Choosing Our Engagement Ring at VRAI
I’m a hopeless romantic through and through, yet when it came to getting engaged this May and Eddie telling me we’d be going ring-shopping together this summer, I felt completely overwhelmed. While I’ve almost always envisioned having a family, a marriage and a wonderfully warm future, I hadn’t actually given an engagement or wedding much thought beyond a really messy Pinterest board.
Now, two months into engaged life, the Pinterest board remains messy but we are a little closer to getting organised. For one, Eddie and I recently had an engagement ring appointment and we chose my engagement ring! It was such a fun afternoon. Since first working in luxury fashion some 11 years ago, I’ve harboured a love of fine jewellery and a near-encyclopaedic knowledge of gems. (Lucky Eddie, eh?!) I also knew that I didn’t want a real diamond for endless ethical reasons. Instead, I wanted a lab-grown diamond and it was important to me that the designer were responsible makers.
Enter VRAI.
Why VRAI?
VRAI is a cut-for-you fine jewellery brand that’d been on my radar for a little while. They’re a B Corp certified brand that focus on preserving nature and looking towards the future. Their diamonds are crafted from greenhouse gases, crystallised in their foundry using zero-emission river energy.
The VRAI foundry also supplies diamonds to Tiffany & Co. and Cartier. Once crystallised, these greenhouse gases can no longer reflect heat and continue warming the planet. VRAI’s master cutters are trained for perfection; they’re the Swiss cutters that invented the princess cut.
With all this in mind, I knew I wanted a VRAI ring to be the one I wore forever.
Our showroom experience
On Saturday 12 July, Eddie and I headed into London for our engagement ring appointment at the VRAI showroom, tucked away behind Bond Street in Mayfair. We loved that it was a personal consultation in a non-store setting. It felt relaxed and comfortable, and we had the BEST Diamond Expert in Yi-Ting. We shared our engagement story, talked about the ring style(s) I had in mind, and then were presented with a selection of rings to try on. Yi-Ting explained the 4C’s to my baffled fiancé and then, we went on to choose the diamond.
My ring
My taste in rings has changed almost annually since I started a Pinterest account aged 17, but one cut has always stood out: an oval cut. Timeless and impactful, it feels elevated, stylish and classic at the same time. My dummy ring was an oval-cut cubic zirconia set on sterling silver. And, my new ring is VRAI’s The Signature Ring, an oval-cut, lab-grown colourless, VS1, 1.3-carat diamond set on 18k yellow gold with a hidden halo setting.
I am beyond impressed with our VRAI showroom and purchase experience. A huge thank you to Yi-Ting for being such a big part of it all, too.
