This thread was invaluable. The bit about color not being important but cut and carat was spot on. Purchased a 1.2 carat I color signature cut from Blue Nile. They put it together and delivered within 24 hours after I ordered it on a Friday. I paid $25 for Saturday delivery.

Total cost was a little over $6k - about $5k for the diamond and the rest for the ring (petite trellis).

Fiance is not super into jewelry and not very materialistic but - she was completely blown away by the ring. She "couldn't believe it was real" and stared at the ring like a cat at catnip for about an hour. So I've been very happy with the experience so far.

Two other bits.

Of course the size was wrong - this means I need to send back to Blue Nile for free resizing - however, the caveats are the resizing takes up to 14 business days and can only be done once for free! Not a big deal in my case but I wish I knew that bit ahead of time. I think the general rule is the size you think it is is always too big - but - it is easier to go down than to go up so order big.

I definitely need to get insurance. Jeweler's mutual has given me a $100/year quote for insurance which seems reasonable enough to me. "Replacement value" is higher than what I paid, which is always a bit annoying but what can you do. They share info with Blue Nile so they just pulled up my order information directly.

Anyone else use Jeweler's Mutual? Any claim experiences?

EDIT: One other thing - I purchased with my AMEX hoping to get some good purchase protection - however - the purchase protection is only to $1k - therefore would recommend getting insurance from the beginning!

EDIT2: Also purchased a ring from Costco as a backup - was not as nice a ring for the same price and would have paid more for 'color' and 'clarity' which she seems not to have cared about. Went to return it and ring return procedure is annoying - it takes them 10 days to verify the ring is what they sold you - and then you need to return in order to have them refund your card. Wish they could just do that part on their own!

Geo

I have read this discussion and learned a lot.... THANKS for the efforts. As I have started looking for a stone in the one carat and slightly larger size class, I ended up on Pricescope and then it linked to James Allen... Where there is a virtual Image... many of these seem to have black facets in patterns ...is this an indication of a flaw or perhaps a characteristic of a diamond that produces more fire from an angle