gift guide · Gifts & Occasions
Order-by dates: the gifts that need lead time
Five of the fifteen brands we cover publish a make time. Three publish a holiday return extension. One publishes no delivery timeframe of any kind. No order-by date here is ours.
June PetrakisClothing, Fit & Resale Desk
Published Sep 5, 2026 · 5 min read
Five of the fifteen brands we cover publish a make time. Three publish a holiday return extension. One publishes no delivery timeframe of any kind. Those three counts, more than any calendar, are what decide whether a gift that has to be made arrives in time and can still be sent back.
This guide carries no order-by dates we invented. Where a brand publishes a lead time we print it; where it does not, we say so and it gets no claim. Everything below comes from the sellers' own shipping, returns and product pages as recorded in our brand files on 4–5 September 2026.
The terms, before any pick
The rule that catches people out is that almost every long make is also final sale, so the lead time is not a delay you wait through — it is the last moment you get to change your mind.
| Seller | Window on a stock piece | What is final sale |
|---|---|---|
| Noémie | 30 days, extended to 60 for orders placed 1 November to 1 December | The help centre says custom over $1,000 gets design adjustments or store credit only |
| Liori Diamonds | 14 days per the policy pages; a badge says 30 | "Certain restrictions" on custom orders; a 15% restocking fee on sized rings |
| AMANDA PEARL | 14 days to request and return | Custom orders; worn opals |
| Jennifer Behr | 14 days to request | Anything 60% off or more; Archive Sale gets 7 days |
| Roxanne Assoulin | 14 days from delivery, less a $10 handling fee | All sale items; all customisation |
| Markarian | 14 days full refund; 15–21 days store credit only | Bridal, custom, special orders, archive pieces |
| Fiametta | 7 days to request | All custom work; all Canadian orders |
Make time, longest first
This is the clock that starts when you order and stops when the piece exists. It is not the shipping clock.
| What you are ordering | Published make time | Returnable |
|---|---|---|
| Markarian bridal gown | 18–20 weeks, with six months' notice recommended | No |
| Markarian custom piece | 4–20 weeks | No |
| Fiametta custom | Quoted at purchase; 8–12 weeks in peak season | No |
| Markarian veil | 6–8 weeks | No — part of the bridal collection |
| Fiametta made-to-order | 6–8 weeks | 7 days from receipt |
| AMANDA PEARL repair | 4–6 weeks, chargeable unless it is a manufacturing defect | n/a |
| Roxanne Assoulin custom bracelet | 3–4 weeks | No |
| Roxanne Assoulin custom sizing | 2–3 weeks | No |
| AMANDA PEARL backorder | 2 days to 2 weeks | 14 days to request and return |
| Noémie pre-order or custom | 1–5 weeks | 30 days, subject to the custom conflict above |
Roxanne Assoulin's three-to-four-week customisation is the one most often underestimated, because the pieces are inexpensive — the range sits around $30 to $325 at full price — and a $75 bracelet feels like something you can order in December. It is not, and it cannot be cancelled or changed once placed.
Fulfilment and transit is a second clock
Add this to the make time; do not read it instead of one.
Roxanne Assoulin asks for three to six business days for an order to ship, then five to ten business days for US ground — so a stock piece can take a fortnight before any customisation is involved. FedEx 2Day and Overnight must be ordered by noon Eastern, and US ground is complimentary over $250.
Jennifer Behr processes in three to five business days and offers no two-day or overnight service at all, which removes the usual last-minute escape hatch. Fiametta ships in-stock pieces in two to five days, insured and signature-required, to the US and Canada only, with order changes possible within forty-eight hours. Noémie is the fastest on the board: complimentary overnight or one-to-two-day FedEx to the continental US, three business days to Alaska and Hawaii. AMANDA PEARL ships most orders in one to two days, one to five business days across North America, with no PO boxes or APO addresses.
The brands that publish no lead time
Liori Diamonds publishes free FedEx shipping and no delivery timeframe — no transit estimate, no signature terms, no in-transit insurance terms, and no international shipping policy we could find. On a gift, an unpublished delivery window is not a fast one; it is an unknown one. What the retailer does offer instead is home try-on on 487 styles and a by-appointment New York showroom, which is a different and better answer to the same problem.
Jennifer Behr is the sharper case, because the same studio publishes both. Catalogue pieces get three to five business days; bespoke headpieces exist but are not sold as a standard catalogue option with any stated turnaround. Gwynn's runs on-site tailoring and publishes no alterations turnaround either — and alterations void its fifteen-day return.
The holiday extensions
Three of the fifteen publish one, and they are worth knowing by name.
Noémie extends its thirty-day window to sixty for orders placed between 1 November and 1 December. AMANDA PEARL extends its fourteen days through the first week of January for December orders. Gwynn's makes holiday purchases returnable until 15 January.
Everyone else runs the standard clock from delivery, which is why BEN's fourteen calendar days is the trap of the season: a locket bought in late November is out of window before it is unwrapped. The full board of return terms sets out all fifteen.
THE PENNYWEIGHT VERDICT
Buy at full price — where the make time is published. Skip the commissions where it is not.
The number that drove it is five: only five of the fifteen brands we cover publish a make time at all, and every custom make on that list except Noémie's is final sale. A published eighteen-to-twenty-week schedule you can plan against is a better gift than an unpublished one you have to chase.
Practically, that means: commission from Markarian, Fiametta, Roxanne Assoulin or Noémie, who tell you how long it takes; buy stock rather than bespoke from Jennifer Behr; and if you are buying from Liori, use the home try-on rather than guessing at a delivery date nobody has published.
Lead times, shipping terms, extensions and return policies are drawn from each seller's own pages as recorded in our brand files on 4–5 September 2026. Terms change without notice, and no order-by date here is ours — each is the brand's own published figure. The Pennyweight buys nothing, accepts no gifted product, and is not affiliated with any brand named here.