Ugh, I know I know. I've been to two local jewlers, asked them for a "hearts and arrows cut" in the setting she loves. By the time they find something close, get a hearts and arrows cut diamond in the same quality I am at or near the HOF price.

Both told me HOF is a quality piece and even though it's inflated and your paying for a name, this particular setting and diamond is very fairly priced :/ I have one more jewler to stop in at tomorrow to see, but these two independent guys were genuinely honest with me, and they were close in price. And they both said that the price just included a HAA diamond cut, none of the other diamonds in the band would be cut like that....

What I've learned is you can get away with a lesser quality diamond that will sparkle and shine as long as it is cut premium, and unfortunately what I was reading was true, only Hearts On Fire and Hearts and Arrows cut diamonds like that!

:/ I'm going Friday to order it, 5 months out because her ring size is 4.25 and apparently that is super uncommon ! I'm cutting it so close for my proposal date, so much so that I'm thinking about not having it engraved incase it doesn't show up in time!