angieh wrote:Right then. It seems the best I can do is visit him in Singapore after the first month (he will be very busy in new job), find accomodation that suits our needs long term (Holland Village I think), start shopping for an engagement ring, organise a simple wedding in Singapore and move over permanently.
Re: home location, this might help guide you.
GUIDE: Where should I/we consider living?
http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/viewtopic.php?t=101985
Re: an engagement ring. IME prices are very high here, compared to abroad. When I bought my wife's one, I did a lot of consideration/research into; what she might like, what that might cost, and then where to get best value. The latter was not because I was being cheap, but rather that I know my way around diamonds quite well (I nearly went into it as a career), and I am very conscious of the largely bullshit 'premium branding' that one seems to encounter these days; plus the huge premium that seems to be charged on anything with any quality here.
There are some websites that one can look at. BlueNile is one, where it's a front-end for many independent retailers. It's a big site and takes time to get your head around. Also from the Google search on their name I just did, some of the hits returned contain results which suggest poor ratings. So, caution, as with any significant jewellery purchase! But it still has a huge amount of information on there which might give you some ideas.
I got my wife's ring from
http://www.whiteflash.com, ['WF'] in Texas. That might sound foolish or a leap of faith but it was done having researched them, and with full comfort. Their site is primarily their own inventory, though I understand they list (or can source to order) some stones on something akin to an 'agency basis' for other gem dealers - but still very much under their name and reputation.
Either way, the site is useful and very easy to navigate. You can choose a stone and then choose in what materials/design you want it mounted (etc). They don't just do rings, nor just diamonds. I ordered what I needed from them and had it shipped here. Yes I paid local taxes on it, but none at source in the US. I'd estimate that it probably cost about 35-50% less than it would have getting the equivalent here. That's how expensive such a thing is here! Hence she got that much more bling for the buck => very happy wife!
I'm not advocating buying from them, or indeed buying online if it not something you've researched and are entirely comfortable with. I'd recommend WF as a user friendly resource to at least inform yourself of the variables of diamonds that go towards making the whole of any particular stone. Once you have your outline criteria (the '4Cs', being a convenient way to express the key elements) in mind, see what WF have on their inventory. That will give you a good benchmark on price, that you can then go and compare versus other vendors.
There are several levels that can matter beyond the '4Cs', but I'll leave it there for now
If you were able to figure out what you want, and can source it competitively back home then that might just be the best thing to do. Good luck!
- For the sake of clarity: I'm not connected with the jewellery trade, nor either retailer mentioned above, beyond simply now having made a few purchases from WF.
