Brian Gavin Diamonds

Got my engagement ring there years ago. I still get compliments all the time! The fact it is custom made makes my ring so unique. Highly recommended.

What can you say about BGD that has not already been said? The client service is amazing. They are friendly to work with, care about their clients and you can see the love in their work! I love to refer people to BGD because they care. BGD is looking for a relationship, not a transaction.

Jaime, Lesley, Brian, and rest of the BGD staff are consummate professionals who can source excellent diamonds at below fair market prices. I would highly recommend you reach out to them and see how they might be able to help you. I am an extremely particular person and I found their customer service and, most importantly, products, of the highest quality.

When you are looking for a diamond that is truly special, unique, and of the highest quality cut, look no further than BGD.
I wanted to find the perfect engagement ring for my wife. After doing much research, comparing retail jewelry stores and online stores, reading forums and expert opinions, only one name continuously popped up with extremely happy customers with positive reviews: Brian Gavin.
From his bio, BG is an expert diamond cutter, learning and perfecting the trade from family generations past. BGD’s specialty, the perfectly brilliant round Hearts and Arrows cut. Named because that’s what you see under a firescope (8 symmetrical arrows from above the diamond, 8 symmetrical hearts from below), this cut is the most precise, beautiful, and rarest to obtain. Looking up stats, only about 1% of all diamonds are cut in H&A because of how precise and time consuming the cut has to be.
However, the effort is worth it and my wife’s diamond was magnificent. Set in a platinum six prong setting, the fire and sparkle you see from this diamond under any light is spectacular. We were at the mall shopping, stopped by a Kay jeweler, and compared my wife’s diamond to their nicest Leo diamond. Let’s just say BGD was hands down «visibly brighter». No contest.
The ease of selecting and purchasing an engagement ring at BGD’s online store was fairly simple. Make sure to learn your 4 C’s and decide on the perfect diamond for you or your significant other. Once payment is completed, BGD works on your ring to get it to you fairly quick.
When the ring was finished, shipping was fast. I had to go down to the main post office in my area and pick up my wife’s new ring with signature confirmation. This was the best. 100 percent confidence that your purchase will be secure and that the ring will get to you.
The ring comes in a nice black with brown trim box. I saved it until the perfect day to give to my wife and the rest is now history. Thanks BGD for an amazing diamond ring and my happy wife and I would definitely recommend you to everyone we know.

Disclaimer: I did not purchase my ring, but rather received it. My experience is not on the buying side.
My fiancé purchased my engagement ring from BG and he has nothing but good things to say about that process. However, my experience with them is going into the Houston office for a cleaning. I dropped off my ring for 36 hrs for them to steam clean and polish the dings off the Tiffany band. They did a MARVELOUS job. Leslie was very personable and knowledgeable. I’m not sure what her position is at BG, but she knew what was up. The lady at the front desk was a bit disorganized, but I understand they don’t get many people walking in. She did say she was only in shipping, etc.
The building BG is in is kind of in the ghetto. The building is an older high rise, so I wasn’t impressed. However, that’s probably why BG’s value is so high. They’re able to price it right and provide amazing customer service. I’ve been getting good follow up emails from Catherine following my visit, and I’m happy that I know my ring is being taken care of with them.

Note: This review is about my Online experience — I did not fly to Texas!
My diamond expert Auntie has been a happy BGD customer for years and I was just drooling over her 5 stone right hand ring (RHR) with a platinum trellis setting… SO Sparkly! Must have!
So…I contacted Brian Gavin to get one, too! (Auntie gave her blessing — imitation flattery and all that!) What a wonderful experience!
I’ve been schooled by my Auntie and the diamond Pricescope forum, that when it comes to high quality bling:
NEVER SHOP A MALL JEWELER — and Jared is NOT your friend!
Online jewelers can give you double the quality at half the price on all quality and custom jewelry (I invite you to see my review of Quest Jewelers, VA about my custom 2tcw platinum ring — IMHO Quest is the best for custom — BGD is great for their already gorgeous designs)
Working with the Brian Gavin team was great! With help, I picked out the 5 diamonds I wanted — each one just under .50 keeping the price more reasonable, each one super ideal cut and sparkly, color a mix of J & K, and a mix of clarity SI1, SI2, & VS2 with a total of 2.0 tcw. All set within that gorgeous platinum (for strength of every day wear!) trellis setting.
The finished ring was GORGEOUS! It’s a Stunner!
You can also upgrade later, sending back your stones and getting larger ones! I’ve been idly thinking of upgrading to doubling it to a 4tcw trellis ring but that would be [gulp] $ 12,000 — ummmm I think I better just enjoy my 2 tcw for now! LOL You would think doubling a carat weight would be just doubling the price but nope… not with diamonds. Who knew?!
So I got a stunner of a ring that would cost 3x maybe 4x in the mall– better quality for a LOT less. This is why you shop Brian Gavin!

Unfortunately, I did not have a stellar experience with Brian Gavin Diamonds. I contacted BGD several times regarding quotes for custom work and received no response. Initially I was pleased with the communication while requesting a price quote for a modification of a style they offered, but soon enough the representative I had been corresponding with stopped answering my emails. I also received a follow-​up email regarding my previous contact from that rep, but it was clearly automated because I again received no response. I thought it was unprofessional and I took my business elsewhere.

I had my wife’s oval engagement ring reset by Brian and his wonderful team of craftspeople.
Their attention to every detail of the process was simply amazing. From concept to reality they made sure we were pleased every step of the way.
The ring came out gorgeous, I don’t know why I waited so many years to have it done.
The level of customer service is like no other company.
There are many diamond places on the web but none are like Brian’ Gavin Diamonds. They created a one of a kind masterpiece.

I am not sure how the process of purchasing the ring was for my fiancé, however, I did work with Brian Gavin during the resizing process. They were very personable, answered my questions and most of all got my ring resized and returned back to me in less than 5 days. I was so excited to have my ring back in such a short time frame. Not only did the resizing process go so well, but my ring is simply gorgeous. Tons of compliments on it. I would recommend Brian Gavin as their rings are beautiful and their service is outstanding.

As we were looking around for a special sparklie stone, Brian Gavin Diamonds kept coming up again & again as highly recommended
And let me just say… finding a special stone is an exhaustive process! Who knew you needed a Master’s Degree in Gemology? There are SO MANY factors to consider… it’s not just the 4Cs & when you think you finally know it all, up pops another «critical» factor
And while 1 place kept trying to steer us towards a larger stone w/​visible flaws, we were happy that Brian Gavin was willing to help locate a stone w/​the qualities & ranges we had deemed *important* to us… I’m a quality over quantity kind of girl & bigger is *not* better when there are imperfections!
The site is easy to navigate — you plug in whatever parameters you’re looking for & out pop 1000s of diamonds for your review… the details of the stone are included in the description & GIA reports are attached for further confidence. Some of the diamonds even have a «real» pic & you can use this zooming thing to surf around the stone to check its features… it’s really cool!
You may also notice they do not offer EGL diamonds — which immediately gave them bonus points in our book — you’re looking at premium GIA or AGS
BF & I initially found a couple of stones we thought were nice but they were unavailable… which turned out to be in our favor after speaking w/​the staff at Brian Gavin… our education was even further enhanced around why those stones weren’t hitting all the ideal ranges & the exact factors that prevented them from attaining perfecton.
We were extremely grateful for the guidance & would have been kicking ourselves later for choosing something that was not perfect in every way — which was the only thing I wanted. Is perfection really too much to ask? :-)
Communication w/​the staff was extremely timely (via both email and phone) & we felt well looked after. The shipping process was extremely secure w/​no possibility of being lost or stolen in transit
After receiving our stone, we had it independently appraised & everything came back even better than expected.
Thank you for securing our brilliant, ideal, sparklie dream!

We haven’t been out to their location, this is strictly for their online website and associated custom service.
On a friend’s strong recommendation, my fiancé commissioned them for a custom engagement ring, and what is supposed to be a happy, exciting time turned increasingly frustrating and difficult until we finally cancelled the project.
The Bad:
1) We received conflicting information regarding non-​diamond side stones; the sales associate we initially worked with told us that we would have to source the stones ourselves, while almost two months later Brian Gavin told us that he preferred working with their own sourced side-​stones. It doesn’t seem like they have consistent policies, and that is incredibly frustrating as a consumer.
2) Our initially quoted ring design was based off their own internal miscommunication, and we never received a corrected quote. They also require the entire amount up front before they will lift a finger to draw up a design. This causes a lot of stress when it takes weeks for them to develop a viable CAD (which they were never able to in our case).
3) A lot of the communication (mostly over e-​mail) turned increasingly difficult because they would take days to get back to us but if they called or e-​mailed it seemed implied that we needed to drop everything to talk to them.
3) Brian Gavin did set up a phone conference to discuss the design quite late in the game; while he was very polite (including offering to repay us for the side stones we were forced to source), he seemed a bit patronizing and didn’t seem as intuitive to me as reviews might suggest. About half the time I tried to say anything I was cut off, leaving me not wanting to ask any more questions or clarify any points. We felt less confidant in their ability to deliver a satisfactory CAD drawing after the conference, and if they knew they couldn’t do it I wish they had expressed that to us rather than waste our time.
4) Their custom commission process in execution feels different than what they post on their website; they claim 10 — 15 business days to complete a project. It took 5 days to just receive a quote for the piece, and 7 – 8 business days to receive the first CAD (based off their internally mis-​communicated design).
5) I don’t know what their originally promised completion date was, but they pretty much missed every target date my fiancé had planned to propose on. No amount of apologizing can give us those days or plans back.
6) When they handled the return, Lesley requested a certain (unusual) bank routing number that ended up to be the incorrect number for the wire transfer; it took them over a week for them to handle the return to my fiancé’s bank account. It’s one thing to do this for a $ 100 gift, but absolutely frustrating for something numbering in many thousands of dollars. This further delayed when my fiancé could purchase a ring we had found somewhere else.
The Good:
1) Both Brian and his wife Lesley are very pleasant people, and they do genuinely want happy customers. Lesley in particular is incredibly gracious.
2) I do believe that their shop does excellent work, and they have beautiful diamonds.
3) I think if you purchased one of their stock pieces, they could execute this on time.
4) Their custom process might be better if you want something very close to a custom project they’ve already done or stock piece they already produce.

When I first started the process of finding an engagement ring for my then future fiancée, I came to Brian Gavin Diamonds (BGD) through an intense Internet search. I wanted a super ideal diamond and a true Hearts and Arrows qualifier. I found that the super ideal Hearts & Arrows style diamonds were indeed rare and that Brian Gavin presented a research paper outlining the measurements to judge a super ideal diamond. Many appraisers across the U.S. use these findings to judge super ideal diamonds. In addition, Lesley was very helpful in teaching me about the measurements that qualify something for an H&A diamond. (Be careful as most claiming to be H&A aren’t.) I also used the HCA tool on Pricescope and sites like
. In the end, I found my way back to Brian Gavin who had the best cuts at the best prices. I’m glad I selected BGD for the center diamond as it truly sparkles beyond any I have seen since. Too many people rush to buy a diamond without enough research. The cut is the key and super ideal diamonds are cut so well that they flash more brilliance and offer more light return causing the diamonds to look larger and more amazing. No diamond seems to measure up to the one I purchased. I also received a much better price than I could find locally or elsewhere on the Internet. (And don’t be afraid of buying on the Internet through reputable dealers — you have plenty of time to review with local appraisers so you can keep or return it.)
After securing the center stone, I found my way back to BGD for the custom ring design. I have pretty exacting standards that often lead me to be a very particular and perhaps difficult customer. The BGD team was patient and creative. I wanted a custom designed ring and they really helped me to focus my vision and bring it to life. I hope they can keep up the great customer service because I have a feeling their business is going to explode and some businesses have growing pains as they get larger.
In my experience, I got a better ring at a better price than any other option available! I had a great experience and I can highly recommend BGD. For more info, check their Web site: