A Guide to Designing your Custom Engagement Ring

From discovering ring inspiration to hand-selecting the perfect diamond, creating your Engagement Ring is an exciting occasion. The end result is breathtaking with a completely unique design tailored to your personal budget and style. There is a lot to consider, the shape and carat weight of the centre diamond, whether you prefer a lab-grown or natural diamond and deciding your priorities around your budget, quality of the diamond and overall style.

In this guide we will cover everything you need to know about creating your Custom Engagement Ring in Melbourne. From your vision, to selecting diamonds, to becoming clear on your budget.

So how do you build your own engagement ring?
The centre diamond? The design?

First things first,

Define Your Vision

The first step to creating a custom Engagement Ring is understanding your vision. To get clear about your preferences and which diamond rings you love. This serves as your wishlist for your engagement ring and builds your concept to communicate your idea for the design.

This means first sourcing your Engagement Ring inspiration. One way to begin finding your favourites is scrolling through Google searching diamond rings! Instagram, Tiktok, Retail stores, or friends or family members' engagement rings can all give great design inspiration. Once you begin browsing, start saving all of your most-wanted ring photos and videos for future reference. This will develop the vision for the diamond ring design that matches your dream.

Each diamond ring has its own unique style and features. This is a good time to notice any patterns between your chosen inspiration. Perhaps all your favourites share a similar shape (for example round, oval, radiant shape centre diamond) Perhaps you’re drawn to a particular style over and over (solitaire designs, halo designs) or fall in love with similar size diamonds.

There’s no need to have every minor detail ironed out, but a basic idea will simplify the process when you do begin to custom design your own engagement ring. Having this direction will ease any overwhelm when faced with endless design possibilities. It will also take the pressure away from having to make many design decisions at the same time.

Plus, it’s lots of fun day-dreaming and putting together all of your ideas! Discovering creative possibilities and the world of diamonds you are sure to come across many breath-taking rings.

Defining your vision is a powerful starting point of the design process that brings together your ideas before committing to a final design.

Get Informed About Diamonds

Educate yourself about natural or lab-grown diamonds as the choice for your custom engagement ring. Explore the idea of natural diamonds formed deep within the earth or lab-grown diamonds grown with the CVD method. This will help guide your decision about whether a natural diamond or a lab-grown diamond is the right choice for your engagement ring.

Read more: CVD vs HPHT Lab Grown Diamonds. What's the Difference? Which is better?

The differences between the two revolve around their origins. There is little else to set them apart. Both natural and lab-grown diamonds are chemically, structurally, and visually identical to one another. Ultimately it comes down to preference and where you see the value. When making an investment for such a sentimental ring, it's important to be educated about your purchase.

Familarise yourself with Diamond Quality and how they are graded through the 4C’s. Both natural and lab-grown diamond quality are evaluated with the four C’s (colour, clarity, cut and carat) which are reflected on their certificates. These criteria describe the individual attributes of a diamond. Colour refers to any noticeable yellow hue within the diamond, Clarity refers to any internal inclusions or marks within the diamond, Cut refers to how a diamond facets interact with light, and Carat refers to the weight of a diamond. These 4C’s explain how included/pure, yellow/white, dull/sparkly, and small/large the stone will be.

Having at least a brief understanding of these characteristics will clarify the value of what you are viewing and the unique qualities about the centre diamond for your engagement ring.

Set Your Budget

Becoming clear on a number that fits within your financial goals and lifestyle will guide you closer towards your dream engagement ring. Your budget will determine the quality of the diamond you can afford and serve as the foundation for the entire custom design process. Settling on a figure that you are comfortable with spending is a truly personal choice. It will be different for everyone based around your income and your priorities.

At Janai we work within a wide range of budgets, starting from $3,500. Your diamond specialist will source the highest-quality stone to meet your criteria within your price range. The centre diamond will be taking up the largest portion of your budget, and the ring design will be created around this main centerpiece.

Every diamond's value varies upon many factors. The purest, whitest, largest and exceptionally cut diamonds will command the highest prices. Natural diamonds will inevitably be more expensive than lab-grown diamonds. As a general rule the rarer a diamonds qualities - the higher it will be priced.

This is where you can discuss your priorities and decide your must-haves around the diamonds four C’s. For example, you may want the highest carat weight diamond you can find but are flexible with a lower clarity grade or colour. A flawless diamond may be most important to you but you are willing to compromise on carat weight (size).

Whatever your preferences you will be able to make decisions around your desired spend. It makes it a lot easier when you know what you’re working with and will be less likely to be influenced in the wrong direction.

Read more: How Much Should You Spend On Your Engagement Ring In 2024?

Ready To Create Your Custom Engagement Ring

Once you have explored your vision, learned the basics about diamonds and decided your budget - you will have reached the ideal starting point to begin creating your Engagement Ring in Melbourne. This is the perfect time to begin talking with diamond consultants to bring your vision to life.

Through this preparation and planning about your diamond engagement ring, you will avoid any pressure or overwhelm of making these first choices during a consultation. Being able to convey your vision easily will make the process that much simpler, and your priorities on diamonds and budget will help guide you towards the best engagement ring for you.

Read more: What To Prepare For An Engagement Ring Consultation?

Remember, this is an ever-evolving process. Things can move in different directions and it's not uncommon that minds change the more our clients discover and learn more about diamonds and designs. There is much to consider as you reflect on all of your ideas. See what inspires you as you develop your diamond engagement ring to create your concept of the perfect ring!

Fill the form below to request your appointment with us today to begin designing your dream Engagement Ring!