Valentine's Day used to be the most popular time of year for the sale of engagement rings, followed by Christmas.

Southern Manitoba jewelry store owner Amanda Lanteingne says, a few things have changed over the years. “Couples are no longer just getting married in the summer time, we are seeing a lot of winter and destination weddings, so it's an all year season.”

Lanteigne says they are selling more custom rings than ever before. “A lot of engagement rings are custom made. With social media, bride's to be will see something they absolutely love and we'll recreate it so it's almost the same. We can't copy designers exactly, but we can make it very similar.”

“We are still selling a lot of rings off the shelf, because we have the styles ladies are looking for. Twenty years ago we would sell mostly yellow gold, lots of solitaires or traditional multi stones. Today, the rings are much more intricate with lots of small diamonds, lots of halo settings, and we're using accent gold in rose or making them in all rose gold.”

Lanteigne says they are seeing a resurgence in color stone centres such as morganite in an all rose colored ring. “That's seems to be the hot new trend, and people seem to love the halo setting with the little diamonds around the centre diamond.”

“White gold is still number one, but yellow gold is really starting to make a resurgence. Anyone wanting something that's a little more unique are often going to yellow gold again because so many people have white.”

Lanteigne adds, although most men procrastinate gift buying, engagement rings are generally planned and purchased in advance.

As far as Valentine's Day gifts, Lanteigne says their store gets very busy a few days before Valentine's Day. “Closer to the weekend or right around the day is when we see most men buying Valentine's Day gifts. Since most people aren't in the market for engagement rings, Pandora bracelets are the hottest gift out there.”