Lab-Grown Diamonds Now Lead the Engagement Ring Market
Six in 10 US couples who married in 2025 chose a lab-grown centre stone, according to The Knot’s latest Real Weddings Study. That’s up from 52% a year earlier and just 12% in 2019. Lab-grown buyers averaged a 2ct stone, and ovals were their top pick.
Seeing the trend online is one thing. Choosing your own ring is another, and that’s where a real conversation helps. Bay Area couples can book an appointment through Cullen Jewellery San Francisco for one-on-one advice from a ring specialist who starts by listening: your budget, your partner’s style, the shape you keep saving on TikTok. From there, they’ll match you with designs that fit. Most of Cullen’s most-loved rings carry a 2ct lab-grown diamond, with solitaires like the Daisy starting from about US$3,500. Big look. Grounded budget. Expert guidance the whole way.
The spend gap does the rest of the talking. Couples buying lab-grown spent around $4,300 on average last year, while those choosing a natural stone spent about $7,000. For a 27-year-old already juggling rent and a wedding budget, that $2,700 difference is basically the honeymoon. Stones are growing, too: the average diamond across all couples reached 1.9ct, up from 1.5ct in 2021.
Why Gen Z Engagement Ring Buyers Are Going Lab-Grown
Price is only half the story. Four in 10 couples told The Knot it was specifically important to them that their stone be lab-grown. That’s a values decision, made on purpose.
Sustainable and easy to verify
This is a generation that fact-checks its skincare, so of course it fact-checks its jewellery. Buyers want to know where a stone was grown and whether the gold is recycled, and they gravitate to brands that answer clearly. Some jewellers now offset the carbon footprint of every gemstone and plant a tree for each ring sold. That gives buyers a real answer when the group chat inevitably asks.
Designing it together
One in four couples now shop for the ring together. The surprise proposal is alive and well, but plenty of Gen Z couples would rather co-sign the design. Makes sense. If you’re wearing something every day for the next 50 years, you probably want a say in the shape. Research still counts, too: the typical proposer visits two retailers and looks at around 10 rings before buying.
The Ring Trends Taking Over Your Feed
Spend five minutes on engagement TikTok and the pattern shows up fast. Ovals and elongated cushions dominate. East-west settings, where the stone sits sideways across the band, keep racking up saves. Toi et moi rings pair two stones side by side, often in different shapes. Hidden halos tuck a ring of small diamonds under the centre stone, so it sparkles from the side while the top view stays clean.
ADVERTISEMENT
There’s smart maths behind the oval obsession. An elongated shape spreads its carat weight over a longer surface, so it looks noticeably bigger on the hand than a round stone of the same weight. More presence per carat.
Yellow gold is back in a big way, and it usually comes in under platinum on price. Add free resizing and a lifetime warranty to the checklist, and the ring keeps delivering long after the proposal post goes up.
The old rule said spend three months’ salary. Gen Z’s version is simpler and a lot more honest: choose the stone your partner will love looking at every day, then let lab-grown close the gap on price.
