How to Design Your Own Engagement Ring

Before shapes and settings, think about who will wear it. What do they wear every day? Gold or silver? Bold or understated? Do they work with their hands? Look at the jewellery they already own, and the pieces they stop to admire.

Collect references: screenshots, saved images, a ring in a film, even something that is not jewellery at all, like a building or a pattern. It does not matter if they contradict each other. A good designer will find what connects them.

A range, not a single number, gives a designer room to work. Tell them early. A bespoke ring can be designed backwards from a budget, balancing the stone, the metal and the complexity of the setting to get the very best inside it. Our budget guide explains where the money goes.

You do not need to decide everything before a first meeting, but it helps to have a feeling for a few things: the shape of the stone, natural or lab-grown, the metal, and whether the ring should be a clean solitaire or something more detailed. Our guides to shapes, settings and metals cover each one.

At Jabour, every commission begins with a conversation, in person in central London or by video, and it is complimentary. We listen first: to the story, the person and the life the ring needs to last. Bring your references, your questions and your budget range.

Your ideas become hand sketches and then a precise 3D CAD model, so you can see the ring from every angle before any metal is cut. With us, the design stage is free: sketches, three rounds of amendments and the full 3D render, with no deposit and no obligation. You pay only when you decide to have the ring made.

We shortlist stones that fit the design and the budget, natural or lab-grown, each independently graded, and present them for your approval before anything is bought. You see the reports, and you choose.

Once the design and the stone are approved, the ring is made. Most rings take four to six weeks from confirmation; more complex bespoke designs can take longer. If there is a date in mind, a proposal or an anniversary, tell us at the start and we will plan backwards from it.

It does not have to be. A ring is priced on its stone, its metal and the time it takes to make, whether it comes from a display case or a design made for one person. Designing to a budget means deciding together where the money goes, rather than accepting someone else’s choices.