Bride shocked to learn real value of her lab-grown diamond engagement ring [Video]

HOUSTON — When Claire Parker’s fiancé got down on a knee to pop the question, she was dazzled by the sparkle in his hand.

“The ring was everything I imagined,” she said.

Like most brides-to-be, she took photos and shared her engagement news with friends.

“Everybody said it was gorgeous,” Parker said. “It was a very beautiful ring, until…”

Until she learned later that the one-carat gem was a lab-grown diamond that cost her fiancé $4,000.

“My heart sank,” she said.

“I couldn’t imagine someone having been taken advantage of in that way,” added her mother Amanda Parker.

Cuellar said he told the mother and daughter the engagement ring had little secondary value and was worth about $100.

“They were just stunned because the first thing she said to me was ‘That can’t be, he paid thousands of dollars for it,’” he said.

Cuellar, who deals only in earth-mined …