Hi All!

Given a limited budget, I am about to buy a ring. Understand that in general a girl will like to have a Big, Bright and Branded ring. After much research, I realized that to optimize the Brilliance and Size, these are the ideal 4C configuration:

Cut - Most Impt C and should go for the Absolute Best Cut there is to maximize the brilliance of the ring. This will mean a AGS Triple 0 Ideal H&A Round Brilliant Cut or one of the proprietary fancy cuts that will give more scintillation.

Colour - 2nd most impt C and something ard G colour will do as the excellent cut will make the diamond appear almost as face white as a D with most people unable to spot the difference when mounted on a ring.

Clarity - Somewhere ard VS2 to ensure it is eye clean and they will not be significant enough to influce the brilliance of the stone.

With those 3 Cs fixed, what's left will be to determine the last C i.e. the Carat. Given my budget, how much should I invest in the brand markup.

Brand Analysis :

Tiffany & Co - Most branded with the little blue box

Soo Kee / Lee Hwa / Goldheart - Local / regoinal brands very well publicised in Spore but less known internationally

Hearts on Fire / Lazare / Gabrielle - International brands but less well known in Singapore

Whiteflash A Cut Above - International Online Brand but even less publicised in Singapore

SK / Citigems / Other local Jewelry store - Less Prestige to the brand (I think?)

Based on the above choices, am very curious just what will a female prefer to receive as a proposal ring? Does size matter more or brand matter more?

Appreciate your inputS!! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_mrgreen2.gif)

For reference, a 0.5 carat vs 0.9 carat (the 2 extreme options)
(IMG:http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5756/comparisonof90kx0.jpg)