Paul and I had been diligently walking through every (and I mean EVERY!) jewelry store and counter, looking at rings, settings, diamonds... we saw designs and patterns that we liked - but not all in the same rings. At every store, the salesper...son would always bring up a "last day deal", or "last ring in stock" spiel, which put a "car dealer" taste in our mouths. While this could work with a car, it does not at all when looking for a ring that will be worn forever, and bring up smiles and memories every time we looked at it.
A mutual friend introduced us to Valerie - and we met on Skype (King Jewelers is in Boston, and we are in Santa Cruz)! She answered questions, looked at pictures we'd taken (both via email, as well as holding up the phone camera at times), educated us on diamonds, cuts, etc. - and gave us recommendations based on the design we were favoring.
In a few days, we received a box of 8 different sets of rings for us to look at in person - and, to try on and wear, to see how each one would feel in my every day life... That was so key in our choice! Being on the petite side of things, details like the # of diamonds that went down each side of the engagement ring either made others that I tried uncomfortable because it dug in to the adjacent fingers, and I'd heard from friends who had too few diamonds constantly adjusting and realigning the 2 rings so that it would match well. In the box was a set that had a European shank, which made it more difficult for the rings to rotate around. Finally, the rings gave us a way to see which designs would look like we'd imagined, since we were combining different settings and sizes of diamonds that we had seen.
We ended up with rings that are stunning, exactly what I wanted, which of course made Paul thrilled too... and the cost was a third of the retail prices we were encountering - which was a very pleasant surprise.
The internet allows us to do so much online shopping - but the advice and reassurance of having someone like Valerie to chat with, without other customers interrupting, asking questions that we had not thought to consider - but would have impacted the fit - is priceless.
(By the way... we did this also for Paul's ring.)
I can't imagine shopping for jewelry in any other way - and we won't have to, since we have King Jewelers!