Ringa Ding Ding

... we bought wedding rings yesterday!

You might remember that on a quick shopping trip with my mother-in-law (okay, not "technically MIL yet, but easier to just say she is) I stopped in at Tiffany's and found a ring I loved. Suffice to say, we weren't going to drop $3,000 + for a a little blue box; I knew we'd likely have to have something similar custom made.

You might also remember that my engagement ring is a custom piece. It's squared on the bottom to be more comfortable on my finger, and I thought I wanted a wedding band that matched that shape. So we went to the guy who did my ring... and found out we can't afford a custom piece like that.

Back to the drawing board.

I dropped by another local jeweler on Main Street (local yokel, I know), and found their line of knock-off celebration rings. After trying on a few, and pricing them out in platinum, we decided to go with this set:

I like the way the swooping desing of the wedding band sets of the minimalist, square edged design of the engagement ring. It was also important to me that the wedding band sit low on my finger, so that it didn't come into conflict with the head of my engagement ring. I won't sauter them together; I wanted to be able to wear just the band at certain times. It's not the yogo sapphires I initially wanted, but it's pretty, it looks good with the engagement ring, and it was in our price range!

The price for DJ's ring? Tungston $39.99 from Amazon!

Wedding Band Options

I went to Seattle with DJ’s mom when we were in Castle Rock over Christmas. Since she’s doing the alterations on my dress, I wanted to figure out early what kind of underwear I’ll don under my wedding dress. And we needed to pick up DJ’s brother (and our wedding webpage designer) Brian and bring him down to CR for Christmas.

As we walked from the parking garage to Nordstrom, I spied a Tiffany’s store. Now you’re wondering how someone who is so hell bent on spending money in local stores in Bozeman can want to go in a Tiffany’s store. Well, they’ve got pretty shiny things, and I’m a sucker for those things.

Since I’m no longer in the market for an engagement ring, I browsed their wedding rings. Or rings I could use for a wedding ring. Specifically, I’ve always eyed their Celebrations line.They’re interesting, different, and it would be fun to create a stack of them over time.

…ha ha ha, did you just hear DJ fall over and die at the thought of me demanding asking for a “Celebration Ring” every time something exciting happened around our house? Usually something exciting is something that we’ve spent a lot of money on too. Nothing like asking for an expensive ring after buying a house, buying a car or having a baby. Because we’re not already broke enough!

Regardless of cost, I did ask the Tiffany girl to pull the Swing ring out of the case. I put it next to my engagement ring, and am hooked.

Tiffany Swing ring

My engagement ring is very streamlined. I love its simplicity, sturdiness, and Art Deco feel. And we’ll probably go back to the same jeweler who made it, to ask him to build my wedding band. The simplest thing would be a plain band just like the band on my ring. Maybe in a smaller width.

But that might be, I don’t know, boring?

I’ve considered adding Yogo Sapphires to a band matching my engagement ring. I like the symbolism of a Montana-mined gem tying me to DJ.

But our trip to Tiffany’s evolved the idea. My engagement ring next to the Swing ring is a very interesting juxtaposition. They play off of each other. The straight lines of my engagement ring really sets off the fluid lines of the Tiffany Swing ring. And it has an option with sapphires in it!

Source

The Tiffany Swing ring on the bottom, paired with the Lucida band, which kind of looks like my engagement ring.

The price of a Tiffany ring, however, is not in our budget. As in, will not be, maybe ever. So my plan is to take in photos of the Tiffany ring and ask Ken the jeweler to create something similar, with Yogo Sapphires.

Did your engagement ring come with a matching wedding band? Was it a wedding set? Or did you get to create something to fit your style?

Hardware (Part Two)

By April I felt confident that DJ knew my opinion about potential engagement rings. We’d looked at it twice in the store and the jeweler wrote it down.


In late April I visited my sister and parents in eastern Washington (state) for a weekend, leaving DJ home in Bozeman by himself. The next Friday night we were getting ready to go out, and he’d had a couple of whiskey’s (he’s a total non-drinker during the week, but will have a few on a Friday night), which sometimes makes him a jabbermouth (jabber jabber jabber).

So we chatted along as I got ready, and DJ stumbles around to a question about the engagement ring I want. I can’t even remember which particular element of it he was uncertain about, but I do remember being a little bummed that A) if he wants to know my preference on said element, he must not have bought a ring last weekend; and B) dude, we we wrote this stuff down. Read your notes!

So I gently said, well, if we need to go look at the ring again this weekend, we can. And like an excited schoolboy with a secret (really, he’s about ten years old at heart) he stood straight up and shook his head no, no we couldn’t go look at the ring again. Confused (and laughing at this endearing trait he has), I asked him why, and he said “well, let’s just say I might have some store credit…”

I commenced the excited dance inside, while hopefully remaining calm on the outside.

But he still had questions about a certain element, so, like any good woman, I sketched out the ring I wanted for him, with details. What!? That was too much? Hey, I knew what I wanted; DJ knew the size and quality of the stone were up to him. (I wonder what has happened to that sketch?)

May came and went, and only an overwhelming workload cancelled out my anticipation for getting engaged. Sometime during this month I told DJ that I wanted at least a year to plan a wedding, so you know, no pressure or anything. DJ, I think about this time, responded that he wouldn’t be able to afford any hardware until the end of the summer. I can’t lie, at the time I hoped he was lying to me to throw me off.

In early June I looked at our summer schedule and flipped out a little (and wrote this post). Friend’s and a cousin’s wedding, work obligations, and people visiting had essentially filled our entire summer schedule. We had only two weekends open between June 1 and mid-September. When was DJ going to have time to pop the question???

By July first I vacillated between anxiety over the wedding planning we’d have to do after he actually proposed, and a sadness that he hadn’t actually proposed yet. Again, the girl in me, who usually stays buried behind the four letter words and a masculine lack of patience, came out. Waiting actually was really hard for me. And to this day I can’t say why, only that the longer I waited the less enthralled I got. I kept reminding myself that I didn’t want DJ to spend money he didn’t have, we were very busy and I wouldn’t have time to plan anyway, and I wanted him to propose in his own time.

Frankly, I wasn’t exactly a picture of patience.

Over the 4th of July we took a roadtrip and I was hopeful. Nope. The next weekend we drove out to the lake for two days there before going to my cousin’s wedding in Colton. During that 5.5 hour drive we discussed how different my upcoming cousin’s wedding would be from ours. I secretly hoped he’d proposed at the lake in the next two nights… until he flat out told me he wasn’t going to. Again, I can’t lie; I teared up. We talked through it, but I was disappointed. Especially on Saturday night when mutual friends of ours and my cousin kept saying “you two should just get married”… Thanks Jon, because I wasn’t already aware that we’re not engaged.

Somewhere on the drive back to Bozeman after that wedding I let it go. I had a lot of other things to focus on, and I decided that if we weren’t engaged by October 1 we’d have a serious come to Jesus. But until then, I’d try to keep my mouth shut about it.

In late July I went back out to the lake to help my mom paint the house. She and I talked about wedding stuff, pros and cons of different locations, vibes, dresses, etc. But I couldn’t really jump too far into it without a ring. I’d started a spreadsheet… but wasn’t going too much farther.

In early August DJ’s mom came to visit. And the next week I hosted Katie's bachelorette partybefore going to her wedding. I think right before her wedding (no, really, like in the parking lot five minutes before the ceremony started) DJ sold the condo. The whole weekend I kept getting questions about when we were getting engaged. I grit my teeth, reminded myself of the October 1 vow, and reminded myself that I could busy myself with the house we were going to build.

By Sunday night though, with the combination of exhaustion, hangover, and work stress, I was kind of a mess. A case of the sniffles took over, and I cried to DJ that I felt a little ridiculous picking out floorplans and talking to the builder of our house without any hardware. He comforted me, said all the right things, and apparently wasn’t scared off by the crazy girl crying on his shoulder.

I went to work on Monday feeling a little ridiculous about my outburst, but actually a lot better about the whole situation. That week was taken up my housebuilding discussions, planning and condo-selling. And in my mind I’d figured that DJ would probably propose while on our upcoming Oregon trip.

Dun Dun Dun...

Hardware

When DJ and I started talking about biting the bullet one night on a vacation in the fall of 2008, I woke up the next morning and googled wedding rings. You’re laughing, right? Because I was laughing at myself. What a girl. Yeesh.

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not a girly girl. I’m not delicate, I swear, I sweat, and occasionally pass gas (shut it DJ). So I was surprised an indication of intention lead me straight to an internet search for pretty shiny things.

Long before I met DJ I knew I wanted to be involved with choosing my engagement ring. I’m an opinionated person. I wanted to have a say in the symbol that would tie me to my betrothed. Sidenote: my dad loves the word betrothed. What a weirdo. At the end of every phone conversation he always reminds me to tell my BETROTHED hello for him. ::eye roll:::

I also knew a few things about what I wanted for this symbol. Something sturdy, with a band that protected the stone. A ring that can withstand me talking with my hands and slapping the palm of my hand onto the table to make a point. Something unique; no patent ring for me, thank you. Nothing too delicate, bedazzled or ornate. Simple, plain and quality over quantity.

I told you I am opinionated.

Being a girl who likes old stuff, I also googled antique rings. And Oh. My. Gosh. I stumbled across antiqueengagementrings.com/ . Here’s the caveat; most of their stuff is reproductions of antique pieces. I know this, but I still couldn’t stop drooling over their rings. Things like this and this and this caught my eye and were bookmarked.

ohh symmetry...

Look at the detail work on the band!

Baguettes! Not just for dipping artichoke dip in!

You’ll note that I was drawn to square shapes, primarily the Asscher cut. Now I have to admit, I’d seen the Asscher before. My friend Shawna’s ring is an Asscher and I remember admiring it when they got engaged. She's got a fabulous sense of style that I really admire.

Then in mid-March, after our vacation to Hawaii and after our tax returns were in, I oh so casually mentioned to DJ that I know he gets busy during the upcoming little league baseball season, and did he know that a ring can sometimes take months to come in, and you know, no pressure, but I just thought maybe he should know. And that I wanted a year to plan a wedding, but you know no pressure.

In addition to opinionated, I’m subtle too.

We went ring shopping on St. Patrick’s day with the deal that we’d pick out the diamond shape and ring setting together, but that the diamond quality and band material would be up to him; with a reminder of the quality over quantity. We’d also agreed that if we were going to drop serious moolah hardware, we wanted it to be to a downtown, Main Street merchant. Talk about Local Yokels, but seriously, I didn’t want it to come from a chain store in the mall.

So we started on west Main Street at, I kid you not, The Jewelry Studio. Impressive name, right?

And although they had some very ornate Tacori rings, in addition to a bunch of other designer’s stuff, we both were drawn to the rather plain rings in the case around the corner. The salesman came over, and I asked if I could try on the Asscher cut in the case.

Now here’s the part where I tell you I have little smokey sausages for fingers. No, really. My fingers are short, squat, and generally farm-wife-ish. I could never be a piano player. Check that, I have no musical ability whatsoever, so not just my lack of finger length eliminates me from piano stardom, but you get my drift.

My fingers! In a bag!!! Short, stubby, plump and delicious when in a crock pot!

And would you believe it; the Asscher cut ring with the small round diamonds set into the platinum band in the case at The Jewelry Studio fit my little smokies! Shock! And we both loved it. And the ring shape was so comfortable! We were so excited, and the salesman finally mentioned that he was glad we liked it, as he was the designer of this particular case. Score!

After marveling at our luck, we thanked the designer salesman and moved on to the three remaining stores on Main Street. After about two hours, it was apparent that nothing was going to top the ring back at the first store, and I told DJ that was it. We went back by to see it again, and I told the designer-salesman it was up to him and DJ from this point out. I wanted that ring, without the little round diamonds on it.

You might note that we picked out an engagement ring on March 17. And didn’t get engaged until August 21. More on how I lost my mind during those five months later, but suffice to say, I was such a girl.

How long did it take anyone out there to pick out a ring? If you’re not engaged or married yet, and maybe still haven’t met Mr. Right, do you have a dream ring bookmarked somewhere? Don’t you think it’s ridiculous that we found my perfect ring at a place so boringly named? (but seriously, they do GREAT work!)