It depends on how high maintenance your woman is, to be honest. I’ve been engaged for 3 years, and have worn a CZ as my engagement ring the entire time, with no personal objection to the idea. However, as NaturalMineralWater said, CZ’s do get dull after a while, even with cleaning, whereas diamonds do not. My fiance feels very insecure about the ring I wear, and wants to get me a giant diamond engagement ring to replace it, but I would be afraid to wear something so expensive. If I ever lost it I would feel absolutely awful. As far as I’m concerned, a pretty CZ ring is perfectly fine. However, if you give a woman a CZ and tell her it’s a diamond, she WILL eventually catch you in the lie, and the relationship will suffer. So, if she is ok with it, a CZ is a perfectly acceptable alternative, as long as your woman is on board with the idea. But remember, it doesn’t take a jeweler to tell the difference. If you can hold it up to a piece of paper with typing on it, and read the words through the stone, it’s a CZ. If it refracts and you can no longer tell that there are letters or words on the page, it’s a diamond. It’s a simple test that anyone can do, so don’t expect to get away with a lie.