Hi ya'll!! this is my very first post! I've been reading lots of other peoples' threads and I've learned lots, and I need more personalized advise now 
hope I can get as much love and support from you guys as many other bride-to-be's.
SO, to introduce myself, I've been dating my soon-to-be fiance for 7 years (7th anniversary this nov!!) and about a month and a half ago, my BF told me he was looking for a diamond!
I was so shocked/happy/overwhelmed as you can imagine!
so after much search and educating ourselves, my wonderful BF found a true hearts & arrows (triple excellent cut, polish, symmetry) beeeeeeeeeeeeeautiful 1.69 carat H color VS1 round brilliant diamond from bluenile at a really decent price. we got it appraised, and then went to philip press, a platinumsmith in sunset blvd. (philippress.com) we both loved his work, it was the best we've seen so far, and we've researched from the tiffany's and other name brands, to the downtown diamond district of LA, so we feel we have seen enough to say his work is truly exquisite and we're 99.9% sure we'll get our ring from him.
now philip does custom rings for all of his customers, as in, we can't walk away with the ring that day even if we love the ring he has on display the way it is. and he's all about 'choose what you want, even if it's different parts of different rings, and we'll put them together for you'. now while i'm a very traditional, classic type of girl, i have a really really soft spot for unique things. while I dont have the guts to walk out in the hottest run-way fashion, i do endulge on one-of-a-kind hand painted silk blouse with classic black pumps, to describe my idea of a 'unique'.
SO, i fell in love with essentially two of his rings on display. (well there were so many pretty things, but i really wanted to narrow it down...and it really comes down to these two): he has the photo of one on his website but not the other, but the other one he shows it off in one of his videos under 'custom design'.
#1: is essentially the classic design that I've loved and I LOVED his version of it when I saw on saturday. I'll keep the bands for sure in terms of shape, but it won't be full eternity, I'll be making the bottom half without diamonds with intricate engraving
I DO LOVE The basket shown here, very basic style but with diamond encrusted on them and honestly, when you see it in person it's gorgeous.
#2: so this is the screen shot of the other ring as shown on his website (during a video)
#3: close-up of the #2 ring. so the head that looks like butterfly/flower (I say it looks a bit like orchid! i love orchids...) is the head that I also Absolutely adore. now, the only thing about this head is that as unique as it is, I wonder if I will ever get sick of it. but it's SO elegant and gorgeous! it was really hard to judge how much I love that ring (as a whole), though it was beeeeeeeeeeeautiful, b/c my BF and I are only considering round diamonds at this time and this particular ring was set with a giant asscher diamond.
so I was thinking....should I:
1. keep the basket from #1
2. keep the head from #2/3
3. OR (HAHAHAHA ... a crazy idea I had today) keep one side to look like #1 and the other side to have head from #2/3!!!!!!
i mean...I only get to see one side at a time anyway right? 
if I feel more traditional I can flip it around!!!
HAHAHA....soooo what do YOU think??
(sorry for the incredibly long post! but hopefully you can see my dilemma here and give your two cents of support and advice!!)
hope I can get as much love and support from you guys as many other bride-to-be's. SO, to introduce myself, I've been dating my soon-to-be fiance for 7 years (7th anniversary this nov!!) and about a month and a half ago, my BF told me he was looking for a diamond!
I was so shocked/happy/overwhelmed as you can imagine! so after much search and educating ourselves, my wonderful BF found a true hearts & arrows (triple excellent cut, polish, symmetry) beeeeeeeeeeeeeautiful 1.69 carat H color VS1 round brilliant diamond from bluenile at a really decent price. we got it appraised, and then went to philip press, a platinumsmith in sunset blvd. (philippress.com) we both loved his work, it was the best we've seen so far, and we've researched from the tiffany's and other name brands, to the downtown diamond district of LA, so we feel we have seen enough to say his work is truly exquisite and we're 99.9% sure we'll get our ring from him.
now philip does custom rings for all of his customers, as in, we can't walk away with the ring that day even if we love the ring he has on display the way it is. and he's all about 'choose what you want, even if it's different parts of different rings, and we'll put them together for you'. now while i'm a very traditional, classic type of girl, i have a really really soft spot for unique things. while I dont have the guts to walk out in the hottest run-way fashion, i do endulge on one-of-a-kind hand painted silk blouse with classic black pumps, to describe my idea of a 'unique'.
SO, i fell in love with essentially two of his rings on display. (well there were so many pretty things, but i really wanted to narrow it down...and it really comes down to these two): he has the photo of one on his website but not the other, but the other one he shows it off in one of his videos under 'custom design'.
#1: is essentially the classic design that I've loved and I LOVED his version of it when I saw on saturday. I'll keep the bands for sure in terms of shape, but it won't be full eternity, I'll be making the bottom half without diamonds with intricate engraving
I DO LOVE The basket shown here, very basic style but with diamond encrusted on them and honestly, when you see it in person it's gorgeous. #2: so this is the screen shot of the other ring as shown on his website (during a video)
#3: close-up of the #2 ring. so the head that looks like butterfly/flower (I say it looks a bit like orchid! i love orchids...) is the head that I also Absolutely adore. now, the only thing about this head is that as unique as it is, I wonder if I will ever get sick of it. but it's SO elegant and gorgeous! it was really hard to judge how much I love that ring (as a whole), though it was beeeeeeeeeeeautiful, b/c my BF and I are only considering round diamonds at this time and this particular ring was set with a giant asscher diamond.
so I was thinking....should I:
1. keep the basket from #1
2. keep the head from #2/3
3. OR (HAHAHAHA ... a crazy idea I had today) keep one side to look like #1 and the other side to have head from #2/3!!!!!!
i mean...I only get to see one side at a time anyway right? if I feel more traditional I can flip it around!!! HAHAHA....soooo what do YOU think??
(sorry for the incredibly long post! but hopefully you can see my dilemma here and give your two cents of support and advice!!)
