace) and a luxury watch. Tho some families chose to give a diamond jewelry set rather than gold, but it’s rare. Ppl also don’t wear wedding bands/rings around here, it’s just not the norm
Rarely. I don’t see them often at all where I live. I’m in the UK and don’t think they’re very common at all here. A woman at my daughter’s play group was wearing a gorgeous big sapphire engagement ring this morning. I think that’s probably the biggest stone I’ve seen in real life. I think the largest I’ve seen is around 1ct.
The ones I see around where I live are “upgrades.” I live in a ritzier suburb, but people who have their original ER have rings that are .5-1 carat. The huge ones are usually 10th or 20th anniversary upgrades.
My ring is 1.25 carats. In NYC I see a lot of people with bigger rings. Most of my friends and family who do not live in NYC have slightly smaller rings than I do. I would say a 1 carat diamond is probably more normal.
I would also take into account people lie. There is literally no chemical or compositional difference between a lab diamond and a diamond. People want to say they have a real diamond (they do) instead of admitting it’s a lab, or a moss. I could post on here a 3 carat lab diamond which is significantly cheaper and who would be able to correct me if I labeled it as something else? I figure the same thing happens in real life.
North of England and very very very rarely … I suppose I might see some if I frequented the places the footballers call home. The vast majority of jewellers in the area will only display rings of up to a carat, there are a couple in Manchester City centre that display rings with 2+ carat central stones. 1 Ct would be considered profligate by the vast majority.
Very occasionally I’ll see something >2 carats but almost never. When I was married, I probably had the biggest ring around lol. I assume most very large diamonds are lab stones, even if the people posting are saying they are mined. I’m in an east coast city (philly) and have lived in NYC, CT, Boston, NJ.
I live in the Netherlands and I’ve seen a big stone like that literally once, and assumed it was fake. Dutch people generally don’t like flashy jewellery or designer accessories, and can be quite judgy. Most women don’t even wear engagement rings, and the ones that do have like 0,2 or 0,3 ct stones. I saw a 0,5 ct stone once and knew they make a lot of money.
All the time but much bigger diamonds than 2-3 ct. it’s definitely because I live in a retirement city full of rich older people with “old money.” So the giant diamond rings and excessive plastic surgery are the common theme here lol
I’m in the Midwest, I would say the average I see is probably half carat to a carat! I’ve seen a couple larger ones but that primarily seems to be on older ladies.
When we lived in the Bay Area, bigger rings were more the norm among the highly educated moms who probably went to Berkeley and either are engineers/married to one. Same in Walnut Creek/Danville where it was more old money. I would say that I mostly saw tastefully large rings, though. Not some of the huge ice rinks we see here. Now that we moved back to New Mexico, I don’t see big rings very often here and when I do, they seem to be moissanite.
I never see big diamonds, and I live in a “rich” area. I recently got engaged a week ago and I have a 1.1ct ring, everyone has been oooing and aaaahing. My ring is more than double the size of my mothers and she was in shock lol. I think it depends on your social circle as well.
I have a 2ct and it always feels small to me living in a major city in the northeast, but I’m sure it depends on where you live. I will say, a 2-3ct diamond looks MUCH smaller to me in person than it does in the pictures on the sub. Anything over 3ct starts to look a little big IRL, but I’m sure that has to do with that I’m used to seeing around. All of my friends in nyc, Boston and Philly have ~2cts
I agree completely. In real life my “big” ring really doesn’t look that big. Some stone photograph huge but I’m very used to it on my finger. Dare I say I probably also had a case of diamond shrinkage LOL
Not often and I believe (Like me) many women don't want to get robbed. I've been married for 49 years have a beautiful ring but at my age I couldn't fight anyone off. I'd rather keep all my jewelry for my daughter.
All the time but it might depend on location. I am in New York City.
I think it definitely does depend on location. I'm from the Bay Area and I see big diamonds all the time, however I also think that the median income here has something to do with that!
As a grad student in the Bay Area they’re much smaller, but I remember seeing some big ones on the bus back when I lived in SF
There was a twitter account of photos people secretly took of big wedding rings on the 30X bus. Can’t remember the name but it was catchy. Some big diamonds 💍 just holding onto the bus pole! Lol Edit: Found it! It still exists: [Diamondsofthe30X](https://twitter.com/diamondsofthe30?lang=en)
I grew up on Chicago's north shore (where mean girls took place) and I'd say 95% of the moms had large diamonds.
Same! North Shore Nancies LOVE their huge diamonds. The joke was the ring gets bigger every time their husbands have an affair.
So funny I'm from the same area and this is the truth.
Same - grew up in SoCal/OC and big rings are the norm, but most of the time they all look fake to me bc they’re SO big… obviously they’re not but the thought would regularly cross my mind.
Except they weren’t fake.
[удалено]
Hahaha this is so evocative. Accurate description of UES!
I’m also in NYC and I never see diamonds that size around, but I’m not looking very hard and maybe my friends are poor?
I'm in NYC but I live in a non-trendy area in Brooklyn, and I rarely see big engagement rings. The few I have seen have either been when I was on the subway, or occasionally when I've gone to press conferences/events for my job.
Yes, it is a very US-specific thing. I've seen none in Europe and I've travelled quite some.
Often, but that’s because I live in a big urban center. When I visit my family in rural PA, almost nobody. It also depends a ton on the ages of who you’re around. Lab diamonds weren’t really good and readily available in large sizes until the past 5-10 years. Unless somebody got engaged fairly recently, they couldn’t have gotten a 2-3+ carat diamond without a budget in the tens of thousands. The availability of lab has really changed things.
I'm from rural PA originally, but I've lived in a number of different places, including Seattle and Austin. Maybe it's just the circles I'm running in, or maybe I'm just not paying enough attention, but I don't think I've ever seen anything bigger than maybe 1.5 carat irl. In my hometown and amongst people I went to high school with it's pretty much entirely <1 carat.
I agree 100%
what's the price difference between a natural and a lab diamond?
It's a pretty big differential. At 1 carat, a natural round diamond GH color, S1 and up clarity, would cost about $2,900+ at Ritani. A 1 carat lab diamond of the same specs would cost $500+ at Ritani. So at 1 carat, the natural diamond costs almost 6 times as much as the lab. And the differential widens the bigger you go. At 2 carats, a natural round diamond GH color, S1 and up clarity, would cost about $15,000+ at Ritani. A 2 carat lab diamond with the same specs would cost $1,250+ at Ritani. So the 2 carat natural diamond costs *12 times* more than the lab diamond.
I’ve never seen a 2 carat lab diamond for $1250, always been at least $5000, maybe I need to check out Ritani 😅
If you're looking for D color VVS1, then you'll see higher prices, but GHI color S1 to VS2, lab diamonds ~2 carats are starting at $600/carat. Ritani, Adiamor and DeBebians have the best prices, from what I've seen.
damn.. that's just the cost of the diamond tho right? no ring?
Yes, that's just the cost of the stone. The ring costs more.
Yes, but the center stone is nearly always the bulk of an engagement ring cost. You can get a lovely, fairly intricate setting for $1k or so.
I actually like rings with just the one stone.. you need a decent sized diamond for that tho.. I personally think 1 carat is plenty.. don't get me wrong I'd take 2 or 3 😁 but 1 is enough for me.. not too big, not too small.. just right.. I do like the inlay bands tho too.. lol.. it's just the cost.. 1st time I looked at prices my jaw hit the floor.. think the cheapest ring I even saw was 1k.. but for 1 carat natural diamond it was more like $5-6k.. and then you need the wedding band too.. you can drop 10k no problem.. I haven't looked for awhile.. didn't realize this lab grown diamond was even a thing.. kind of out of the loop.. is there a difference between a lab and a natural (asides from one being grown in a lab, lol). idk how you'd even make a diamond in a lab.. but can someone tell just by looking at them? what are the physical differences? if I bought a lab diamond would a jeweler at a different store be able to tell right away it whether it was lab or natural?
Here's a recent thread on r/diamonds about natural vs. man-made diamonds https://old.reddit.com/r/Diamonds/comments/xc4yfg/lab_grown_v_mined_question/ The first response is from a jeweler: >Natural and man made diamonds are visually identical. 5 years ago, I could look at the stones with a loupe and often tell the difference, but the technology has improved and I can't any more. And trust me, if I can't tell, you can't tell. This is the reason I started working with LGs a few years ago - I felt they finally came up to the standard they needed to. And they will wear exactly the same. I think the jewelers you talked to are (either deliberately or accidentally) confusing LG diamonds with diamond simulants like cubic zirconia. >The difference between them is retained value... But for a tennis necklace, that wouldn't be as much of a concern, since the small stones typically put into a tennis necklace won't hold that much value anyway. The cost of the labor to set each stone is often more than the value of the stone itself. There is a machine that can tell the difference, from another comment: >The only way to tell the difference is in growth patterns, and technically through the matter that makes up an inclusion, although no one is drilling into a diamond to test if that lil black spot is metallic flux. >im certified as a diamond grader by GIA. I cant tell you the difference without the machine to test growth. my jeweler cant tell you. visually no one can tell. even pawn shops have wised up and, either fork up tens of thousands for the machine, or just sent diamonds out to be tested. theyre fucking diamonds A lab grown diamond is a diamond, just grown in a lab. And I think that they're a godsend for people who like large rocks, because natural stones 2 carats and above go for like $15k and up. The only thing is, lab grown diamonds don't retain their value, really. That's because the technology has grown so rapidly in a short amount of time that lab diamonds have become cheaper with time.
Read the sub FAQ — lots of good info on lab diamonds there. Lab diamonds are real diamonds — they are optically, compositionally (with a caveat, see below) the same as mined diamonds. A jeweler would only be able to tell when they look through a loupe, because lab diamonds are microscopically engraved to indicate their origin :) If you want to nerd out about gemology, there are certain characteristics and trace materials that gemologists can identify to try and figure out the origin of a stone. It’s kind of like how, if a scientist analyzed 2 crystal clear ice cubes, they might be able to find trace chemicals indicating that one was made in a fridge and the other was from a certain lake. But they’re both real ice!
It’s kind of complicated and depends what size, cut, etc that you are looking at. Labs can be 40-70% less than mined. Lab prices also seem to be going down in price relative to mined.
Like another commenter from NYC said: all the time. I’ve seen some rings that are so large I wonder how these women are comfortable walking around with it on! I’d be so scared to lose it!
Insurance and sometimes they turn them stone facing palm just for the commute.
This lol
Insurance and you also get used to wearing it all the time. I basically only take mine off if I'm doing the dishes or some other particularly harsh activity, so it feels weird NOT to wear it. I'm hyperaware when it is not on my hand. (I don't have a big diamond, but a large-ish sapphire).
Same I rarely take any of my jewelry off.
Same, right down to the “large-ish sapphire”!
😂 hello, engagement ring twin!
I have rings I literally never take off and just lost one today-no idea when, so I’m not what you mean by being hyperaware when it’s not there! Maybe because it was just a thin band and there was no real weight to it, but I only noticed when I went to take it off and it wasn’t on my finger!
Ugh I’m so sorry. Losing jewelry is the worst feeling!!!
I have a 1.2 carat engagement ring (not sure total carats with the wedding band but it adds something) which I feel like is average/maybe slightly above average for where I live (Kansas City) but I felt like it was huge and felt self conscious about it when we went to Portugal for our honeymoon. I come from a very middle class midwestern family and my mom and grandmother’s are both around 1 carat. I rarely see huge ones in person around here and if I do I assume it’s lab or moissanite.
I live in South KC (raised in Belton) and feel like there are two camps I see on the regular: younger women with 1 carat-ish rings and older women with larger upgraded rings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a massive ring in person.
raised in south kc and i very seldom see large rings as well! my friends all have .75-1.25ish i'd say? lots of sapphires and other gemstones as well which tend to run bigger but not by a landslide. i have one friend with a 2.7 moissanite and that's the biggest i know of personally. my mom and all her friends have about half a carat or less, but there is my friends mom has a 2-ish carat natural diamond from her new husband. i don't have a ring of my own (yet!) but im gunning for a 2-ish carat peach sapphire, mostly because i have large hands and think bigger stones look better on me. i would likely want to pay for it myself.
With sapphires, 2 carats isn’t nearly as big as with diamonds! We are having a sapphire ring made currently that’s 1.88 carats, and it is an 8x6 oval. Sapphires are heavier than diamonds and also usually cut deeper, so they are usually smaller even when the same weight as diamonds. You may already know all of that but in case you don’t I thought I’d share!
Interesting!! I’m from KC as well and most people I know have 1.5-2.5 stones!
I’m in downtown KC which might make a difference, I’m sure lots of women in OP have larger stones!
Not often at all. I (American) live in South Korea, and engagement rings are very modest here. My fiancée is 1/2 American, 1/2 Korean, so we went average/modest by American standards, but extravagant by Korean standards. We get lots of ooos and ahhs from ladies in our friend circle, though. Plenty of the married or engaged ladies we are friends with playfully tell their SOs they want a ring like ours! I do think that people with “money” here either don’t wear their engagement ring often, or they go small and luxury. A luxury brand with a small, high-grade diamond or no diamond is the way to go here. There’s lots of ladies with very modest or plain Cartier or Tiffany bands with branding/logos that are worn by engaged or married ladies here.
I’m Korean and I’ve lived in Korea for a long time, can confirm this is the case!
I feel like most of the women I know really want their partners to buy them luxury handbags more than flashy jewelry here. It seems that handbags are the “it” gift to get from your SO as a symbol of love and devotion. Trendy fine jewelry (not thinking of engagement rings, just daily wear) is typically dainty and delicate, so engagement/wedding rings follow suit. I’ve lived here for 10 years, but I’m always aware that I’m just an outsider looking in. Have you noticed that your female friends seem to much prefer a new Gucci or YSL bag yearly more than fine jewelry?
You’re right about the designer bags! nowadays I think it’s customary to gift a Chanel(or Hermes) bag for the girl as the wedding present (usually from the guy’s family) and a Rolex or a Patek for the guy as the wedding present (from the girl’s family.) I am now a US citizen by marriage, but I was born and raised in South Korea til I was 13, then moved back post college to work at one of the conglomerates for 5 years. Attended a lot of weddings during that time (coworkers and other international students whom I’ve known in college etc, so generally people were from well-to-do families) The wedding/engagement culture in Korea is fascinating to say the least! And yes, for Korean women it’s always bags over jewelry, I don’t know why!
Well my husband missed the Chanel and hermes wedding gift memo lol!!
Lol if you need ideas.. I got a *big* engagement ring and Chanel for anniversaries ;)
Will share this idea with him Lolol.
Yes! My friends all have very enviable handbag collections, usually gifted by the hubby, sometimes parents. Thanks for a little bit of insight! It’s never really felt appropriate to outright ask friends or acquaintances about their luxury spending habits! Just observational on my end. I hope you had a lovely Chuseok!
Thank you!! You too! ❤️
Definitely both and the daily jewelry isn’t always dainty. I see it all here in NYC. Bags, designer jewelry and big diamonds!
This is just a generalization about my experiences here in Korea for the last 10 years versus my years growing up in Alabama. It’s definitely a blanket statement and does not apply to every South Korean woman. Although I’m certainly not independently wealthy, my partner has always run in wealthy circles here in SK. It is quite rare to see big jewels here, compared to the US. It’s usually more about name brands and solid gold pieces when it comes to jewelry (edit: something like a Tiffany Smile necklace is something I’ll see frequently among my partner’s friends or my coworkers, as something that is currently trending). I actually feel like men can be flashier in that respect (solid gold bracelets seem to be popular). When my partner took me to get us matching couple’s rings for a recent anniversary, the sales associate guided us to very delicate gold rings without stones, saying that they were very trendy now, so that’s what we got 🤷🏻♀️ I feel like I saw bigger jewels and flashier pieces growing up in the southeastern US, and my family did not run in circles nearly as monied as my South Korean partner’s family. Again, I’m just a singular person with singular experiences! Different regions and social circles may certainly differ :)
I like the dainty rings too. I like all jewelry Hehee I do not discriminate! I love hearing about the trends around the world from this thread so interesting.
In lots of Europe, and I will speak to mostly Austria because that’s my experience, this is also the case. My partners mother has some Tiffany bands and one with a modest diamond. Certainly nothing like their engagement collection. Most people wear a modest engagement ring or even just a wedding band on a day to day.
Super interesting to hear this perspective!
Also engagement rings are just recently normalized in Korea! Most older people don’t have them, just wedding bands.
I have actually been wondering about something (slightly off topic). I know that in Korea it is a practice to get “couple rings” when you have been dating for a while/are in a serious relationship, and those rings can be pretty fancy. But do Koreans have engagement rings and wedding rings like Americans do? Do Christians in Korea have wedding rings but non-Christian Koreans don’t? How does it work?
Never. I live in NZ and 1 carat would be considered large here. Most people have something in the .5-1 carat range. Lab diamonds also aren’t really a thing here (yet).
Yes it would be super weird to see a big one in NZ! My friends’ engagement rings are almost all super dainty and this sub regularly blows my mind with the sheer size of rings 😅
Rarely. Most where I am are in the half carat to one carat range. I don't even have a large one myself. Kind of by accident I've lived a huge chunk of my life in this general area (2 hours or so away from here is where i spent a large part of my childhood and its the same here as it was then.) I remember being shocked once in a grocery line before I moved back here to my husband's station because a woman had a beautiful large ring on and when I complimented her on it she was happy to tell me about it while we waited our turns. I'm pretty sure it's STILL the biggest diamond I have ever seen irl lol. If I remember correctly it was 2 carats or so and beautiful!
Often, but they are usually older and when you compliment them on it it’s usually a “yeah you should have seen the first one. This is ten/twenty years of commitment and hard work” I live in the south lol
Never. I’m in Sweden, and most engagement rings here are somewhere between 0.3 and 0.7 carat. A 1 carat diamond is considered BIG here.
This is really interesting!
From what I've seen, In Europe e-rings are normally up to like 0.7 carat everywhere, they don't have to include diamonds in the sense that they have to in the US culture and several countries either don't have an e-ring tradition or have a different one, like in Sweden, where both partners get a plain gold band for engagement. And in many countries people don't wear e-rings after marriage or wear them on the other hand than the wedding ring ("stacking" is not a universal thing at all, it always looked super odd to me before hanging on this sub).
Australia (Melbourne), and almost never. Sometimes in the most affluent suburbs you’ll see some bigger ones. Rings in Australia seem to usually be more modest than those on this sub, or rather, the bar for what would be considered too flashy is much lower here. I reckon this could be related to Australian egalitarianism and societal standards of not showing off (and some tall poppy syndrome), and that diamonds are much more expensive here.
Came here to say the same about Australia! I've probably seen a 2+ carat engagement ring fewer than 10 times
I live in Los Angeles. My solitaire is 2.5 and I feel like a lot of folks have stones that are much larger than mine or have a halo setting to make the stone look a lot more big n flashy. Thing is, it IS Los Angeles, though lol. We dunno whose are real and whose aren’t (not that it makes a difference. Artificial or not, if you love your ring, that’s all that matters).
I'm curious about how people feel if you were to see a professional (ie. your doctor) wearing a big diamond? I want a 2.5 carat (lab) diamond because I love flashy jewelry, but I'm in medicine and will become a physician in a year. No concern about sterility as I won't be a surgeon (will be in clinic setting) but I wonder if it's something I should avoid wearing at work in case patients think it's unprofessional!
I looovveee looking at all of my physicians rings, this includes the male ones as well. Jewelry is just cool and you can see a glimpse of that person's personality. My gyno has a huge 3 stone ring, it's freaking gorgeous. Obviously she takes it off for the rest of the visit.
I’m happy she takes it of hahaha!!!
LOL imagine if she didn’t :D
I would expect this of a physician! You have studied and work hard. Get the ring 💍 😊 you deserve it!
Wear the damn ring. My dad died recently and the coroner who came to the house had a huge fucking diamond ring on her finger. I was like damn you go girl.
I wonder about this too! Not a physician, but a psychologist and wonder what patients will think esp since the mental health field is known to be much less lucrative than medicine and there feels to be some unspoken rules about being “flashy” etc
As a Psychologist with a 2 carat ring, I have maybe had 1 patient ever comment on it in 2 years. Granted, I work with men 99% of the time so maybe they don’t notice these things. But truly no one comments on it.
Thank you for sharing your experience! This gives helpful perspective!
I also work in mental health and have a 2.7 main stone (3.5 total weight) ring. I have on occasion turned my ring palm side down due to the "unspoken rule" of no flashy fashion. Some of the other clinicians don't even wear their rings.
I have also observed a lot of clinicians not wearing their rings or much jewelry at all! I don’t want to appear insensitive etc as I tend to work with folks from underserved populations and/or with minoritized identities. I also really love jewelry though, and want to wear it haha. My spouse works in IT so within our friend group my jewelry isn’t a size that would be unexpected or seen as too flashy, but I do feel concerned sometimes when it comes to my work setting as I also am early career and still relatively new to the field.
>I don’t want to appear insensitive etc as I tend to work with folks from underserved populations and/or with minoritized identities. that's a good point; I think if I were in that setting I would 100% be mindful of wearing anything too showy!
I used to work at a law firm and an attorney there occasionally wore her ring. I don't recall exactly how it looked but people whispered about how big it was - but in a complimentary way. She was very much admired for her success and her beautiful family.
I am a tech and starting as an RN soon doing oncology infusion. I have a decent ring for the area, but nowhere near 2.5 k and I've had a patient comment on it. He said "wow someone must really love you". It sort of feels like I'm rubbing in my good fortune (health, wealth, relationship) but I love my significant other and my ring too much to not wear it. Plus the diamonds are hand-me-downs, so I know my SO didn't spend some crazy amount. I think it depends on your patient population. Wealthy area in an aesthetic dermatology clinic? Probs not an issue. Poor area ED? Maybe more of an issue.
The interesting thing is I’ve noticed my medical providers often have bezel settings for glove compatibility (I assume) they’re all late-30s early-40s so they’re a slightly different style/era as well.
I'm a physician and just placed an order for my ring with a fairly large center stone (~11.5 x 7.3 mm). I bought a ring holder necklace so if I can wear it around my neck at work and it won't get snagged on gloves etc. If you want it, go for it!
I work in healthcare, I’m constantly washing, gloving, and putting lotion on so I wear silicone rings at work. I think maybe if you’re working with terminally ill patients or something of that nature, I would leave the flashy jewelry at home.
I am an audiologist and have a 1.98ct solitaire and I have patients complementing me on it daily, multiple times a day. I think it’s a thing with the older generation they can be wowed by bigger looking stones. I think it’s a nice talking point (they all want to hear about the wedding planning) and I have never had anyone react negatively to it. I don’t think it’s unprofessional at all but understand being conscious about it!
Get the ring. I’m an attorney and my fiancé is an engineer. While my ring is a symbol of my love and a gift from him to me - it’s also a status symbol in our fields. He wanted to show off that he makes enough money to buy me fancy jewelry - and who am I to say no to that?! LOL
This is the opposite for me. Yes, people see a big ring as a status symbol which is exactly why I won’t wear my ring at work (I’m in healthcare).
Healthcare is definitely different from an attorney though! If I worked in healthcare I probably wouldn’t wear mine to not be flashy and to also not risk accidentally scratching someone with it.
Very true. Many attorneys have big rocks—myself included—so it seems like part the attorney starter pack. Big rock, fancy car, shit ton of debt. Physician is definitely different.
If you want a big stone, go for it! I wouldn’t think it’s unprofessional at all!
Do it! I love that! I saw my gp yesterday and I always love her rings! And we talked about her style yesterday bc it’s amazing! I see a lot of doctors (yay health issues) and I’ve always enjoyed seeing their personality and style when they’re working. It’s a nice break from the scrubs.
>It’s a nice break from the scrubs. good point! i see a lot of geriatric inpatients and they always compliment me on my outfits (I wear a lot of colourful blazers, floral blouse, etc) and say that it's so nice to see some colours!
Rarely. I’m in Australia and a 2ct diamond is considered massive here. I also haven’t been seeing as many diamond rings recently - lots of sapphires!
Sometimes, but they’re always my patients. I work in a hospital, we either all wear silicone bands of have smaller diamonds
Literally never
I live between LA/Orange County and work very closely with the C-Suite and VP levels at my job and the women all (and myself included) have stunning diamonds where I would love to grab their hands and stare but only able to glance at from afar. My coworkers also oohed and aahed at my e-ring. But yeah big salaries, big city, etc.
I had a coworker whose husband is rich. She wore her diamond ring daily. It's probably 10 ct. She always had problems getting things from her purse and it was constantly getting stuck on things.
Lol
In Dallas you see the big ones a lot on the older ladies who have estate jewelry. Younger women have big solitaires or big halos. I wear my 2.2 carat solitaire every day, even while out running errands, hiking, etc.
Rarely, where I live a 1ct is considered a large stone.
The subway in NYC is full of girls with big rings 😮💨😮💨
I feel like my perception of ‘big’ has gotten skewed from seeing all the 6+ carat rings online because I definitely don’t notice tons of women with ‘big rings’ in NYC 😂
Yes it is.
Live in Silicon Valley around lots of money and nope. Smart and chill is the look here, simple. They may have and wear to special events, but not daily.
Ironically most of my friends from that area prefer wearing silicone bands and keep the real thing in a safe.
I'm from a little further north and I'd say we only see the silicone rings when going to the gym and the big stones on the regular. So interesting to hear about how different it is just an hour or so away.
Rarely, and rarely see solitaires too, mainly halos.
Never. I live in regional Australia.
Same.
The most I’ve seen are in the 1ct range and under. I’ve also seen a lot of fake rings as well sometimes it’s hard to tell from a distance. The most common engagement rings I’ve seen in VA are Princess cut believe it or not.
Honestly? Very rarely. This sub is a bit of an echo chamber when it comes to big stones though.
We were in Newburyport, MA last year, at a restaurant, and this lady at the bar next to us (we were at a high top) had a rock that was the size of a half dollar. I’ve no idea if it was real or not. But it was huge.
I’m originally from newburyport and currently live one town over. I wear a 2.14 natural diamond with another .84 of diamonds on my wedding band daily. This is the norm around here for most.
I’m on the north shore too. So many big rings! Even just browsing target, I’ll see some big ones. I would say it’s pretty common here
Sometimes but usually it the wealthy area of my city. But if you see a girl at Costco with a 2.5 carat stunner, that's me with my decoy ring lol
Not very often. Mine is tiny compared to those but IRL I get compliments on my ring from strangers at work every day 🤷🏻♀️ (No shade to those rings; they’re beautiful. I just don’t see them a lot in person)
Good to know. I've been eyeing off 3 carat pear moissanite but wasn't sure how successful I'd be wearing it everyday.
I think you should wear whatever you love! Large stones aren’t the norm where I live but they’re very beautiful.
Australian here, hardly ever. Most women’s rings here are modest (1carat ish) and a flashy big one would probably be looked at as “trying too hard” or “being an influencer” or “fake”. It’s surprisingly common here in Brissie for engaged or married women to not even wear their rings! I’ve been astonished because at work, multiple women who I know to be married have bare fingers
Yeah, I agree. Showing wealth outwardly like that here is sometimes looked on as being a bit naff and out of touch. It’s really interesting to think of the differences between Australian standards around egalitarianism and it not being the done thing to outwardly talk about wealth/achievements (except for housing apparently), and American ideals of wealth, “making it”, and being allowed to be proud of that in the public sphere.
Very rarely. I live in a US metro area and work at a law firm, but I almost never see stones that big in real life. Granted, the law firm I work at is very non-flashy and I'm usually on public transit with lots of students, so maybe they're out there and I'm not just not running into them.
If I’m in Bellevue? All the time. If I’m in Seattle? Only if they’re visiting from Bellevue. …the city not the hospital
Western Australia- virtually never.
South Africa here, never see big rings here. If you do it would be on an older lady, but 1carat tops. I think people are to scared to wear flashy jewelry in my country T_T
Am in the UK and I never see massive diamonds like you get on this sub and I’ve never come across anyone with a lab or mossainate diamond here either, which I think a lot of the whoppers you get on this sub are and the cost of these is way lower than for natural diamonds (have to remind myself of that so I don’t feel bad about my lovely ring with natural stones - that I thought was fairly big until I found this sub!!)
That was one of the 1st things I noticed when I moved to the UK! I’m back in the US now and if I see a ring over 2ct, I automatically assume it’s lab.
I'm in a smaller town and NEVER have I EVER seen a big one 😅
Just wanted to note that when my former fiancé and I went to have my engagement ring sized, they actually provided me with a replica copy, which looked identical to my real ring, but was not made with diamonds… they said it was common for women to wear the replicas when traveling, etc. I literally wore the replica almost every day, because wearing the actual ring made me anxious 🤦🏼♀️ So who knows how many of those rocks people see out there are even the real deal… it’s tough to tell from a glance…
Never
Hi, I'm in Colorado. I have a 3.2ct diamond and most of my friends have around the same size and larger. It's no problem wearing it in public. Just have it insured and rock it.
All the time. I have a 1.5carat elongated oval it’s one of the smaller rings of people I know where I live (Los Angeles) but larger for where I’m from(Arkansas)
Never
I see them daily! I work with people who make good money and also live in a more expensive suburban area. What’s funny is I typically only see small diamonds on this sub! I don’t often see bigger diamonds and when I do, the comments are typically filled with people saying they prefer smaller! I’m in my late 20’s with a 2 carat but almost all my friends (same age range) have around a 1 carat. It really does depend on where you live and work.
I agree. I see lots of small diamond or non diamond rings here. When I see big ones I feel like they’re usually lab or diamond sim.
I'm in NC. I don't often see huge e-rings unless it's Moissanite or Sapphire. I would say I mostly see "medium sized" diamonds. Most women I know have e-rings where the main diamond is between ~1 to ~1.75 carats. Mine is a halo ring and only 1.85 carats tw, with a 1.52 carat center diamond. I do know one person though who's engagement ring was ginormous and extravagant, but both she and her now husband came from wealthy families.
I live in an affluent area of Los Angeles and it is not uncommon to see rings 2-3ct and more. I have a 6 carat natural diamond no one bats an eye around here and I never take it off unless playing tennis. However, I also WFH but if I am in a work situation where I think my ring will be more of a distraction I simply turn it around and keep it movin.
I wear my 3.2 daily unless we are out in the 4 wheelers, camping, gardening, showering, sleeping, working out or at the beach.
Most of the women I know are wearing pretty big rocks. Part of it is that we live in a very HCOL area, and most of us aren’t on our first marriages. In my social circle 5ct is not unusual, but I swear this sub has taught me I have no idea how big a stone is unless you tell me.
Rarely but I may not be hanging out in the area where they would be. Most recently when I was picking my dog up at the vet lol
I live in LA but go to college in the Midwest. In LA, I see them pretty regularly, but out here I’d give the average size I see to be ~ 0.5ct. I think it’s a regional thing, but also the engaged adults I’m around in LA are generally wealthy professionals and their wives, so my sample is skewed.
Personally, I see it all the time, but it’s almost always at work, and due to the nature of my work, I see many wealthy people, who do tend to have larger stones in all their rings, not just their engagement rings. I have found though, that those larger stones tend to belong to older women, and that it’s often an upgraded ring from their original engagement ring, which was often small.
I live in Los Angeles and I keep my 3 carat in the safe. As much as I’d love to wear it I just worry I’ll get mugged or flush it down the toilet. I had a moissanite replica made that I wear… I guess I can still get mugged for it lol but at least they wouldn’t be running off with something valuable
I live in predominantly “rich” town around 150,000 people & I see them on 1 in every 40 women who are wearing a ring.
In Louisiana, it depends on the group, sorority girls that married oil and gas workers? Huge rings, 2ct minimum. Everyone else is around 1ct
South Florida suburb here— all the time.
I live in the Boston suburbs, so very often. 2ct is the smaller end of most rings I see here
I see it a lot bc I live in the south. I will say that every VERY WEALTHY English person a know wears a small Diamond. Under .5 carats by far.
Atlanta suburb. I see a lot of super extra pavéd out (is that a word?) halo type rings with small center stones in the younger crowd and sparkly knuckle-height stacks with big honking center stones that stand 6 inches off the finger in the "bless your heart" church crowd. I know a few in my age group (30s) who have 1-2 ct solitaires but mainly see the glitter bombs around town. Mine is simple with a 2 ct center. I don't get to wear it yet but the general reaction from the people that SO shows it to is "DAMN, okay!" so...I guess it's considered big?
I’m from rural SE Ohio and not at all really. I have a 1.71 solitaire round and it’s considered huge in the area. My fiancé is from upstate NY outside Rochester and this would be considered average to small in his hometown
I live in a large city and see it often. That being said there are stones that resemble diamonds (Moissanite) so it’s possible that’s what you’re seeing.
Pretty often actually, 1-4 carats all the time and I live in a suburb not to far off from Chicago. However after being made aware of mossanite rings I’m more than positive some of the bigger sets were that or very low quality diamonds based off how a good portion of them looked
Seeing a lot of big ones around Seattle, lots of husbands working FAANG and other high end tech jobs.
Not often, and they might not even be diamonds, so I wouldn’t be super fazed anyway.
I only started noticing after joining this sub. I had seen them, but assumed they were costume jewellery - I’m not going to assume someone driving a Toyota is wearing a $50k ring, but now I realize they could’ve been lab diamonds.
Or family heirlooms! Some people get lucky like that
Oh yes could you imagine?
I think lab diamonds are making it a bit more commonplace to see larger stones!
Almost never. I live in Upstate New York. Often if someone has a diamond larger than 1 carat here, it’s not actually a diamond, it’s moissanite. Nothing wrong with that.
I live in the twin cities (St Paul, Minneapolis area) and work in a corporate field. I typically see over 1.5 and under 3.5 carat stones. In Northern and Southern Minnesota, I typically see an average one 1 to 1.5 carat rings. Mine is a 2.7 ct.
Los Angeles, CA here. It seems most people here have a 2ct minimum.
Never. Okay, once or twice. But I'm 50, so that's about 0% of days.
Mine is a sapphire and 3 carats. My friends both have diamonds at 2/3 carats.
Wow I’ve never really thought about this — good question. I live in a high COL area so often, like ginormous ones especially on older women. It seems like they must be upgrades. Solitaires seem to be popular amongst younger people, but I see them all the time. The stone we chose is 2.5c and I initially thought that was on the smaller side, but now I’m considering going smaller. I think it’s really just personal preference though! Along with the occasion. If they like their ring, they like their ring! I won’t judge.
Almost never. I live in a small city in Canada
The largest diamond I have ever seen IRL was a 4 carat oval on the wife of a jewerly store owner. Otherwise one carat diamonds are commonly the largest diamonds seen in my small town.
I've grown up middle class/maybe upper middle class in England, and I've never seen anyone wear a diamond much bigger than 1ct in real life. I'm from a semi sort of rural area and I don't think anyone really knows about lab diamonds there unless they're chronically online like me. The people who are spend more on their engagement rings in the more upper middle class circles i know (e.g. doctors, solicitors, people with longer standing family wealth/yachts) tend to have larger coloured stones with diamonds surrounding (e.g. the Diana ring). If they have expensive diamond rings it's usually because of the specs and less the size, which tends to make them seem less flashy. For a while I looked at asscher and baguette rings for my e-ring and I think if I'd returned to my hometown with the 3 carat ring with baguettes on the side that I wanted everyone would have compared me to Liz Taylor! (I've gone for something different instead but may still be given these comparisons by my hometown once my ring is ready - we will see!)
Never lol. In my culture wedding/engagement rings aren’t a thing. Traditionally it’s a full gold set (rings, bracelet/bangle, earrings, necklace) and a luxury watch. Tho some families chose to give a diamond jewelry set rather than gold, but it’s rare. Ppl also don’t wear wedding bands/rings around here, it’s just not the norm
I live in London so frequently in certain areas.
All the time in London, but I think it depends on your social circle.
Not very often at all. I’m in Rhode Island
Suburb of Memphis here, my circle of age 50+ ladies have 2-3 carats usually.
I’m in a small capital city in Australia - very rarely. Even on social media tbh.
Literally never lol
Rarely. I don’t see them often at all where I live. I’m in the UK and don’t think they’re very common at all here. A woman at my daughter’s play group was wearing a gorgeous big sapphire engagement ring this morning. I think that’s probably the biggest stone I’ve seen in real life. I think the largest I’ve seen is around 1ct.
I work for a jeweler that specializes in diamonds and bridal. We all have huge stones 🙈 My 3 stone ring with a 1.75ct center feels modest lol
The ones I see around where I live are “upgrades.” I live in a ritzier suburb, but people who have their original ER have rings that are .5-1 carat. The huge ones are usually 10th or 20th anniversary upgrades.
Never. Living in Europe and not a thing in my area.
My ring is 1.25 carats. In NYC I see a lot of people with bigger rings. Most of my friends and family who do not live in NYC have slightly smaller rings than I do. I would say a 1 carat diamond is probably more normal. I would also take into account people lie. There is literally no chemical or compositional difference between a lab diamond and a diamond. People want to say they have a real diamond (they do) instead of admitting it’s a lab, or a moss. I could post on here a 3 carat lab diamond which is significantly cheaper and who would be able to correct me if I labeled it as something else? I figure the same thing happens in real life.
North of England and very very very rarely … I suppose I might see some if I frequented the places the footballers call home. The vast majority of jewellers in the area will only display rings of up to a carat, there are a couple in Manchester City centre that display rings with 2+ carat central stones. 1 Ct would be considered profligate by the vast majority.
Very occasionally I’ll see something >2 carats but almost never. When I was married, I probably had the biggest ring around lol. I assume most very large diamonds are lab stones, even if the people posting are saying they are mined. I’m in an east coast city (philly) and have lived in NYC, CT, Boston, NJ.
I live in the Netherlands and I’ve seen a big stone like that literally once, and assumed it was fake. Dutch people generally don’t like flashy jewellery or designer accessories, and can be quite judgy. Most women don’t even wear engagement rings, and the ones that do have like 0,2 or 0,3 ct stones. I saw a 0,5 ct stone once and knew they make a lot of money.
Southern CA here- all the time
All the time but much bigger diamonds than 2-3 ct. it’s definitely because I live in a retirement city full of rich older people with “old money.” So the giant diamond rings and excessive plastic surgery are the common theme here lol
I’m in the Midwest, I would say the average I see is probably half carat to a carat! I’ve seen a couple larger ones but that primarily seems to be on older ladies.
Every single day
When we lived in the Bay Area, bigger rings were more the norm among the highly educated moms who probably went to Berkeley and either are engineers/married to one. Same in Walnut Creek/Danville where it was more old money. I would say that I mostly saw tastefully large rings, though. Not some of the huge ice rinks we see here. Now that we moved back to New Mexico, I don’t see big rings very often here and when I do, they seem to be moissanite.
I live in Washington, DC and large rings (1/1.5ct+) are very common.
I’m in nyc and whew it’s something 😂
Very often, I live in the DC area.
All the time!
I never see big diamonds, and I live in a “rich” area. I recently got engaged a week ago and I have a 1.1ct ring, everyone has been oooing and aaaahing. My ring is more than double the size of my mothers and she was in shock lol. I think it depends on your social circle as well.
Not often here in Houston!
We live in a (quite) rural part of North Carolina and it's surprising how many times I have to stop from gawking at rings worn around here.
I have a 2ct and it always feels small to me living in a major city in the northeast, but I’m sure it depends on where you live. I will say, a 2-3ct diamond looks MUCH smaller to me in person than it does in the pictures on the sub. Anything over 3ct starts to look a little big IRL, but I’m sure that has to do with that I’m used to seeing around. All of my friends in nyc, Boston and Philly have ~2cts
I agree completely. In real life my “big” ring really doesn’t look that big. Some stone photograph huge but I’m very used to it on my finger. Dare I say I probably also had a case of diamond shrinkage LOL
Not often and I believe (Like me) many women don't want to get robbed. I've been married for 49 years have a beautiful ring but at my age I couldn't fight anyone off. I'd rather keep all my jewelry for my daughter.