Testimonials

"Mark Turnowski came highly recommended. My wife had long pined for a specific cut and setting and I worked directly with Mark over email and phone. Mark was incredibly responsive and attentive. I was traveling for work around this time and he made himself available to me at random times of the day."

- Thomas Chan from Newton, MA

Mark and Brilliantly Engaged were absolutely great.I did my homework. I spent months looking at other companies including all the big names in the business. If you are looking for a quality diamond ring at a great price you can save yourself several hundred hours of research and call Mark Turnowski. My fiancé had no idea I was planning to propose. I managed to glean that she liked cushion cut diamonds and I was confident I knew her style. I talked to many different companies including one where I had a friend working who could get me a deal. Trust me, if you really want a friend in the diamond business that person is Mark. After several hundred hours of research I had a pretty good understanding of the different characteristics like cut, clarity, and color. I had a solid understanding of the prices from the different designers as well as loose diamond retailers as well. I found Mark through a Google search for cushion cut stone experts. Mark is an expert on cushion cuts as well as a scholar on diamonds. Look up his credentials and you will be impressed with his experience in the diamond industry. I contacted Mark and he replied to me very quickly. He was very helpful on the phone. He educated me on a number of details about the cushion cut stone you won't find online. I realized very quickly that despite several hundred hours of research I was talking to a true expert. He knows exactly what makes a great stone, how it should be set, and what setting is perfect. These things all make a big difference. He sent me a picture of the ring with the setting he felt would be best for the stone and it was perfect. The stone is amazing. The color and clarity he selected with the setting were just perfect. After seeing pictures of the ring I didn't even have to think about it. I bought from Mark. There was no need to look any further. My fiancé has had so many compliments on her ring. Just about everywhere we go people comment on the light it puts off. You really can see it reflecting light from across a room in dim light. I have already referred 3 friends to Mark who bought engagement rings and they are both extremely happy. You will not find a better ring and a better value. I cannot recommend Mark and Brilliantly Engaged enough.

Mark is unlike anyone I met during my engagement ring search. Dealing with Mark and the entire BE team was an excellent experience and they've earned my high recommendation! I recently purchased an engagement ring from BE and worked extensively with Mark and his team. My ring purchasing odyssey began about six weeks before I found BE's website and included numerous trips to New York's Diamond District (I live in New York) as well as countless calls to diamond resellers across the country that I found on the web. Before I get into my extremely positive experience with Mark, let me first provide a bit of background about what I was looking for. My fiancée (girlfriend at the time) knew exactly what she wanted thanks to a beautiful design that is prominently featured in many of Harry Winston's advertisements and catalogs. The design is centered around a cushion cut stone, mounted in a halo and surrounded by micro pavé diamonds on both the halo and shank. My center stone specifications were 2.6 to 2.75 karats, colorless and VS2 or better, which I soon learned is somewhat akin to finding a needle in a haystack. After seeing only one stone in the District that fell within my exact specifications, but was dramatically overpriced, I decided to scour the internet to find my stone. After looking at a number of diamond websites, reading countless reviews and making dozens of phone calls I quickly realized that I could probably find a great center stone at a fair price online, but nobody could make the exact setting I wanted with the attention to detail I sought. And then I found Mark… I liked Mark the moment I first spoke to him as he listened to everything I said, including the detailed craftsmanship I was looking for in the setting. Mark did comment that my center stone specifications were fairly tight, but he promised to do his best to find something within the parameters I provided. I must say that I was a bit skeptical that Mark could be as aggressive on price as other members of the online community since Mark has New York City overhead and many of his competitors are based in other states. To my surprise and satisfaction, Mark found a stone that was precisely in my spec range at a price that was an extremely fair value. Mark specializes in cushion cut diamonds and has a particular expertise in the procurement of antique cushion shapes (the GIA refers to them as Old Mine Brilliant cuts). I hadn't seen an antique cushion before meeting Mark but upon seeing it, I was very impressed with its brilliance as well as its uniqueness in today's marketplace. After deciding to move forward with the stone, Mark and I had several meetings to discuss the setting. Throughout each of our conversations Mark was patient and answered every single one of my very detailed questions. Chris was also extremely helpful in explaining the manufacturing process and provided some hand drawings of different types of micro pavé setting options so I could make an informed decision. After receiving CAD renderings of the ring, I gave Mark the go-ahead to have the ring made and it was ready a couple weeks later. I'll cut to the chase and tell you that the finished product was not only exactly what I wanted, but my fiancée adores it. The craftsmanship is impeccable and the antique cushion cut is more impressive than the Harry Winston version which utilizes a modified cushion brilliant. As I went through the engagement ring process, I talked to a lot of friends and many offered to introduce me to "their guy." After working with Mark and his team and experiencing total satisfaction, I am proud to call Mark "my guy" and will recommend Mark to any of my friends and family that are in the market for a ring.

In a nutshell: "Do you have a minute?" Mark Turnowski was actually the first one I took the time to call. After I decided cushions were what I was leaning toward, I went to BE's site to take a look. On it, I found the diamond that another vendor had just told me he had put on hold for me. I also found another diamond that I thought might be interesting. So I gave Mark a call. The "boyfriend diamond" (as I call it since it's the one he picked out personally) was unavailable – my guess it's because the other vendor put it on hold. Mark and I chatted a couple of minutes as I gave me an idea of what I was looking for. Then he asked me "Do you have a minute?" I was actually taken a back for a second because by the time he had asked that, I had already been talking on the phone for several minutes and gave the usual parameters. Of course I had a minute, so he began to ask me questions on exactly what I was looking for, and describe to me the differences between certain cuts of cushions. He even drilled down to girdle width, asking me if a thick girdle was OK (you lost carat weight there). I really felt that Mark wanted to know what I wanted, and was taking the time out to really consider my preferences. I told him I was considering at the boyfriend diamond at the other vendor, so not to worry about it too much but see what he could come up with. He said the way he ran his business was to get on things right away. Sure enough, the next day he did find a lovely diamond (by the numbers) for me. However by this time I had agreed to have the other diamond called at the other vendor and I said he should probably hold off on doing more work for me. When the diamond came in at the other vendor and passed rep's inspection, I gave Mark and call that I was having it sent to an independent appraiser. Again, he wanted to take a little more of my time to go over the diamond I was looking at, if I didn't mind. I had the GIA cert copy and read him the specs. He said, "As much as I would like the sale, I think that diamond is going to work for you. I would be surprised if it doesn't." He told me he thought it would be very pretty, and thought he knew who the supplier was, based the ex/ex for polish and symmetry. I was so appreciative that even though I had just told him that I was pretty sure I was going with the other diamond, that he would take the time to help me and give me more information! I knew of his reputation for really knowing cushions, so it helped alleviate my concerns when he gave it a thumbs up. He asked that I keep him posted, and he actually followed up with a call a week later to see how it all went. Mark is someone that felt like my own personal jeweler. Truly a step above, an absolute gentleman, and I would without hesitation recommend him based on my experience. And yes, that recommendation would cover shapes other than cushions!!! --- I wrote that review back in 2006. Since then I actually bought the other diamond I was considering from him for my mother. He put it in a temporary setting that was cost effective, but it was so gorgeous, we never ended up changing it. I also bought diamond stud earrings for my aunt and they were gorgeous and a fantastic deal. He's really a gem, pun intended. :)

When I was shopping around for engagement rings, I was working with 4 different individuals. I ended up going with Mark from Brilliantly Engaged because I felt the quality of his inventory far exceeded the other diamonds I saw from other individuals. On top of that, Mark made an extraordinary effort in educating me on what I should look for when choosing the "right" diamond. He stressed educating the consumer rather than focusing on making the sale. I even referred my own brother and a friend, and both of them ended up purchasing their engagement rings from Mark as well. Hopefully I never need to purchase another engagement ring, but if I purchase anything diamond related, I'm definitely going back to Mark. In fact I'm purchasing my wedding bands from him as well."

For a self confessed diamond jewelery novice, Brilliantly Engaged and specifically Mark Turnowski was an absolute godsend. Armed with nothing but my girlfriend's positive comment about a particular engagement ring style, I quickly became aware of Mark's reputation with both the diamond and ring style in question. Antique cushion cut diamond in a platinum HW style halo setting that is. The only potential issue I saw at the time was the fact tha I was in Sydney Australia, and BE in New York. However, from my inital phone call from Sydney that Mark took personally in New York, to the day the ring arrived via courier only a few weeks later, the entire experience was an absolute, stress free, pleasure. And given the value and importance of the ring that is really saying something. Mark always had time for me no matter what time of day or the nature of my question. Mark's obvious expertise and experience, the specs and photo of the main diamond, the CAD renderings and finally the photos of the finished product were all beyond my expectation, but none of them had prepared me for seeing the ring in person. It is simply stunning, and when it came time for me to pop the question, whether she would like the ring or not was never a concern. I couldn't afford to have a matching wedding ring made at the time, but will definitely be asking Mark to do this shortly. I wouldn't go anywhere else, and would recommend BE unreservedly."