The first thing you should do when choosing your sapphire engagement rings is to set your budget as two rings can look almost exactly the same, but the difference on their prices can be astronomical so to make life easier, it is wise to set your budget and try to find your engagement ring within your budget. The common practice for an engagement ring is said to be 2 months of your salary. Of course it's entirely up to you if you want to follow it, but knowing your budget is definitely a good start.

There are basically two types of mountings for a ring; solitaire mounting and mounting with side stones.

Solitaire Mounting- it is the most popular mounting when it comes to engagement rings. Solitaire mounting is the one with only one stone centered on a ring so that the center stone becomes the focus of the ring.

Side Stones Mounting- a bigger stone on the center of the ring accompanied by smaller stones on the both sides of the ring. The most popular side stone mountings are 3 stone and 5 stone.

Setting is the way a stone is attached to the ring (semi mount). There are three common settings; prongs setting, bezel sets and tension setting.

Prongs setting- prongs are also known as crawls for securing the stone in place. Prongs settings are widely used on rings as this setting has the least contact area with the stone so that it shows most of the area of a stone, including the sides of a stone, as compare to other settings.

Bezel Setting- It is a way of securing a stone by encircling the stone with metal. Since the sides of the stone are surrounded by metal so only the top surface of the stone is showing.

Tension Setting- the stone is held in place merely by the pressure exerted on both ends of the shank making the stone appearing to be floating in mid-air. It is the firmest setting of all and it is considered a modern style of setting.

Shank is the part of a ring that fits around a finger. It is the single largest component of an engagement ring where it draws most attention besides the center stone, thus it's the place where you show the individuality of your ring.

Knife Shank- A knife-edge shank has a two slanted sides that meet at a point on top. Depending on the design, "sharper" or "softer" knife-edge shanks can be found.

Cathedral Shank- it is a type of shank that the shoulder of a shank connects to the head in an upward slope.

Pave Shank- it is called the pave shank when the shank of the ring is covered with many small diamonds.

Channel Shank- a channel is carved into the shank to form a groove where it holds the diamonds. Split Shank- The shank splits in the middle from the head of a ring into 2 separate bands.

There are a lot of choices for the metals for your ring. As the style goes, you can consider white or non-white. Although white seems to be the dominate color for engagement rings these days, but colored metal such as yellow gold or rose color are good alternatives to add personal touch to your engagement ring.

White- Platinum is my personal choice if white metal is your cup of tea. Platinum is not only a hard metal which you can rely on when it comes to hold your precious stone in place on a ring, but it also holds its color indefinitely without having to re-plate it. White gold is another popular choice for wedding rings, but it is not as hard as platinum and it needs to be re-plated from time to time.

Colored Gold- colored gold is usually either yellow or rose. The color of gold is determined by the percentage of mixer of copper and silver. Yellow gold is the result of equal amount of copper and silver. The more silver there is the whiter the gold alloy is and on the other hand copper gives the yellowish color.