The wedding publication ‘The Knot’ conducts an annual survey about engagement ring shopping and as I am curious type I have done a bit of my own research to corroborate their findings. I have been speaking with lots of great young men (and not so young!) about what’s important to them when shopping for their engagement ring, the results are not really that surprising and do tend to be in line with the Kont’s survey, the main difference being the size of the centre stone, after all, it is a US based survey.

I present the findings to you here so that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel when shopping for your own engagement ring, don’t worry, if you’re reading this you’re on the right track!

Where do you shop for your engagement ring?

  • 42% of engagement rings are bought from a local or independent jewellery retailer
  • 9% are purchased from an online retailer
  • 27% who didn’t buy online, considered buying at least part of the ring online
  • 69% who didn’t buy online wanted to see the ring/diamond in person
  • 35% were concerned about customer service if something went wrong when buying from on online retailer
  • 33% felt they needed more personal attention from a ‘real’ person

What type of engagement ring did you buy?

  • 85% of rings are purchased new, 11% are heirloom and 4% are vintage
  • 61% of rings feature white diamond centre stones with side stones/accents while 23% feature a white diamond solitaire
  • 1.60 carats is the average total weight of all of the stones in the ring
  • 1.10 carats is the size of the average centre stone

The metal of choice is:

  • 72% of engagement rings are made in white gold, followed by platinum 15% and yellow gold 6%

The most popular centre stone shapes:

  • Round 55%, Princess 28%, Cushion 5% and Asscher 3%

The top four design elements are:

  • Prong/claw setting 32%
  • Halo/shared prong setting 16%
  • Pavé setting/diamonds 15%
  • Channel setting/diamonds 10%
  • 42% of rings are customized; 27% took an existing ring style/design and made custom changes, 15% completely custom designed the engagement ring from scratch

And the good news is, tradition is making a comeback!

  • 77% of grooms proposed on bended knee
  • 71% asked the bride’s parents for permission before popping the question
  • 43% of grooms meticulously planned the proposal down to the last detail
  • 10% of grooms ‘winged’ it!

‘Mangagement’ rings are the new trend apparently

Brides aren’t the only ones with engagement rings these days, it seems that grooms are now opting to wear ‘mangagement’ rings too but only 5% actually receive a ‘mangagement’ ring. Johnny Depp is the most recent (and only for that matter) example that springs to my mind. Perhaps it’s a fad…perhaps not, what do you think?