tiffany's sells many beautiful rings (and who doesn't love that lovely robin's egg blue box and white ribbon!) but if u are willing to spend the time and energy, u can get just as beautiful a diamond for much less $$. when we were looking for my engagement ring, i learned a lot about diamonds - and then looked into why tiffany's is sooo expensive in comparison to other stores. basically, tiffany's cuts out the legwork of having to search for a good diamond. they auto. reject many poorer quality stones, and they have the name. it's much harder to search for a nice stone when u have to look through a bunch of not so nice stones. there are also a bunch of people out there trying to rip u off. i found a tiffany quality stone, at a not-so-tiffany's price after just putting some effort into finding my perfect diamond. if ur girl really wants a tiffany ring, then go for it...but many girls would much rather have a slightly larger stone with a non-tiffany name when money is an object. for ur money, if my conversion is correct, u should be able to get a nice quality stone in the 1-1.3 carat range elsewhere. try the book "how to buy a diamond" by fred cuellar and search online. cut and quality are def important, though - a large, dull stone doesn't catch the eye like a small, well-cut, sparkly stone full of fire and brilliance. and remember, cut is almost more important than, say, a color D stone. a poorly cut D stone isnt worth the money. for an engagement ring, VS1-VS2 to SI1 are good clarity's to look for. anything above that just costs too much and isnt worth it (unless u have $$$ to blow) u want eye clean (nothing visible to the naked eye) as well. nothing worse than looking at someone's engagement ring, and seeing a large, visible inclusion right smack in the middle of the stone...