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Message: [QUOTE="auror, post: 2658932, member: 1329"] Mentioned once in this thread but James Allen was great for me. Super easy. Can filter and sort by all the "C" characteristics to focus on the ones that matter and get a better stone of the same size at whatever your price point is. Delivered with all the documentation in an excellent box. My strategy was to find a stone that was better than recommended in all the categories, but not necessarily flawless. Most of this info is from Blue Nile. But you want to get: Cut - At least very good (runs from Poor to Ideal or whatever marketing top 1% they have). Color - At least F (Runs from Z, or more likely J, to D). Clarity - At least VS1 (weird scale of I, S, VS, VVS, Flawless with lower numbers being better in the letter tiers VS2, VS1, etc.) So you get your budget. You figure out whatever shape she wants first. And then you filter above those standards. And then pick the biggest carat one in that shape with the best min-maxing of the attributes (listed in the order of importance above). I ended up getting a Very Good, E, VVS1 diamond. Basically imperceptibly worse in all the categories, but you wouldn't be able to tell in any of them with the naked eye. I got the Napier instead of the Kemba. From my recall there's a pretty big savings from ideal to very good, so if you want to splurge, spend the money there, unless size is more important because you can get a bigger stone at very good rather than ideal. [/QUOTE]