5 Helpful Tips When Visiting an NYC Jewelry Store
NYC is like that overachieving classmate that takes AP classes, plays a varsity sport, and overwhelmingly wins the vote for student body president. Not only is NYC home to Broadway, Wall Street, the Met, and the Empire State Building, it also houses the notorious fine jewelry diamond district.
NYC jewelry stores are rich with history, often harboring 3rd or 4th generation diamond experts and jewelers who continue to operate their family-owned businesses. With over 2,600 independent businesses located in the diamond district, NYC has all of the resources you need to find a swoon-worthy engagement ring, wedding band, or fine jewelry.
That being said, it is always helpful to establish a plan of action before tackling a big project. To help you streamline the process, we curated 5 of the most helpful jewelry shopping tips to keep top of mind when shopping for jewelry in an NYC jewelry store.
Tip #1: Have a Budget or Price Range in Mind
We know that putting a dollar sign in the form of a hard budget or a general price range can seemingly suck the romance out of an act of love and devotion.
But, let’s entertain a shift in perspective.
Setting a budget or a price range when jewelry shopping, more specifically engagement ring shopping, allows you the freedom to focus on romance rather than mentally calculating the grand total of each additional customization.
If you are shopping for an engagement ring or wedding band with your significant other, it is helpful to discuss a budget or price range to ensure both of you enter and exit the jewelry store with confidence and assurance. While this may seem like a difficult topic to encroach, it is certainly better than the alternative: needless guilt or dreadful overwhelm. Eek!
The NYC diamond district is anything but short of selections within any and all price ranges. Share your budget or price range with your salesperson once you establish rapport so that they can present options that will best suit you.
Tip #2: Honesty is the Best Policy
If there is one thing in your entire life with which you should practice relentless, persistent honesty, it should be while shopping for your engagement ring or wedding band. Lie all you want in other areas of your life if you would like (we would advise against this, for the record), but practice complete honesty when shopping for an engagement ring.
Say it with us, now: “I don’t like this cut. Do you have other options?”
Or, if you would like a less dramatic response, try: “I had a [fill in diamond shape here] cut in mind, can you show me options in this cut?”
We rely on your honesty and communicated preferences, however unorthodox, to guide your jewelry shopping experience. Honesty is one of the most important jewelry tips, and we find that the more honest our clients are with our salespeople, the happier they are with their final selections.
Tip #3: Determine What You Like and Dislike Before Your Visit
Have you dreamed of a vintage-inspired oval diamond with a yellow gold band that sits daintily on your ruby red nails? Or, have you idly saved multiple morganite engagement rings to your “Jewelry” board on Pinterest because of its unique, antique aesthetic?
1.79 Carat Oval Diamond Two-Tone Solitaire Engagement Ring
Pear Shape Morganite Rose Gold HaloRing with Split Band, 2.37 Carat
Having a clear understanding of what you like and dislike will effectively narrow your search while shopping in an NYC jewelry store. If you are shopping in secret for your partner, it is all hands on deck! Search their Pinterest boards, recall any minute reference to engagement ring preferences, ask their friends, or use their personality as a guide.
If you are unsure of how to start narrowing down your preferences, you can visit our YouTube channel for an array of bite-sized clips featuring various diamond cuts, carat sizes, band metal colors, and more in action (on real fingers!). Our playlists are organized by cut, which is often the easiest place to start your search.
Tip #4: Bring a Family Member or Friend
Two heads are better than one, especially when it comes to making an exciting, albeit overwhelming, engagement ring or wedding band selection.
If you have made the decision to incorporate your partner in the process of choosing an engagement ring, wedding band, or combination purchase, you have all you need in more ways than one. We would advise against incorporating a third party into this decision to avoid too many cooks in the kitchen; relish in the NYC jewelry shopping experience with your soul’s match.
If you are a lone-ranger on the journey to a surprise proposal, we recommend bringing a fellow outlaw (or your mom) to the jewelry store. Moral support is comforting during this process, and a nod of approval or a helpful rhetorical question here and there can make a world of a difference.
Tip #5: Q&A is Part of the Process
Remember the idiom: “There’s no such thing as a stupid question”?
Your teachers, your parents, and your friend’s parents likely repeated this as a mantra throughout your childhood… with good reason! Though years have passed, and you are older and much wiser than you once were, there is still no such thing as a stupid question.
Questions are a part of the engagement ring and jewelry shopping process, and we embrace them with wide open arms and appreciative hearts. Since the 1980s, we have designed countless wedding bands, engagement rings, and jewelry pieces for our clients. Our continued success would not be possible without you and your questions; we want you to love and cherish any and all pieces that you bring home from Lauren B, and that starts and ends with asking all of your burning (or suddenly inspired) questions.
Let’s Make a Memory
Jewelry shopping in an NYC jewelry store is an invigorating, romantic, and awe-inspiring experience that will inevitably nestle itself in your most cherished memories.
Whether you are searching for a marquise diamond engagement ring for the love of your life, a pair of rose gold halo diamond earrings as a treat to yourself, or a stunning emerald cut eternity wedding band to nestle alongside your lifelong partner’s existing ring stack, you are sure to find an array of magnificent options in the Big Apple.
Diamond Rose Gold Halo Earrings, 0.40 carats
During your visit to the New York City diamond district, be sure to visit Lauren B at 44 East 46th Street. As the leader in custom engagement ring design and bridal jewelry, we know how to work with you, or with you and your partner, to create the ring that sends chills down your spine and a kaleidoscope of butterflies fluttering through your stomach. Wherever you are in your engagement ring, wedding band, or jewelry shopping journey, we are ready and waiting to ignite your dormant passions or stoke the existing flames of love for stunning jewelry.