Jeweler 11: J. Brown Jewelers

Eleventh time's a charm? Though we had to drive quite a bit out of our way to get to this jeweler, we were definitely not let down. Their motto is "unusual jewelery of fine quality" and I think this suits them very well. They have a huge variety of jewelery of many different styles. You can find jewelery ranging from the most elegant to the most ridiculous, whatever tickles your fancy. The employees too are very friendly and we had fun looking at and trying on some of their more gaudy jewelery. What was also very nice about this place was that they are located in a Jewish area, and so, have many Jewish customers as well as those of other religions. It was definitely very comforting to be in a store that actually knew what kinds of rings we would be interested in for our wedding bands. Not only that, but this particular store also does Hebrew engraving, which definitely makes them very appealing at least for our wedding bands.

The other thing about this store was that the employees, apparently, are not paid on commission, so they do not put on any pressure to buy things, but rather, will recommend ways to save some money (like going for 14k gold instead of 18k gold since 18k gold is more expensive and is much softer, thus gems and diamonds are more likely to fall out later on). The woman we were working with actually recommended that we don't make up our minds on any rings right then and there, but come back after we had thought about it for a while. I really appreciated that, even though, at that point, we had been to so many jewelers, that we were pretty sure of what we were going to stick with at that point.

It was really neat while we were looking at the ring settings (which were right there in the store) since we were told that whatever we wanted to change about the setting could be done without any problems. So, if we really liked one ring but wanted to add, remove, or change something about it, we could have that done. That really expanded our options out, and I think it made the decision making much more unique than at all of the previous places.

The man who ran the store was very eccentric, but very nice as well. He offered a very fair price on the ring that we wanted. My fiance was thrilled with this place ( it might be because they offer Hebrew engraving, so he automatically fell in love) and wanted to buy the engagement ring from this place. I was too tired to make a quick decision since I also loved the ring at Edward Arthur, so after dinner and discussion, we decided to go along with Brown. The upside to this jeweler was definitely that we could order the engagement ring, the wedding bands, and the engraving, so it was much more convenient than bouncing around for the rings and engraving.

I really don't have anything to criticize about this place. As hard as I try to think of something they could have done better, I truly can't think of anything. It was the best experience I have had at a jeweler, and their ability to customize any of the rings they have in the store really takes away the ability to criticize their selection of rings (does that make me sound like a walking commercial, or what?!). Well, great experience, and I can't wait to get my ring! **

Knowledge: A+
Demeanor: A+
Selection of rings: A+
Willingness to find information: A
Estimated Price: $1200 (larger diamond accents)
Overall Grade: A+ **

** Read updated posts pertaining to J. Brown.