How Bling Is Your Ring?
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - November and December are traditionally the busiest for marriage proposals. So, with diamond rings in high demand, what do women want -- and what's a guy to do?
You'll need deep pockets to put a ring on Carrie. She won't accept anything smaller than four carats.
"Yes -- total carats," she says. "It doesn't just have to be one diamond, but total four."
She doesn't want to be disappointed, so she's removed the element of surprise.
"He has the serial number, so he knows exactly how much he needs," Carrie says.
Just how much? Rich Goldberg, the president of Safian & Rudolph Jewelers in Center City, says some are surprised when price tag expectations meet reality.
"Women come in here all the time saying, 'I heard it was six months' salary or a year's salary,'" he tells KYW Newsradio.
A wedding industry expert puts the average size of engagement rocks these days at a little over a carat. Goldberg calls that their "sweet spot," but says bigger doesn't always mean better.
"When you have a fine cut," he says, "the brilliance and the light refraction that you get really catches your eye more than a diamond that might be slightly larger."
On the streets outside Jeweler's Row, Michelle says she's, "always been OK with a Cracker Jack box ring."
Lauren, too -- kind of.
"It's very ostentatious when people have giant diamond rings. Not that I would necessarily turn one down."
PJ doesn't buy it.
"As long as it's bigger than their friend's, they have some bragging rights at the end of the day."
He's just frustrated at how diamonds, for some, are a stand-in for emotion.
"It's more about feeling and what matters between you two."
That -- and color, clarity, cut, and carats, says Goldberg.
"I really think it's that balance between a very fine cut that has a lot of life to it," he says, "but also you don't want to disappoint with size."
...A compromise that might be the first big test of a relationship.
Just don't tell Shaun, who doesn't even pass the scratch test.
"I would just buy the cubic zirconium."
Bush: "You'd buy a CZ? She's going to know."
Shaun: "Yea, you think she'd know -- but I dunno man, I hear they make them pretty good now."
Show us your bling! Follow KYW Newsradio on Twitter and tweet us a pic of your rock.
Reported by Ian Bush, KYW Newsradio 1060
