We’re Looking Forward to Meeting You.
Prepare for your Introductory Appointment with Alx&Co.
Congratulations on booking your Introductory Appointment with our little studio! We appreciate you taking the time to see what we’re about. Depending on what you plan to discuss, here are some suggestions on how to prepare for your upcoming meeting in order to make it as productive as possible…
What to bring:
Materials: If you are planning to use your own materials for a redesign or restoration project, please try to have these in hand at your meeting. If this is not possible, photos can be a helpful alternative; however your Design Lead might not be able to give very solid direction based off of photos alone. Allowing us to measure and examine your pieces will give us the best information to direct our project discussion.
Images: If you have inspiration images to reference, come prepared with those. You are welcome to email them to inquiries@alxandcompany.com as well, and we’ll take care of getting them to your Design Lead to review in advance of your meeting.
Budget: Start thinking about budget. Your Lead can walk you through the specific prospective pricing of your project during your meeting, but it is helpful for you to have a general idea of your own comfort level for the project overall. Pricing for custom and redesign projects can vary dramatically depending on what you are doing, so having a transparent conversation with your Lead about your own budget will help them direct you to options that will work well for you.
Frequently Asked Questions:
-
Every project is different here, but three months is a reasonable time frame to consider for your custom design. Typically, this allows time to source a gemstone, work through a few edits, and go through a 5-6 week production period in our workshop.
-
We are a small atelier with our own onsite workshop where we set, finish, and handmake our pieces. When you start a project with us, you work directly with one of our Design Leads via in-person meetings, virtual appointments, or emails to review the design direction and drafts. The process is interactive and purposefully iterative so that you can thoughtfully approach the design.
When you work with our team, you are working with real people. Our operating days are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am - 6pm (on Saturdays we close at 4pm). We do not take appointments on Tuesdays. Our Design Leads are typically in appointments during the day and each project we work on is completely unique. This means that when you send an email you might not get a response for a day or two while your Lead meets with other clients and researches a solution or answer to your question.
For some clients, working with Alx&Co. is the first time they have worked in an iterative process with pricing variables. Transparency with your Design Lead regarding budget, timeline, and design edits will ensure that the project stays comfortably on track.
-
Again, each project is unique but generally speaking, our work could fall into one of a few categories:
1) $1000-$3000: Prefabricated designs & simple wedding bands. Pricing will depending on the materials used and the weight of the piece.
2) $2700-$3900: Alx&Co. Collection Custom Designs (not including any feature gemstone we would need to source)
3) $4500+: Bespoke Custom Designs (not including any feature gemstone we would need to source)
Our pricing is based on the complexity of the design, the complexity of the setting process, and what the piece is made of. There are lots of variables that go into pricing and your Design Lead will do their best to provide ballpark figures at your meeting. It is important to remember that as custom jewelers, we are unlikely to meet prices for similar pieces that you find online from mass-produced retailers.