Update:
Had our "appointment", it went okay. SO leads off saying she believes she is most interested in a "Cushion" diamond and the salesman says they don't carry many cushions, at all, as they believe they are more prone to break (is that true? idk). He suggested a "Radiant Cut" to look at.
We were there for nearly 2 hours and spent almost the entire time looking at their different bands and landed on 2 that SO liked. I appreciated that we went through a bunch as SO has not found a ton she liked thus far. We very briefly looked at several diamonds, the two we looked at were as follows: First One =.54 carat, VS2, F (Color) and was $1,700 for a total price of $3,500 with the band. The Second One = .61 carat, VS1, G (Color) for a total price of $3,800 with the band.
The salesmen suggested, if we were seriously interested, that he could bring in some Cushion cuts to look at as well and wanted to follow up this week once he could find cushions that were in our price range and suggested another meeting to go over diamond options as, again, nearly all the time was spent looking at bands.
We then went back to the first jewelry place that we went to previously and the same woman was working. She seems like a sharp person, has been in the jewelry business for 30 years, certainly knew how to sell as well. Turns out she also used to work for the place we had been at earlier that day. SO found one band/ring combo she liked and the saleswomen tried quite hard to close the sale and get a deposit, to no avail, as we're still in "finding the right ring mode". Long story short, the band SO liked was $1700 and the women kept showing us expensive diamonds, but ended up with a $2,890 Radiant diamond that was .7 carat, VS2, F (Color). She "talked to her manager" and said she could sell it to us for $3,850 total.
Not sure exactly what to make of all this, but that is where we are at. Open to any comments or feedback on the rings described above as well.
Other Comment: I'm glad I brought SO along as there are sooo many different styles and the ones she chose would NOT have been what I would have guessed.
Other Comment #2: I can see why guys do this solo as I'm sure finding the "perfect" ring can be a neverending process, but on the other hand, I'd rather her reallyyyyy like the ring given the cost.