I’ve been having so much fun writing these posts of my experience as a bride! I feel like this post is going to show just how crazy a girls mind is when it comes to what she wants…but that’s ok! :) If you want to catch up on the last few posts you can see them below:
Part 3: Finding the Perfect Destination Venue
This post is going to take a step back a little because Dave and I actually started looking at rings before we got engaged! When I told my mother that we were going to look at engagement rings she thought it was the silliest thing ever! ‘You aren’t even engaged yet! How can you be looking at rings?….Isn’t he supposed to do that himself?’ I think the idea of going out and shopping together was just a little too ‘new age’ for her! But it was very practical for us, and I think a lot of people in our generation are doing it this way also. There are just so many options out there these days, and I think Dave just wanted that extra security of knowing that I was going to love it….even though I would have obviously loved anything that he got!
To be honest, I had NO IDEA what I wanted. I mean, like a lot of girls I know, I had pinned a ton of different photos on my pinterest board of rings that I thought were pretty, but when Dave and I made a plan to go look at them, I looked back at my board and realized that my ‘style’ was all over the place! No wonder guys are nervous about this part….WE don’t even know what we want half the time!! :)
We decided it would be fitting to go shopping on our 2 year anniversary since it was coming up in just a few weeks. In that time frame I tried to really think about what style I liked, but I had never gone ring shopping so I knew things would look different once they were on my hand. We decided to go to Robins Brothers because they seemed to have a pretty good selection to choose from. The customer service was really great and we shopped for a little over an hour, going from section to section and just talking about what we liked and what we didn’t like about each ring. At the end I brought it down to two styles, which was pretty good considering there were thousands in that store! But even though it was only two styles…they were complete opposites of one another! One was a classic solitaire, while the other was a Veragio design with a ton of detail and artistic style to it!
Since Dave and I hadn’t really talked about when he would propose or anything, a few months went by and if I was at the mall or somewhere with rings I would just stop by and try on a few and see what I liked. I tried on a few colored stones as well just to see what I thought. My favorite color is blue so I really gravitated towards that, but wasn’t sure if I wanted to veer away from the traditional diamond…..So many choices!!! It was making me dizzy just thinking about it!
When we got back from our cruise in December, we docked in Long Beach and as we were headed home Dave surprised me by making a pit stop in the LA Diamond District! I had never been there before and it was so much fun walking around all the different shops and seeing all the different rings! Again….soo many choices, but I think at this point we were really starting to narrow down what we liked. We found a guy that did custom work up there and were really excited about the thought of making something that was completely unique to us! Since there were so many different features that we liked in different rings, we were excited thinking about the possibilities of putting them all together in one ring. Needless to say, the ring below was the closest we found to what we wanted. We talked to the guy and he said the quickest he could get something made would be about 3 weeks. So I knew that even if Dave already had something drawn up, there would be no way he would be proposing in less than 3 weeks…..or so I thought!
This was the ring that he actually proposed with! It was his mother’s ring and she gracefully let me wear it during the time that we would be making our own! You can read that full story HERE.
After a few days of us being engagement Dave dove right into designing the perfect ring for me. He let me see the plans from time to time just to get my input but he said that he still wanted the final product to be a surprise. Well, a few weeks had gone by and I think we both came to the conclusion that jewlery design is a lot harder than it seems! There were a few design elements to my ring that we wanted that just weren’t able to be done. Learning about the physics and the process was fascinating to me…but also a little disheartening thinking that Dave had spent all this time on my design, only to be told there was no way to make it happen.
We took a break for a while from the designing and just enjoyed being engaged for a while and a few weeks later we were ready to jump back into it. I had found a store in the Fashion Valley Mall called Charles Koll. I knew they did design work so we went in to get a second opinion on Daves design and see if they could make our vision come true. This store was so incredible and while Dave talked with the designers, I would just peruse the store looking at all their stunning custom work. My eye kept being drawn to this aquamarine ring with diamonds that came up and across the stone. It was absolutely stunning. We went into the store a few times to speak with them on different occasions and each time I would ask them to take it out of the case so I could wear it around the store! haha! Each time I did that I fell more and more in love with it and couldn’t imagine any other ring being on my finger for the rest of my life. I knew Dave was feeling defeated with our custom ring, and to be honest, the aquamarine ring already had so many elements of what we wanted. So I finally got up the nerve to tell Dave that I really wanted this one! I think he was relieved that I had settled on one and he could see in my eyes that I was truly happy with it. But, we decided we would sit on it for a while and think about it before we actually bought it.
Again, Dave being his jokester self, actually bought the ring the next day without me knowing. That weekend we went to one of our favorite restaurants in La Jolla, The Shores Restaurant. To be honest, I was pretty sad when he told me that we weren’t going to the mall to buy the ring that evening, but I wanted to have a good night so I put all that aside and snuggled into the booth as we shared a caraf of wine and talked about all the great things that had been going on in our lives at the time.
As we were talking Dave said we should make a toast. He took out his phone and started to take a picture of our wine glasses together. Then he put his phone down and began to reach into his pocket for something. As he pulled out the ring box I was so confused and as he said, “Now lets take a photo with the REAL ring’, I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest!
I was absolutely smitten with my ring and I couldn’t be happier with the entire process that we went through to get the perfect ring for me. It matches my style and personality to a ‘T’ and I get compliments on it all the time. We wanted something that was going to really mean something to the both of us and we finally found it!!
We just recently went to go look at wedding bands and I’ve fallen in love with this straight band with it! I can’t wait to have the complete set on my finger on our wedding day!
All in all, if you are reading this and looking to get an engagement ring for your loved one, just know that finding a ring that suits their personality is always the best answer. You know them better then anyone else in the world and whether you are designing it or buying it already made, they will love it knowing that you put your heart into finding the perfect one for them! Don’t just settle for what everyone else says you should. You’ll know when it’s The One!
comments +