The Ultimate Guide to Buying a $12,000 Diamond Ring

So, you have decided to take the plunge into marriage and get engaged! That’s exciting enough, but now you have engagement ring options to think about and a budget of $12000 to make the purchase.

While $12,000 may not be an astronomical amount of money, it is significantly above the average that people spend on a diamond engagement ring. For a generous budget like this, you should be able to get something really nice.

In this article, we will reveal valuable insights and shopping tips for a $12000 diamond ring. You can also find useful ideas and design inspirations for your dream ring. Let’s dive in!

The 4Cs and Shopping For a 12K Diamond Ring the Smart Way

The beautiful “Guinevere Pave” diamond ring setting available at White Flash.

When it comes to buying a 12k diamond engagement ring (or any diamond for that matter), you need to have a solid understanding of the 4Cs if you want to make smart and rational purchase decisions.

The 4Cs are: cut, carat, color and clarity. I’ve also placed them in the order of priority that you should focus on. Below, I’ve listed some of the most critical and useful articles to help you grasp these concepts.

1. The 4Cs of Diamonds That Buyers Should Know About
2. The Ultimate Step by Step Guide to Buying a Diamond Ring
3. Ideal Proportions and Guidelines for Round Diamonds
4. A Beginner’s Guide to Understanding and Comparing Diamond Prices
5. The Best Places You Should Visit When Buying a Diamond

Cut is the most important factor that determines the appearance and performance of a diamond. A well cut diamond will look brighter, exhibit better brilliance and colored fire which gives the stone its sparkle factor.

Carat basically refers to how much the diamond weighs but not necessarily how big it looks. This is also the attribute that the majority of people pay attention to and has the biggest impact on prices.

Color actually refers to the lack of color in a diamond. The GIA grading scale of D-Z is typically used with D being colorless and Z being lightly colored. While diamonds are graded face down, they are mounted in settings and usually seen face up.

In reality and real life viewing, the distinctions between individual color grades are actually minute and usually not detectable to an untrained eye. If you want a colorless looking diamond, my recommendation is to buy a G or better color diamond.

Clarity refers to the absence of inclusions and blemishes in a diamond. Similar to color, a grading scale ranging from Flawless/Internally Flawless to Included is used to assess a diamond’s clarity.

In most gem-grade diamonds, inclusions are minute and not visible to the naked eye. My recommendation is to buy a VS2 or better clarity grade if you want an eyeclean diamond.

What Are the Options Available for a $12 000 Engagement Ring Budget?

The cost of a diamond ring is essentially made up of 2 components: the ring setting and the center stone. Obviously, there is going to be a need to balance the cost between them and it is really up to your personal preferences to allocate your budget.

In general, most people would spend about $1,000 – $1,500 for a ring setting and put the rest of the budget towards the center stone. For the purpose of showing you the possible choices of center stones you can get, let’s assume your setting will cost $2000.

This will leave us with $10,000 to shop for the center stone. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the various types of options you can get around this price point.

Super ideal cut round diamond options below 12000 dollars.

As you can see above, the price of a diamond is heavily dictated by the 4Cs. If you have a fixed budget to work with and want to buy a higher color/clarity diamond, you would have to compromise on carat size.

Vice versa, if you like a warmer looking lower colored diamond for a vintage style setting, you can get a significantly larger J diamond for less money compared to a D or G color diamond.

If you are looking for a fancy shaped diamond, the great thing is that these shapes are significantly cheaper in prices compared to round cut diamonds. Their lower prices will mean that you have more options to choose from across the 4Cs.

Comparison of round cut vs princess cut vs cushion cut diamonds at James Allen.

Depending on what your priorities are, your choice of shape and 4Cs will be unique. To get an idea of what’s available and diamonds at competitive prices, head over to James Allen and Blue Nile to start browsing for yourself.

My Top 5 Ideas for Diamond Engagement Rings Under $12,000

With a budget of $12000 for a diamond engagement ring, you should avoid preset diamond rings and choose your own diamond when you go shopping. Why? That’s because choosing your own diamond and setting gives you complete control over the quality and cost of the ring.

And it is pretty straightforward as long as you follow the guidelines here. With that said, let’s take a look at some of my favorite ideas for buying a $12000 engagement ring.

For people who want to get the biggest bang for their buck, a simple solitaire setting will enable you to allocate a bigger portion of your budget towards the center stone. A solitaire 4 prong or 6 prong setting would be ideal and provide a style that doesn’t go out of fashion.

A clean looking 6 prong setting with a super ideal cut round diamond – White Flash.

This minimalistic 14k white gold setting only costs $350 at White Flash and leaves you with more than $11,000 for the center stone. This amount of money can allow you to buy a large center stone to showcase its brilliance.

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Legato micro pave engagement ring in 18k white gold with 1.337ct G/SI1 round diamond.

This masterpiece is a micro-pave setting designed by White Flash and makes use of their signature A CUT ABOVE® hearts and arrows melees for maximum sparkle.

Highly affordable at a price of $1170 and crafted with perfection, it is ideal for people who want an eye catching diamond engagement ring. This ring design also leaves a generous budget leftover for the center stone.

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A vintage inspired knife edge setting with an oval cut center diamond. This ring design features pavé arches that line the edges of the shank to give a sophisticated yet surreal appearance.

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For 12 thousand dollars, you can get a large sized 1.5ct princess cut diamond that sparkles like a disco ball and pair it with this 18 yellow gold pave setting. This ring design features an intertwining rope style shank and symbolizes your eternal love for her.

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Made from platinum, this classic 3 stone ring offers tapered baguette sidestones that flank the center diamond. With a 12k budget, you can easily find a 1.5ct emerald cut diamond (or any other fancy shape you like) to complete this ring design.

Best Place to Buy a 12 Thousand Dollar Engagement Ring

1.32ct G color VVS2 AGS certified diamond listing at James Allen.

First up on our list is James Allen. They are an industry leader in the world of diamond retailing because of their transparent business practices and solid customer service.

Since their inception, James Allen’s intuitive website and 360° HD videos have enabled the everyday consumer to inspect diamonds and jewelry in full detail. Their broad selection of GIA/AGS certified diamonds and ring designs makes them one of our favorite companies to recommend.

I’ve personally bought a number of diamond rings from them to review their craftsmanship and service standards. If you are interested, click here for our full review of James Allen.

In fact, hundreds of our readers make their purchase from James Allen every month and I’ve gotten really great feedback from them.

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Blue Nile is the world’s largest online diamond retailer and was the first company to cut away the middle-men by listing diamonds directly from the upstream manufacturers. As Blue Nile maintains a lean business structure to keep operating expenses low, this has led to cheaper prices for consumers.

While Blue Nile started out by listing their inventory with only a grading report, they had made significant improvements in recent years by introducing video technology to their listings. They had also made big changes to their craftsmanship (read my full review here) and fulfillment.

What makes Blue Nile stand out is their impressive inventory size where you can literally find a diamond for any budget. They have also partnered with various well-known designers to increase their ring design selections.

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18k white gold elegant solitaire engagement ring setting by White Flash.

White Flash is a vendor specializing in super ideal cut diamonds that offer the best sparkle and light performance. They hold one of the world’s largest collection of ideal cut diamonds that are carefully curated for their superlative cut quality.

One of the biggest pluses of shopping at White Flash is that they show you exactly what you are buying by providing ASET, Idealscope, hearts and arrows, magnified diamond image and 360 HD video. This allows you to easily analyze and understand what you are buying.

White Flash offers a risk-free 30 day return period and a comprehensive one year service plan (one of the best in the industry) to give you complete peace of mind. They also have a modern in-house manufacturing facility that gives them control over the workmanship of their jewelry pieces.

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With that, I hope this article has provided you with useful information to make a $12,000 engagement ring purchase! Remember to have fun while shopping for your diamond ring. Look around, take your time and if you have any questions, feel free to get in touch. I wish you the best of luck!

If you want to get a high quality diamond engagement ring with a $12,000 budget, make sure you check out James Allen, Blue Nile and White Flash. These are reliable vendors that offer competitive prices for their diamonds and great craftsmanship quality in their settings.

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