Ladies (and I guess guys), how do you feel about NON-diamond engagement rings?

Was chatting today with a female friend, and we got on the topic of jewelry, and inevitably engagement rings. I have always been of the mindset that I wanted to marry a girl that would want me to get her an engagement ring that featured a precious stone other than a diamond on it. My reasons being that diamonds aren’t really rare, they’re artificially priced by diamond companies limiting their availability, and frankly I find many of the other precious stones to be far more beautiful (rubies, emeralds, sapphires, etc).

How do you ladies feel about the topic? Would you want a diamond for sure, or would you be open for (or outright prefer) another precious stone? Would you want some kind of combination ring that either A: featured a diamond but was trimmed with smaller identical precious stones (like a diamond in the middle but maybe 4 small sapphires on the band), or B:featured a larger precious stone but had smaller diamonds on the band?

For the sake of this question, the material of the ring is whatever you prefer, but added points if you list which you prefer for that category (like gold, white gold, platinum, silver, etc..)