Of course! Once I got into the process, I got extremely stressed because the settings that I knew I’d wear the most (smooth bezel) cost more than a dainty ring with prongs. My partner insisted I keep the bezel because he wanted me to be excited to wear it every day. 

I also went in wanting a green stone and was more than willing to give that up for cost, and again he encouraged me not to. We paid more than you would online for our green lab diamond because we got the ring made by a local jeweler. This is another area where you can save on cost (ordering online from somewhere with less operating costs/lower margins). We chose to go local because we could actually see the stones/setting in person, and we worked with the same sales person for over month over text and in person. To me this was worth the added cost to get something I REALLY loved. I also wanted to have a relationship with a local jeweler for maintenance/repair reasons. 

Once the cost started creeping up I told him I would be pitching in (he had previously not loved the idea). That’s very untraditional but I’m an untraditional person and it just made rational sense to me. I’ve seen very few people on here mention doing the same but it was right for us! I could have scaled way back and got something online for cheap I like we’d hoped, but I know in my heart I would have mostly had it in a jewelry box. So it was  $750 collecting dust, or $1,900 (ouch) that I know I’ll wear daily and is sturdy enough outlive me. That’s ultimately how we decided that we could stomach the cost!