McKay Diamonds & Jewelry — Local services in Salt Lake City

My boyfriend recently proposed with a home-made wooden ring as he was uncertain what type of engagement ring I would like. As we are British (and not living in SLC) we used Yelp to assist in finding a jeweller. McKay Diamonds got 5 stars and great reviews, so we kept it on our shortlist. McKay Diamonds was the fourth shop we visited and Joe (the owner) could not have been more helpful. I knew what I wanted, and instead of saying “no, we don’t have anything like that” (as a couple of the other jewellers did), he explained that he could custom make a ring for us, and showed us a number of moulds he made previously which he felt may have been appropriate. In total on visit one we were in there for an hour or so discussing possible options. At no time did we feel pressurised to purchase as we did in another jewellers in SLC. We left, explaining that we wanted to think about it, as a ring is a big decision. Joe agreed. Three days later we went back. We really wanted a ring that meant something to us, so decided to go with McKay Diamonds, as Joe seemed honest, passionate about what he does, and all custom rings are made on site by him . We spent about another 2 hours with Joe, talking through designs, and in the end we settled on a sapphire surrounded by diamonds. However, to make it more personal, my boyfriend asked if Joe could incorporate the Teton Mountain range into the ring as he proposed on Jackson Lake and that was the view! Joe said “no problem” and he would incorporate it into the gallery which supports the sapphire. We supplied Joe with a couple of photos of the Tetons (the view which we had on the lake) to use. Twenty-four hours later, Joe calls to ask if we could come and have a look at the ‘rough’ ring he has cast in from scratch in metal to ensure it is what we wanted. We expected just an outline of the mountains, but Joe had made it three-dimensional and captured the entire range – in 8mm!!!! It was incredible! We were over the moon and confirmed that we would like him to make the actual ring. One week later it was ready (this was a shorter time frame than he originally stated, so even more impressive). We couldn’t be happier with the ring. Joe put an incredible amount of work into our engagement ring and it is better than we hoped. We believe is exceptionally good value for the amount of time and effort he put in. We now have something that holds a lot of memories for us by a man who is clearly very passionate about his work and wants to produce the best for his customers. We are certainly going back to Joe for our wedding bands next year, even if we have to get the...

I recently purchased a ring from McKay Diamonds, and got engaged to my now fiancee. I will readily admit that my review will be a little bit biased because of emotion, but I will try to be objective.

I searched two different cities looking for a ring that would be just right for my girlfriend, and eventually decided that to get what I wanted, I would have to have a ring custom made. I talked to three or four different ring shops that made custom rings, and eventually settled here for several reasons. I never felt that the proprietors tried to upsell me, I never felt pressured to get something different than what I described like I did in several other stores. I felt that the proprietor was extremely knowledgeable about his craft, and could answer any of my questions without any problem. The price was incredibly fair, and quite low too. I liked that I was able to customize my ring entirely, from providing photos found online that showed a band design that I liked, to choosing the stone that went into as well (I decided to go with a Chatham Sapphire) and the setting for the stone as well.

The ring was completed about two weeks after I ordered it, which actually was a little bit slow for Joe, and he apologized for that. He said that it normally takes about one week. Considering that most other places gave me an estimate of 3-8 weeks for a custom ring, I wasn't too upset that it took a little longer than estimated at the beginning (I was told a week and a half at the beginning).

Customer service was good. I called the day before it was expected to be finished, and was told that it would be done about 4. I live an hours drive away, and didn't want to drive home in rush hour traffic, and asked if it could be completed earlier, and they managed to get it done about 12. I appreciate them making an effort to accommodate me schedule as well.

Craftsmanship is, to my frankly uneducated eye, incredible. The stone is set so that the stone really shines and shows it's color, even though it's bezel set (no prongs to catch on stuff). The curves and lines are beautiful, and seems superbly put together. The ring has a good weight to it, and feels solid. The band design is very symmetrical and well done. My girlfriend told me "to give them 10 stars" when she saw the ring.

Also, free sizing and care on the ring for life. So yay!

The ring was everything that I hoped that it would be, and perfectly matched my hopes that I had for it when I tried to describe it to Joe, so kudos to him for taking my desires and translating it perfectly into a...

My fiance is extremely particular about jewelry while I know nothing. When I walked into McKay Diamonds & Jewelry I explained to them that I was looking for a fake or dummy ring to propose with and then give my (at the time) girlfriend the ability to come back and choose exactly what she wanted. When hearing this, the owner told me that I could pick out a real ring I like and then bring it back without penalty to have it customized or swapped out for something totally different.

So, knowing that my fiance wanted a Sapphire, I picked out one that I thought was great and then went on my way. After the proposal, she had a whole handful of questions about it. Wanted to know if the setting was 100% custom, what kind of Sapphire was in it, what kind of treatment the stone has gone through, etc so we went back in to talk about it.

The owner let us know that the setting was 100% created by him and that the stone itself was not an imitation stone but a Sapphire that was grown in a lab. Because it was grown in the lab it was much more vibrant than many of the fully natural stones that you will come across. After some deliberation, my Fiance made the decision that she would prefer to have a fully natural stone in the ring even if it were to sacrifice some of the beauty of it.

The owner let us know that it is something that is totally doable and that he would order a couple stones for her to come back and look at and if she liked one of those he would swap it out for free. The owner was able to get the stones in the very next business day and when we went in to look at them, we found he was able to get a natural Sapphire that was really close to the brilliance of the original one (though a tad bit smaller).

In a matter of minutes he put the new stone in the setting and we were on our way free of charge. I can not recommend this shop enough to anyone in the Salt Lake Valley as I feel they went above and beyond to make both me and my Fiance comfortable and happy with the engagement ring. I don't think I will be visiting any other store...