*giggle*

I was out walking the Barnster yesterday and when he stopped for a rest, three neighborhood kids came over to pet him.

They started asking me all kinds of crazy questions:

“Where did you get your glasses?”

“I like your flipflops… oh what kind of nail polish is that?”

“Are you married? Do you have kids? Oh no, you just have a dog?”

“You’re getting married?!?!? Is that your ring? Can we see?”

“WOW. That’s nice. Oh man, you could sell that some day and get a lot of money!”

Um, thanks for the advice but I don’t think NEPA Groom will be very pleased.

FH called me at work about 3 days after we ordered my ring. The jeweler had called to tell us the setting came in, but they weren’t comfortable with it. After I composed myself in the back of the coat closet at work (it’s like my superman phone booth!), I finished up my day and headed down to meet FH at Rainbow. I was really worried as I’d set my heart on this ring, and we’d found it at a price that made sense.

It turns out that the quality of the setting really was lacking. It was so lightweight – I was shocked, and sure I’d destroy it in no time. Being the klutz that I am, I knew I needed something a little more sturdy. Thankfully the wonderful team there had gone through their catalogs and pulled out a couple of alternatives. In the end, I found one that looked even closer to my original inspiration from Brilliant Earth. They also didn’t charge us any extra for ordering the second ring. Yay!

After that I was left to wait in suspense for the proposal….

Did anyone else ever run into some unexpected snags while picking out their ring?

After all my searching, I found the perfect setting at Brilliant Earth.  I fell in love, hard:

I also liked the stance they took on ethical diamond mining. Unfortunately, they were a bit out of our price range. I also wanted to see what we were buying before making a commitment. I’ve read a lot of stories about people having a great experience buying diamonds online, and I’m sure it’s all true. It just makes me nervous. The plus side is that this was a chance for us to avoid the chain stores and support a local business!

We took a weekday in January to go around and visit several local jewelers. Most didn’t have a style like the one I wanted in stock. They were very willing to custom make my ring, but it cut into our budget. Then we went to Rainbow Jewelers. The staff there was extremely helpful and went through several catalogs to find the perfect setting. We found one that looked very similar to the ring above at half the cost of a custom order. Yay! We were able to pick out a beautiful stone and we sealed the deal.

Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan. We got a call from the jeweler about 3 days later with some bad news…

So, I wanted to take some time and share the journey that brought us to my very own Ring Of Dreams.

FH and I started talking about marriage seriously last December. We both knew we wanted to spend our lives together for a while before that point, but our financial situations got a bit more stable and we realized our ’someday’ was now!

After that, I spent a lot of time online trying to find my ideal ring. FH told me he wanted me involved because while he had a good grasp on my taste, this was going to be something I wear the rest of my life. I started browsing sites like Blue Nile and Jewelbasket in order to figure out what I actually liked. My jewelry style tends to be pretty simple. I go for a pendant on a thin chain over a chunky necklace. As a result, solitaire rings really caught my eye.

At the same time, I didn’t want a plain, ordinary ring. I wanted mine to be unique (like every bride before me, I’m sure). I was really attracted to rings with sapphire side stones, or even blue sapphires as the main stone.

I didn’t expect FH’s reaction to my idea of a sapphire engagement ring – he didn’t like it! Well, if I had really wanted it, I think he would have gone for it, but he wanted to get me a diamond since it is the traditional stone for an engagement ring. I didn’t argue it because at the end of the day, he was doing this for me and I was still getting some sparkles.

And that’s when I found the perfect mix of simple and unique….

This is the fun part, for sure. we’ve been calling people and telling them our news since the proposal on Wednesday. Everyone has been really excited and supportive! We got a lot of  the regular questions… “did you pick a date?” “how did he propose?” etc etc. I figured I should share more about the actual proposal, then I’ll back track and do a post about actually finding the Ring Of Dreams.

FH came over my house Wednesday night. I was in the back yard playing with Barney:

Me and Barney at Rickett's Glen

When I hugged FH, I felt something in his jacket pocket, but I’ve been kinda paranoid about the impending proposal, so I put it out of my mind. We went inside and were watching tv together for a while. He was being a good boy, rubbing my neck a bit (back to that whole stress thing). He got up kind of suddenly, and went out to the living room, where my parents were. Now, he gets along just fine with my parents, but neither of us have been known to, you know, chillax with them without each other there. That’s when I realized he was asking for their blessing – with me in the next room!!

I didn’t go out, and I didn’t mute the tv to hear what he said. I did start freaking out a bit, but I checked myself before he came back. When he came back into the room, he pulled out the box and got on one knee…. and that’s as far as he got before I went batshit crazy! I was so excited I just hugged him and cried and he clearly knew my feelings on the matter.

So that’s my story! We’re all excited and ready to start this crazy journey in earnest now. I guess it’s time to start figuring out what I actually want to do…