When to order a ring for a Christmas or New Year proposal

The shipping policy, read October 7, 2026, gives three windows. Loose diamond orders are "typically dispatched within 2 to 10 days from the order date." Made-to-order items, which is what a setting with a stone in it is, are "dispatched within 2 to 3 weeks from the order date." After dispatch, "all our orders are consigned via 2 business-day shipments" with FedEx, UPS or USPS¹.

The estimated shipment date "does not include any additional time required by the delivery partner," every shipment "requires an adult signature," and nothing ships to P.O. boxes¹. For a surprise, the jeweler can hold a package "for up to 7 days at a local FedEx station" or arrange a Saturday delivery "for an additional $50"¹.

Two reads the same evening match those windows. The plainest four-prong solitaire setting showed "Estimated date of shipment: Wednesday, Oct 21 2026," fourteen days out⁷, and the settings collection's Ships By filter ran from October 20 to October 30⁶. Ready-to-ship rings have no published window; the ready-to-ship sale page showed a Ships By date of Monday, October 12, five days out, so read the date on the listing on the day you order⁸. Every stone on the listings we read is laboratory-grown, the qualifier the FTC requires when such a stone is called a diamond¹⁵, and each named an IGI report⁹.

Take a delivery target of Tuesday, December 22, two days before Christmas Eve, because every delivery needs an adult signature and a missed attempt costs a day¹. Two business days before that is Friday, December 18, the latest dispatch. Three weeks earlier is Friday, November 27, which happens to be Black Friday; ten days earlier is Tuesday, December 8, the latest order for a loose stone. For New Year's Eve the target is Tuesday, December 29; counting only December 23 and 24 as business days before the holiday puts the latest dispatch at Wednesday, December 23, so the order dates are December 2 and December 13.

The return clock starts at delivery, not at the order. A ring delivered December 22 reaches 30 days on January 21, 2027; one delivered December 29 reaches it on January 28². The refund then takes "up to 5-7 business days to process" once the jeweler has the return².

Engraving is part of the made-to-order build, so it adds no step to the timeline. The engraving page says the service is free "for all make-to-order and custom-made rings," that the text "ideally should not exceed 20 characters," and that "a few settings may not have an option for engraving"³. The cost comes later: "an amount of $50 is deducted from the refund or exchange value when returning or exchanging engraved rings"³. If the ring might come back, leave the engraving for after the yes.

Resizing happens after the proposal and takes its own round trip. The resizing page offers "one complimentary ring resize within the first 12 months of your purchase including free both way shipping within the United States," up to "2 sizes above or below the original ring size," and ships resized items "within 7-10 business days from the date of receiving the item"⁴. Add shipping each way and the ring is away for three to four weeks by our estimate. Eternity settings "cannot be resized"⁴, resizing can blur an engraving, and re-engraving costs $30³. Repairs run at the same pace, or up to 2 weeks for a remake⁵.

Propose with the stone. A loose diamond has the shorter window, "within 2 to 10 days"¹. On October 7 the cheapest round stone in the 2.00 to 2.10 carat listing was $755 with an IGI report⁹. Choose the setting together afterwards, which also solves the ring-size problem; see 2 carat and 1 carat lab-grown prices.

Propose with a placeholder band. Settings start at $430 on their own, and a ready-to-ship ring showed a Ships By date five days out on October 7⁶⁸. The trade-in credits the purchase price toward a new piece costing at least double, so a placeholder is not money thrown away, though the credit expires after 7 days¹².

Give a gift and propose later. The home page links "Looking for a Quick Gift?" to jewelry filtered to ship within three days, 99 pieces on October 7 with a Ships By date of October 12, and there is a Christmas gifts collection of 104 pieces¹¹. On the coupons page, purchases of $1,000 or more came with a free solitaire necklace (stated value $350) or $50 off with code 50OFF, with larger tiers up to $5,000¹⁰. Those offers are the jeweler's to change.

Timing only matters once the number is set. How much to spend on an engagement ring covers where the salary rule came from and what people paid in 2026; the $2,000 ring guide and $5,000 ring guide pair a stone with a setting at each budget, and setting prices start at $430 here⁶.

Resale caveat. Laboratory-grown diamonds resell for a small fraction of retail: one trade estimate puts it at 10 to 30% of the purchase price¹⁴, and Edahn Golan's wholesale index fell 13% year over year in the second quarter of 2026, with 2-carat stones down 20%¹³. Buy the ring to keep. The 30-day return window is a way out if the answer is no, not price protection after it closes².