Hi,
I have several questions about diamond stud earrings for my wife. We have been married for five years, and I have bought my wife several pieces of jewelry over the that time period, and one thing I have found out about her is she prefers brand name (Tiffany, De Beers, Cartier) stuff to the Blue Nile, Brian Gavin pieces I have bought her. She is well aware that I can get her equal to better quality diamonds for a fraction of the price, but she still prefers the Designer pieces, which is fine with me. I believe jewelry should make her feel special, and she is fine getting smaller diamonds from Designer brands as we only have so much money to spend on jewelry.
I'm figuring my budget is about $5,000 to $6,000. I'm guessing that would get me around .5 total carat weight (.25 per earring) stud earrings from Tiffany or Cartier. From those of you who have recently purchased is that accurate? My wife is small, about 5'5 125 lbs which delicate features, so she could wear smaller jewelry pieces without them looking insignificant, but my question is .5 total carat weight earrings, or whatever I could get with my budget too small? We are also in the market for a diamond necklace (maybe Tiffany Diamonds by the Yard). Would it be better to buy that piece now and wait until we could afford larger diamond stud earrings? She is 34 years old. I've also thought maybe we could give the smaller ones to our daughter when she gets older and upgrade my wife at that time as well.
Finally, I'd like some thoughts on the various stud earrings Cartier and Tiffany offer. I really like the C de Cartier stud earrings. Does anyone have them and like them at the size I could afford. We also like the Tiffany four prong platinum earrings and then the Diamonds by the yard stud earrings as well. What are people's thoughts about those? Thanks for your help!