Top expert tips if you are planning a New Year proposal

Bling merchant Fran Massey says the “lull period” between Christmas and New Year is his busiest time of year for engagement rings.

But he warned loved-up fellas against taking a stab in the dark at their partner’s finger size or preferred style at the last minute.

“A few fellas do buy blind,” says the owner of The Cut Price Jewellers in The Liberties in Dublin. “They’re like, ‘She’s this size and that size’.

“What I tell them is, ‘Don’t get the ring sized’, because at least if she doesn’t like it we can exchange it. If it’s sized there’s nothing you can do.

“Coming up to New Year’s is busier than Valentine’s because I think Valentine’s has gotten a bit cheesy,” adds Fran, who has been in the business over three decades.

“A lot of lads are kind of like, ‘will I, won’t I’ in that week period between Christmas and New Year’s [when] we don’t open. I’ve often gotten messages, ‘I’m flying abroad tomorrow, is there any chance you can come in?’ I always come down.”

Deciphering whether your other half wears white gold or yellow gold is the first step in pulling off the perfect proposal, he advises. However, the old-fashioned rule of thumb of spending three months’ salary has more or less gone out the window, with 9k gold real diamond rings starting from €1,000 and 9k gold lab diamond rings from €300 at the Meath Street jewellery store.

“I did hear it last week, actually,” jokes Fran. “A fella was in with his mother, they were at the counter discussing [rings], and she was like, ‘Come on, son, how much do you want to spend?’

“He was like, ‘I don’t really know, Ma!’, then she said the whole thing about three months’ wages.

“I would say €1,000 — €3,000,” he guesstimates the average spend. “Maybe even up to €5,000.

“I call that Average Joe — so he’s coming in, he’s just a worker like everybody else, he doesn’t really know what to buy, but he’s looking for real diamonds.”

Pear, oval, square and emerald are just some of the myriad shapes available in a single stone or cluster, although Fran recommends a classic round cut diamond for the clueless.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” he agrees. “[People might] have seen this big 5ct stone on Instagram, and they’re like, ‘Can I get something like that for €1,000?’ You really need to do a bit of homework. Ninety per cent of the time they will have some sort of idea about what type of shape she might like or, ‘She definitely doesn’t like square’.

“Some fellas will whip their phone out and go, ‘She was asking me about that and that’, and me being a jeweller, I can go, ‘Well, OK she likes a teardrop shape’.

“Oval is in if you’re going for a bigger stone or lab diamond,” adds Fran, who runs the family business alongside second-generation jeweller, John Adams.

“I always steer people towards round because I think it’s the best stone to buy — you get the best sparkle off it [as] there’s more facets on it.”

“Then I go into, ‘What kind of build is she?’ because you don’t to pick a huge ring for a tiny girl, so they look around the shop at the girls and go, ‘Well, she’s like her!’”

Ethical and financial concerns are leading more and more couples to choose a lab-grown diamond, explains Fran, who insists the more affordable rocks are indistinguishable from the real deal.

“A lot of people are asking now, ‘Where does it come from?’” says the jeweller, who has a private VIP consultation room to help couples from all walks of life pick the perfect sparkler. They don’t want to hear that the ground’s been dug up. Nobody can tell when it’s on the finger — I don’t care how good they are — because it’s a diamond.

“It’s not a moissanite or a cubic zirconia or a piece of glass that looks like a diamond. It is diamond — it’s just been created differently.”

Irrespective of the ring, Fran reckons it’s a privilege to play such a special part in clients’ engagement stories, which have, over the years, ranged from sad to funny to inspiring.

“We’ve had a good few people whose partner would be waiting to pass in St James’s Hospital — they’re 50/55, just never got married and they’re like, ‘I need wedding rings now’.

“‘He’s ready to pass and the priest is going to marry us in the hospital’. People do come in with two or three engagement rings [looking to] trade them in off something else — when you get the mad stories is when they’re damaged.

“One guy came in three times for an engagement ring,” he laughs. “It was third time lucky — he’s married with kids now!”