Dominion Jewelers

Super disappointed. A friend had recommended Dominion, said she and her family had used them for years. I needed a very plain, very simple custom wedding band for my husband for our anniversary. Was told it’d be ready on the day of our anniversary, drove an hour round trip to fetch it, only to be told it wasn’t ready. And I’d called before I left. They offered to courier it… but the occasion would still be missed.

I am less than three weeks away (!) from tying the knot, and so, for my 500^th (!!) review, I figured I would finally chronicle the place that made all my engagement dreams come true: Dominion Jewelers! Beware, those who hate sappy stories or too many cutesy details, ’cause I got them in spades here. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
So the story goes like this: Sean F. and I were on vacation in November of 2014. We took a cruise to the Bahamas and while we were in Nassau, Sean romantically and uncharacteristically took me to look at tanzanite rings! He knew that I wanted a tanzanite engagement ring (those of you who know me are probably unsurprised to know that I was vocal about my preferences early on, hehe), and I guess he was so floored with how many tanzanite purveyors there are in the Caribbean that he just had to go for a look.
Well, we spend some time shopping around, and Sean comes to the conclusion that he wants the ring to be truly unique and special (aww!), so instead of walking away with a ring, he walks away with a stone. A truly beautiful, perfectly purple and blissfully blue, round-​cut tanzanite stone. Now, what to do with this beauty once we got back home? Why, take it to Dominion, of course!
With the help of Jody from Dominion Jewelers (and just a smidgen of input from yours truly: blink blink:) my dream man designed my dream ring around my dream stone. It’s a square halo surrounding a bevel-​set round stone (tanzanite is much more fragile than diamond, so protecting it with a bevel setting was a must!), with a twisted split shank band. It has a surprise diamond on one side of the cage that holds the stone, and on the other… a lightning bolt! Just perfect for little ol’ ridiculous Harry Potter-​loving me.
(Another HP nugget for any other superfans out there: the inscription on the inside reads «Until the very end.»)
So, on March 29^th, at 7 in the morning — partially because my fiancé is a weirdo, and partially because he was convinced that waking me up to propose was the only way he could surprise me (he wasn’t wrong) — Sean presented what can only be described as the Gretcheniest ring ever, proposed, and, DUH, I said yes!
Now, I obviously love my ring, but the process wasn’t without it’s hiccups. Dominion creates a wax/​plastic/​something model of all their custom pieces before actually going through with casting them, so you can go in and see pretty much exactly what you’re going to get, and also request any changes/​adjustments.
Well, after the first model was made, Sean requested a few changes but told Dominion we didn’t need to see the second model. Well, unfortunately, not seeing the second model meant that the ring actually got cast from the first model, and so it didn’t include any the changes that were requested. Womp womp. Ultimately, Dominion made totally good on their end and re-​cast the ring completely, but it ended up taking a lot longer than initially anticipated. In the end, the engagement ring-​creation process is probably more of a 4-​star than 5-​star experience (great end product, delightful staff, but not the smoothest execution), but seeing as how I’m riding the wave of nearly-​wedding bliss, you can have that extra star!
I actually went back to Dominion a couple of times during the wedding planning process, initially to look at wedding bands for both Sean and myself. But as it turned out, my parents actually ended up gifting me with their original wedding bands (they got new ones for their 25^th anniversary), and so I ended up using Dominion to resize and refinish my mom’s wedding band (I’m a sentimental sucker, what can I say?) for my own use. I can’t wait for Sean to place it on my finger come January 23^rd! :)
The process of getting my wedding band done at Dominion was pretty much seamless — inexpensive, quick, and it looks great — so they definitely won back all my confidence in that process. I should also note that Dominion offers free cleanings for life on all their pieces, so every time I go back through their doors, I walk out with a newly restored, gloriously shiny e-​ring.
A few logistical things: Dominion basically holds office hours — they’re open from 9 to 5, Tuesday — Saturday (’til 6 on Wednesdays, and are closed on Sundays and Mondays. So for you folks with a nine-​to-​five job, you’ll be doing your shopping on Saturdays, which means you’ll DEFINITELY want to call ahead for an appointment because they can get slammed. Even on regular weekdays, making an appointment is a good idea because you just never can tell how busy it’ll be (and the employees spend a lot of one-​on-​one time with their customers — a good thing!)
I’ll be heading back once more before the big day to get my wedding band engraved and do a final ring polishing, but I’m sure that definitely won’t be my last visit to Dominion Jewelers.

We have been a long time customer of Dominion Jewelers. Their work is OUTSTANDING and gorgeous. The service is «bend over backwards» wonderful. It is easy to make appointments, the staff clearly are knowledgeable and enjoy making their clients happy. To tell you how much we enjoy and trust working with Rachelle, Mo and Sergio and all of the staff, we live in Annapolis and drive all the way to Falls Church Virginia to work with them. I really can’t recommend them highly enough!

As a designer I love to create, explore new ideas and be unique. Dominion allowed me to sketch out some designs, explore existing designs and collaborate with them to create a truly unique and one of a kind engagement ring. Sergio knows how to get the perfect ring for the right price, no matter how custom the ring is.

Walked in to get my wife’s ring cleaned. We did not purchase the ring there nor have we ever been customers there before.
They cleaned her ring (and mine) for FREE! No haggle, no sales pitch. They were glad to do it and didn’t expect a thing. Now THAT’s customer service!!!
Will be back for sure for any future jewelry purchases.

I worked through a wholesale diamond seller who worked exclusively with Dominion Jewelers. I had to have my wife’s wedding band redone twice. They made the whole process difficult during the communication process. I simply asked them to make a wedding band that matched the engagement ring they also made and fell short more than once. They finally made it right, but the ring is still a diamond short. I can’t help but believe some of the latest Unilocal reviews, they have become a volume shop and neglected customer service.

Very professional, very kind and fast.
I will definitely go back there and would recommend them to everybody.

Ultra shady. I went in a week ago to get a quote on a bump for my engagement ring and resizing on another ring. They said the bump would be $ 50 and the other ring $ 35. I told them I would be back. When I returned today, the guy at the desk on the left totally didn’t recognize me. After telling him what I wanted again, he quoted me $ 75 on the bump. He said that it was because it was white gold, not yellow. I would have bought that story had he not had my ring in his hands last week before quoting me. I explained that he had quoted me something different and he just looked at me with a blank stare. Apparently their quotes are random depending on the day. Totally dishonest.

Pinterest ruined me and too many other females of my generation. Sorry guys. If we didn’t already have ideas of fairy tale weddings with knights in shining armor, we certainly do now.
Lucky for me, I found my knight and he had Dominion Jewelers recommended to him. I had been planning to have my first Michelin star experience be my 300^th review, but now I can’t think of a better milestone than becoming engaged.
After a long vacation in Morocco and a romantic proposal during sunset in the Sahara Desert, it was time to have the 2+ carat asscher cut diamond Justin had picked out set into our engagement ring. I did some research on jewelry stores that do custom rings and found that there really aren’t that many in the area. Most places refer to «customizing» your own ring, but that really only means picking out a stone and plopping it into a stock setting. Justin and I aren’t exactly the off-​the-​shelf kind of couple so I was glad to see that the store that had been recommended when he purchased the stone also topped the list after all of my research — Dominion Jewelers actually does custom designs complete with drawing up schematics and creating wax models.
Appointments are recommended for engagement ring shopping, particularly on Saturdays (note: they’re closed on Sundays and Mondays), but we didn’t have a long wait without one and everyone was very nice and polite in letting us know where the engagement rings and wedding bands were for perusing while we waited. After just a minute or two we had a sales lady, Nadia, and a ring designer, Mo, help us. Justin produced the stone and I showed them what I wanted the setting to look like. We had a discussion on the type and size of side stones that would be used and after making some decisions (metal, size), they gave us a price quote. The entire process was so short and smooth that we decided not to even go to our backup shops and went ahead and put down a deposit.
True to their word, Dominion called within the two to three week timeline they gave us. We came back in, picked up the ring, paid the balance and were off. It is important to note though that, despite measuring your ring size and making the ring to fit, a top heavy ring will feel pretty different when it’s actually on. We came in a week later to have it resized by half a size and they were able to do so the same day. The best part is that you can’t tell by looking at it that it has been resized.
Dominion Jewelers has been great with their customer service in person, on the phone and also by email. Their pricing for engagement rings includes an appraisal and free resizing until they get it to fit you right. They’re flexible without appointments as well as with drop off or same day resizing and servicing. I really couldn’t have asked for better support in making our engagement that much more perfect.

Worked with Sergio on resizing a ring. Very professional and pleasure to work with. Dominion was very timely in getting the work done. Would recommend them to anyone.

My wife’s ring needed resizing and while we didn’t get at Dominion, we showed up there a half hour before they closed on a Saturday and they resized it while we waited, which is something I’ve never experienced before. Amazing! They were friendly and really helpful. Would definitely come back for other things.

They did an awesome job designing my wife’s engagement ring and wedding band using stones from her mom’s old ring. Moe sat with us and answered all our questions and gave us all kinds of options. Once the engagement ring was done, they made a perfectly nested wedding band with the remaining stones. The detail was increadible and everyone we worked with was as nice as could be.

My engagement ring is vintage and needed to be re-​sized, fixed on the underside and polished. I took my engagement ring to 5 other places and was told either that it could not be fixed (it needed to be re-​made) or that is would cost over $ 1000!
The ring and situation was looking like a no-​go, that is until someone referred us to Dominion Jewelers! I was totally expecting it to be another «we can’t fix that ring» situation but we were not only surprised that it could be fixed but that it was REASONABLE!!! And we were furthermore blown away when we picked the ring up (we had to leave it for 5 days), the quality of both craftsmanship and detail that went into fixing the ring was beyond astonishing– and rare to find these days anywhere.
The ring was sized perfectly to my finger and the diamonds were tightened and sparkling, the ring was beautiful before it was fixed but it was truly breathtaking when I received it back!!!
I will never go to another jewelry store before going to Dominion Jewelers first, and I will not mention the «High line» Jewelry stores we went to initially, but Dominion Jewelers will have ALL of my jewelry business in the future!

Bought a ring from them. I loved the idea of having a ring actually made by a real craftsmen and not some machine. I also wanted a unique ring. The price could not be beat. We picked out the setting which was very reasonable priced. Then we actually picked out the stone. I didn’t want a diamond so we looked at several other stones and were able to put them on the setting until we found the one that was what we wanted. The final ring looks better then I could have imagined. I plan to go back and get more custom jewelry made there.

Had a watch battery replaced here. They are very professional and friendly. I brought in 2 watches; one was a Rado which requires a special tool to open. They didn’t have the tool so rather than trying to force the watch open (which I had another jeweler attempt to do in the distant past) they referred me to a watch repair that could do the job correctly. Very impressed with their service.

Very busy on Saturdays, however they run their butts off to make everyone is served. They fix jewelry right on the spot. Fell free to help yourself to an expresso from their fancy machine. They don’t fix silver. Staff is friendly and helpful. Will be back in the future.

My parents have been going here for years, so my husband went here to get my engagement ring. He inherited a diamond that was in my grandmother’s engagement ring, and took it here to be reset. The setting his picked is gorgeous and unique. They turned it around the SAME DAY after he’d ordered it in the morning.
We ordered my wedding band which I picked out to match my engagement ring. We also go my husband’s dad’s wedding band resized for him and engraved with our initials and wedding date. When we went to pick them up, they’d forgotten the initials but quickly did them so we wouldn’t have to come back.
Everyone here was so nice and easy to work with. The quality of work is fantastic and you know you can trust any family heirlooms here.

This review is for the shopping experience that with my friend this past Saturday. My guy friend brought me along to help him pick out an engagement ring and we made an appointment for Saturday at noon.
Sergio was our sales associate and he was such a pleasure to work with. Extremely patient with us, and not pushy at all. We sat in his comfy office the whole time and he would bring us diamonds and bands to look at based on price, clarity, cut etc…
He was not judgmental at all about my friends budget and offered up great pricing options as well. He even said the ring would be sized and ready that day. CRAZY!
Though we didn’t end up purchasing the ring from there, we agreed the overall experience was a great one! I would definitely recommend this place for those starting to shop for a ring!

Carol Kube has been wonderful through our engagement to marriage process. I came in last year with my grandmother’s marquis solitaire to be reset as my engagement ring and it was such an easy process. They send you auto-​cad drawings of the mockup and you can make any adjustments along the way. You also have the option of getting a wax mold to really see and «feel» the finished product, but we didn’t go this route.
Truly anything you want, they can do. They have tons of setting options from which you can select different elements to make something that fits your personality exactly.
The price for quality workmanship and custom features cannot be beat.
We just picked up our wedding bands and again am blown away. My husband wasn’t sold on the idea of a custom mens band, so we hit the chain stores in the mall and couldn’t find what he wanted, so true to Carol’s prediction, we went back to her and he designed his perfect wedding band.
We’ve been back to Dominion for other gifts and will no doubt return in the future. Why go to a retail store and pay more than getting exactly what you want for less?
Definitely recommend making an appointment on the weekends as they are quite busy.

First, the radio claim that their prices are «about half» of retail are bogus. Don’t come here thinking you’re saving any money, because their prices are industry standard at least in the region — in fact if anything they are slightly more expensive than the other DC-​area retailers we have been to for equivalent products. Maybe only some of their jewelry is «about half» but the wedding rings we were looking at were not. Heck, head over to Blue Nile and compare for yourself while in store.
Second, I just have to say the personnel are quite embarrassing.
My fiancée and I walked in without an appointment on a Saturday (I know it’s appointments preferred, but this was a spur of the moment thing). We knew there would be a wait to see someone, and had no problem at all waiting. The guy at the front told us to head upstairs and the first available salesperson would be with us. Great! This was our first stop for wedding bands so we weren’t even sure what styles we wanted — we actually were glad we could spend some time browsing without feeling a salesman breathing down our necks. Again, we were in no rush and expected to wait 30+ minutes to see someone.
We get upstairs, and start looking at the wedding bands. Before I continue I must say the selection was quite small. They had 1 case for both men’s AND women’s with nothing indicating what metals were used. The independent place we ended up buying our rings from had roughly 3x the selection AND alternative metals. It appears Dominion only deals in gold and platinum (unless there was something I missed — again, nothing was labeled so I could be mistaken here).
Anyway, almost immediately when we arrive upstairs an employee (darker auburn hair slightly past shoulder length) walks up to us and says «are you being helped?» I say «No – we actually don’t have an appointment, we’re just browsing until someone is available.» She gets this «ugh» look on her face, turns around to the couple she is working with and in the most condescending sing-​songy voice I have heard in years, if not forever, says «and THAT’S why we recommend appointments.»
Excuse me? I was stunned.
I am not complaining OR in your way so you have no right to be so rude. I’m minding my own business following the instructions of the guy at the front. I told my fiancée we should walk out, but she assured me that woman must be having a bad day or something. Then sure enough 5 minutes later, a different woman sitting down helping a gentleman with his purchase murmurs something that I can’t exactly quote but it was negative regarding walk-​ins without an appointment. I’m not sure if it was directed as us or not (I doubt it since I don’t think we were the only walk-​ins there) but I was floored. It was just such an unprofessional environment I wasn’t even sure how to react. My jaw was probably on the floor.
All that said, thankfully a person who was neither of these two women helped us. His name is Mohamed and he was very pleasant to deal with! He gave us the prices and told us about their processes. He even assured us we have a month to think about it before we need to make a purchase to start it getting made.
I’m glad we didn’t end up having to give Dominion our business, but clearly there’s a difference in the staff’s attitude toward the job. I imagine if you go in and ask for Mohamed you will have a fine experience!