The Ultimate Engagement Ring Buying Guide

The old “three months’ salary” rule was invented by a diamond marketing campaign in the 1930s and has no basis in financial wisdom. The best engagement ring is one you can afford without going into debt or sacrificing other important financial goals. In Canada, the average couple spends between $3,500 and $8,000, but there is absolutely no minimum or maximum that makes a ring meaningful.

Here is a practical framework for thinking about your engagement ring budget. First, decide on a comfortable spending range rather than a single number. This gives you flexibility when you discover the interplay between the 4Cs. Second, know that the diamond typically accounts for 60-70% of the total cost, with the setting making up the remainder. A simpler solitaire setting lets you allocate more to the centre stone, while a halo setting uses smaller accent diamonds to create the illusion of a larger centre stone.

One of the most significant advantages of choosing a lab-grown diamond is the impact on your budget. Lab-grown diamonds cost 50-70% less than mined diamonds of equivalent quality. This means a budget of $5,000 for a lab-grown diamond can yield a stone that would cost $15,000 to $20,000 if mined. You get more carat weight, better colour, and higher clarity -- or you can simply spend less and invest the savings elsewhere. Explore how lab-grown diamonds compare to their mined counterparts in our detailed comparison guide.

Diamond shape is the most personal choice you will make. It defines the character and style of the ring more than any other single factor. While the round brilliant remains the most popular choice for engagement rings -- accounting for about 60% of all diamonds sold -- modern trends show a strong shift toward fancy shapes, particularly ovals and emerald cuts.

Each shape has its own optical personality. Round brilliants are engineered for maximum light return and sparkle. Cushion cuts offer a softer, romantic glow with larger light flashes known as “fire.” Princess cuts bring a modern, geometric edge. Emerald and Asscher cuts create a mesmerising hall-of-mirrors effect called “step-cut brilliance,” but because they have larger open facets, clarity becomes more important.

For maximum perceived size, consider elongated shapes. An oval diamond of the same carat weight as a round will look approximately 10-15% larger because it has a greater surface area. Marquise and pear shapes offer similar size advantages, and they also have the elegant effect of elongating the finger. Radiant cuts combine the best of both worlds with their brilliant-cut faceting pattern housed in a rectangular shape.

When choosing a shape, consider your partner’s personal style, the type of jewellery they already wear, and how the shape pairs with different settings. Round and oval diamonds are versatile and work with almost any setting style. Emerald and Asscher cuts look stunning in minimalist solitaire or three-stone settings. Pear and marquise shapes are dramatic statement pieces that shine in bezel or cathedral mountings.

The 4Cs -- Cut, Colour, Clarity, and Carat Weight -- are the universal language of diamond quality. Developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), this system provides a standardised way to evaluate and compare diamonds. Understanding how these four factors interact is the key to getting the most beautiful diamond within your budget.

Cut: The Most Important C

Cut grade has the single greatest impact on a diamond’s beauty. It determines how well the diamond captures and returns light to your eye, creating brilliance (white light), fire (spectral colours), and scintillation (sparkle when moving). A diamond with an Excellent or Ideal cut grade will look noticeably more alive than one with a Good or Fair cut, even if the colour and clarity are identical. We strongly recommend never going below Very Good cut for an engagement ring, and Excellent or Ideal is always preferred.

Colour: Near-Colourless Is the Sweet Spot

Colour is graded on a scale from D (completely colourless) to Z (light yellow or brown). For engagement rings, the G-H range offers outstanding value. These near-colourless diamonds appear white to the naked eye, especially once set in a ring, but cost 20-30% less than D-E-F grades. If you choose a yellow or rose gold band, you can comfortably drop to I or even J colour because the warm metal tone conceals any faint tint.

Clarity: Eye-Clean Is What Matters

The clarity scale runs from Flawless (FL) to Included (I3), measuring the presence and visibility of inclusions and blemishes. Here is the practical truth: anything VS2 or better is almost always eye-clean, meaning you cannot see inclusions without 10x magnification. SI1 is often eye-clean too, depending on the size and location of inclusions. Spending the premium for VVS or Flawless clarity does not improve the visual beauty of the diamond -- it only improves what you see under a microscope.

Carat Weight: Size in Context

Carat is the unit of weight for diamonds (1 carat = 0.2 grams). Larger diamonds are exponentially rarer and more expensive, so a 2-carat diamond costs far more than double the price of a 1-carat. The key insight is that carat weight does not equal visual size. A well-cut diamond carries its weight proportionally, maximising the face-up appearance. Poorly cut diamonds may be heavier but appear smaller.

For a comprehensive breakdown of each factor, read our full 4Cs Diamond Guide.

The setting is the architecture that holds your diamond and defines the overall look and feel of the ring. It is where personal style meets engineering, and the right setting can make your diamond appear larger, more brilliant, and uniquely yours. Here are the most popular engagement ring settings and what makes each special.

Solitaire

The solitaire setting is the timeless classic -- a single diamond held by four or six prongs on a simple metal band. It is the most popular engagement ring style for good reason: it puts all the focus on the centre stone, is incredibly versatile across diamond shapes, and has a clean elegance that never goes out of style. If you want the diamond to be the undisputed star, solitaire is the way to go.

Halo

A halo setting surrounds the centre stone with a border of smaller diamonds, amplifying its visual size by 20-30%. This is an excellent choice if you want maximum impact within a moderate budget -- a 0.8-carat diamond in a halo setting can look as large as a 1.2-carat solitaire. Halo settings add brilliance and work beautifully with round, oval, cushion, and pear shapes.

Pave & Side Stone

Pave settings feature a band encrusted with tiny diamonds held by micro-prongs, creating a continuous sparkle effect along the band. Side stone settings use slightly larger accent diamonds flanking the centre stone. Both add extra brilliance and make the entire ring glitter, but they also mean slightly more maintenance since the small stones can occasionally loosen with heavy wear.

Three-Stone

The three-stone setting features a larger centre diamond flanked by two smaller stones, symbolising past, present, and future. This is a meaningful and eye-catching design that adds significant finger coverage and visual interest. It pairs especially well with round, oval, and emerald-cut diamonds.

Bezel & Cathedral

A bezel setting encircles the diamond in a thin metal rim, offering excellent protection for active lifestyles. Cathedral settings use arched metal supports to elevate the diamond, creating a graceful profile. Both are excellent for people who work with their hands or want a lower-maintenance ring.

This is one of the most important decisions you will face when buying an engagement ring. Lab-grown diamonds and mined (natural) diamonds are chemically, optically, and physically identical. They have the same crystal structure (pure carbon arranged in a cubic lattice), the same hardness (10 on the Mohs scale), and the same brilliance and fire. The difference is their origin: one is formed deep within the Earth over billions of years, the other is created in a laboratory in a matter of weeks using advanced technology that replicates natural conditions.

Lab-grown diamonds are produced using two primary methods: HPHT (High Pressure, High Temperature), which mimics the crushing pressures and extreme temperatures of the Earth’s mantle, and CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), which grows diamonds atom by atom from a carbon-rich gas. Both methods produce gem-quality diamonds that are graded by the same independent laboratories -- IGI and GIA -- using the same 4Cs criteria.

The practical advantages of lab-grown diamonds for engagement ring buyers are significant. The 50-70% cost savings means you can either upgrade your diamond’s quality and size or redirect savings toward other life priorities. Lab-grown diamonds are inherently conflict-free and environmentally preferable, with a dramatically smaller ecological footprint. For a side-by-side comparison of the two, visit our Lab-Grown vs. Natural Diamonds comparison page.

Never buy a diamond without an independent grading certificate. A certificate from a reputable laboratory is your guarantee that the diamond’s quality has been objectively assessed by trained gemologists using standardised criteria. Without it, you are relying solely on the seller’s claims, which introduces unnecessary risk.

The two most respected certification bodies are the International Gemological Institute (IGI) and the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). For lab-grown diamonds, IGI is the industry standard and has certified more lab-grown diamonds than any other laboratory. At Aurela Diamonds, every stone comes with full IGI certification, which includes detailed grades for cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight, as well as measurements, proportions, and a unique identification number laser-inscribed on the diamond’s girdle.

Your IGI certificate also serves practical purposes beyond initial purchase verification. It is essential for insurance appraisals, and you can verify it online at any time by entering the certificate number on the IGI website. Think of it as your diamond’s passport -- a permanent record of its quality and identity. Learn more about what each element means in our Diamond Certification Explained guide.

An ill-fitting ring can dampen even the most perfect proposal. Getting the right ring size is crucial, but it does not need to be stressful -- and if you are planning a surprise, there are several clever ways to determine the correct size without giving away your secret.

The most reliable method is to borrow a ring your partner already wears on their left-hand ring finger. Bring it to any jeweller for precise measurement, or trace its inner circle on a piece of paper. If borrowing a ring is not possible, ask a trusted friend or family member -- they may already know, or can casually bring up the topic. You can also try measuring their finger while they sleep using a flexible piece of string or paper, then measuring the circumference in millimetres.

A few sizing tips to keep in mind: fingers can swell slightly throughout the day, so measure at the end of the day or in warm weather for the most representative size. The dominant hand is typically slightly larger than the non-dominant hand. Wide bands fit more snugly than narrow ones, so if you choose a wider design, you may need to go up a half-size. And most importantly, do not stress about getting it perfect on the first try -- at Aurela Diamonds, we offer complimentary resizing within the first year of purchase.

If all else fails, size 6 is the statistical average for women in North America. It is a safe starting point when you truly cannot determine the size, knowing that resizing is always an option.