Understanding Your Man: A Surprise Engagement Ring

“A girls guide for dropping hints and understanding the mentality of a guy who wants to surprise you with an engagement ring.”

How can you get your dream diamond engagement ring when your boyfriend making the purchase wants it to be a surprise? To find the answer you need to understand your man’s thought process and don’t expect it to make a lot of sense to you. The man shopping for an engagement diamond has four shopping priorities;

• He wants to make a good investment
• He wants to make you happy
• He fears disappointing you or worse yet, getting rejected
• And finally he has to look good to his male mates

Like asking for directions our pride and desire to surprise you typically prohibits us from asking your advice. As we so often do, we try to apply logic to what is a very emotional decision. Not recognising it’s an emotional problem we go about diamond shopping the same way as any other problem. We will research the subject, gather all the facts, and then make a logical decision. We assume you will have the same priorities so we focus on what will be a good investment. We seek a high quality diamond that hopefully fits within our budget with a little left over at the end fearing that anything less will as somehow imply some lower level of love.

The first stop is probably some internet research. Its far less embarrassing to research diamond information and prices behind an internet firewall, especially because we know nothing about diamonds. There is a massive amount of diamond information out there and it seems for everything you learn there is more to discover because of that. If we then pluck up the courage to actually walk into a jewellery store we realize this is a world totally foreign. We look at rings in the display cases and see more zeros in the price tag than we have seen since we bought our car not to mention an absent thought as to how many Xbox accessories we could buy with that.

The weight of the situation makes us even more determined not to make a mistake and we then sometimes forget the reason we started on this adventure in the first place. We can lose sight of the fact that our primary goal is to make you happy. By now you are probably getting the picture. We cant help it, cant change it, it just is. We need your help, but cannot ask for it so here are some suggestions that can help get you your dream ring.

You’ve probably already done some shopping so you can tell your boyfriend what shape of diamond you like. You may also not want a diamond as the primary jewel, you could want a sapphire or ruby. Don’t be too subtle about this point its really important and hes just going to be grateful for whatever information he can glean. If you are after a diamond then do some research yourself on diamonds, we have a brilliant guide on diamonds here.

This will help you cement in your mind what you think is important. Sending him to Holdsworth Bros. will take all the risk out of getting the perfect diamond so you only need worry about shape and design elements. Work out for yourself what kind of mounting (solitaire, side stones, etc.) you want for your diamond and what kind of style or metal combination you want. Once you know what you want you can then allow him to find out. Wear jewellery that reflects the style, mounting and metal combinations you want in your engagement ring. We are carefully watching you for inspiration and will notice this. Make sure you let your girlfriends know what you like. He may ask them or better yet take them shopping with him. Leave bookmarks in your web browser, or less subtle, pages open on the screen. The same goes for magazines on coffee tables.

Joke around with him in conversation, tell him you wouldn’t marry any man for less than “insert desired diamond size here”. Just make sure what you want and what he can afford overlap. Comment loudly on your engaged friends rings, or celebrities on telly or advertisements you see. Obviously ensuring that what he hears is what you want. If you manage to get the main points across and guide him into Holdsworth Bros then you will get a beautiful engagement ring. It may not be the one you would have chosen yourself, it may be even more beautiful because of how much hard work and thought your man has put into selecting it. Believe me, he wants it to be perfect more than anything else in the world.