Picture this: we've been dating five years, I've graduated from college and am returning home to begin full time work - an engagement must be right on the horizon, right? Even though it didn't work out quite that way, I started thinking about rings and how we would approach that. The typical idea is that the guy will propose with his own pick of a ring.
I saw quizzes and guides online that give guys advice to research her style by paying attention to the jewelry she currently has or to take a friend shopping to help pick one out. Those freaked me out - did my current jewelry say enough about my style to lead the way to the perfect ring? And why does my friend or sister get to have the fun of picking out my ring? And then the more I thought about it - I didn't know what my perfect ring even looked like!
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| Proposing like Patrick Dempsey in Sweet Home Alabama would solve a lot of problems./Photo from The Yes Girls |
After some online research and one or two really nervous clandestine stops in a store, I got really brave and started showing some of what I was looking at to Sphinx, and he was on board with me helping to pick out the ring! Sphinx is really good at buying my jewelry, but I think he was nervous about the idea of doing this on his own.
In general I liked white gold, a cathedral setting, a thin band, pave diamonds, milgrain detailing, and a round or oval center stone. I also liked rings that were pretty from all angles, especially the profile view. Going into jewelry stores, I felt like I was back in chemistry class reading a fluid level in a graduated cylinder - you've got to get down on the table level!
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| How I would creep on the cases of rings to get a good side view./Photo via American Chemical Society |
Honestly, I was a little underwhelmed once I had exhausted my choices at stores like Kay, Zales, and Jared. Nothing seemed to meet all of my needs. When I realized this, I was all the more determined to not let Sphinx go in and choose a ring without me, since I was turning out to be so picky (although no one should be surprised there). For example, halos were - and still are - a widely used element in engagement rings that are really beautiful, but I didn't want one. And I especially didn't want Sphinx to get talked into something that I didn't want by a sales person. I was drawn towards simpler settings, so I really didn't want him paying more money for something I didn't want.
A special event in the fall of 2011 brought us into Ramsey's Diamond Jewelers, a local jewelry store; they were hosting a Diamond Dash contest (a scavenger hunt around the city to win a ring) and you could go pick up a clue in store before the contest. We had fun at the event, but didn't win. However, we were able to make some headway into the ring search on the day that we visited the store. Ramsey's has a huge selection of "prototype" rings in an open case, so I could try on different kinds to my heart's delight - and I finally found some rings that I loved!
As our sales person was taking down our info, he asked me to decide on my top three rings to leave on file for when Sphinx came back. I was going back and forth about things I liked on each, but the salesman noticed "You've tried that one on about three times more than all the others, I think that's your top one." For being such an indecisive person, his comment made me realize that I had been favoring a certain ring!
Since I win at the internet, I was able to search online and find the exact designer brand that made the ring I found at Ramsey's. Gabriel & Co. had more gorgeous rings online (and all of them were with a reasonable price range for us), and I ended up getting them to send a few other samples to Ramsey's to check out in person. I liked one of the new ones that they sent in and the original one from the store and left it to Sphinx to make the final decision. That trip in April 2012 was our last ring shopping trip together.
Sphinx went back to the store another time to choose the ring and to bring in his mother's original engagement ring. Her ring was upgraded several years ago, and she very generously offered the original diamond to Sphinx to use for mine (Seriously, I have the best future in-laws). My sneaky boy bought the ring in the summer and hid it until our trip to Disney World in December, where he kept it in a small pouch in his pocket until he got down on one knee. We were in the dark on the balcony after the fireworks, so I couldn't even tell which ring he picked until we got back into the restaurant. Turns out, it was the original ring from the store and I was so happy that he picked that one!
Oh, you wanted to see some pictures of my pretty sparkler? You know I'm more than willing to oblige!
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| Trying to be cute taking pictures with the chocolates, but you can see some of the side detailing here. |
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| I just spent the entire trip taking pictures in different lights. |
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| And there's that side view I was fascinated with. |
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| Stock photos from Gabriel & Co. |
I absolutely love it, and I could not imagine a more perfect ring for me. It's dainty, a little bit different, and has such pretty details and I love watching it catch the light. I don't have specs on the center stone but it is so bright and shiny and beautiful. I'm so glad that we got through the awkwardness of shopping for the ring together, because it was actually pretty fun. It didn't ruin any kind of a surprise for me, since I didn't know his final choice and how it would look with his mom's diamond. I think that it's really special that we picked it out together and it includes a family stone, and all of that makes me love it even more.
Did you help pick out your ring? Or did you do something else like hinting at your preference or telling a friend what you liked?
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