The Diamonds

Guess what - it's white outside!  CLT currently has an inch or two of snow on top of a thick layer of frozen slush and is now being topped off with a freezing mist.  So if there end up being a lot of posts between now and Monday - it's because we're stuck inside and have taken a few breaks from killing each other while playing New Super Mario Bros Wii.

Speaking of ice (like that little segue?), these are the diamonds that will become my engagement ring and wedding band!  I will be using the diamonds in this gorgeous necklace which is an heirloom of the Royal family.  The plan for the gold chain is for it to be made into two bracelets.

I am currently planning on starting the idea for my rings by basing it off of Mama's rings:

 

The stones in Mama's engagement ring are the same as the ones in the necklace.  So I'm excited to incorporate some of Mama's design into my ring.  Round cut stone will be the center stone like her ring and have one of each of the rectangle cut diamonds on either side.  The other 3 rectangle cut diamonds will go into my wedding band unless Douglas wants one to incorporate into his.  

There is more jewelry to talk about, but I think we'll give each piece its own post and spread it out a little.  I mean, if I'm going to over-post due to cabin fever, at least I can give you pretty pictures to look at, right?

One Week

It's been a week-long engagement.  :-D

Engagement Ring - round 1

It has been very hard making this all feel like it's really happening without being able to look down at the ring on my finger and have a solid confirmation that yes, this is really happening.  I always hoped that I wouldn't have a hand in picking out my engagement ring.  The only reason for that is that there are so many designs out there that I don't like (yellow gold being a big no-no for me as well as most blinged out rings).  I can best compare my looking at jewelery to jean and shoe shopping - it takes a LOT of patience and digging to find a pair that actually fits right and looks semi-decent.

I started out by looking at the major websites (Helzberg, Tiffany's, etc.) and didn't find anything I felt was worth bookmarking.  Douglas, fed up with my angst at not finding anything remotely interesting, pulled up the website for a local jeweler (Morrison Smith) he had visited to get a quote on The Gem (a story for another post...).  I was able to find one design that I deemed bookmark-worthy:

  Morrison Smith

Earlier today, in response to a tweet of mine about how angsty I was getting looking at rings, Leah sent me a link to a ring blog.  I only had to look at the homepage to know that I was going to have fun looking at this website.  Not only did the homepage show a <3 ring (a symbol Douglas and I have used since the beginning of our relationship), but allowed you to search by dozens of ring types.  My favorite discover was meteorite rings!  (Remember, I warned you that I was a geek.)

Thanks to perusing this website for a few minutes, I found 3 very different ring styles that were bookmark-worthy.  Shown from least favorite to more favorable:

None of these rings have made me go "OMG!"...ok, no ring will ever make me go "OMG!"...but you get the point.  None of them really made me want to run out and buy it.

My difficult tastes aside, there is yet another issue standing in the way of there actually being a ring on my finger.  We have yet to view the diamonds that will be used to make the ring(s).  We have been given at least 2 options for this.  1 we've known about for a long - an heirloom from Doug's family.  The other is brand new - my grandmother offered me her engagement and wedding ring set.  Our preference is to look at the heirloom from Doug's family and see what we can design from that.  While I love my grandmother and would love to make her rings heirlooms in our family, I simply would not be able to have them reset or resized because they are engraved.  This is significant because my grandfather passed away from lung cancer when I was young.  What he had to go through was the biggest reason I never picked up a cigarette in my life.  I really miss my grandfather and would not be able to do anything other than preserve something so important as the words they inscribe to each other.

So, as you can see, I'm really just spinning my wheels trying to find designs and features that I like in rings because I have no idea what types or cuts of diamond or even how many diamonds or gems I'll have to work with.  This process will definitely be interesting.

Time to Get Fit

Douglas and I aren't necessarily looking to run out and get married right away.  We have about 5 weddings, so far, to attend or participate in during 2010.  So we may be looking at a 2011 wedding right off the bat, which gives us some time.  The one thing that we both want to get started on is getting fit.  With Douglas going through grad school and now my working from home, we have become quite the inactive couple.  Douglas enjoys the gym and Louis, brother and roommate, already goes with a regular schedule.  So Douglas is taken care of - gym membership and work out buddy.  I, however, am a different story.  I do not enjoy going to the gym.  Once I'm there, I don't mind it.  The problem is getting there.  There is plenty of room around here to go for a run or jog outside, but I'm not much of a runner.  So I am leaning toward breaking down and getting a Wii Fit Plus.  I am more likely to work out with a device at home.  This lets me get several small workouts in during busy days or better workouts in when time allows.  We have no room in the town-home for a treadmill or any other workout device, so that's a no go.  We already have a Wii, so it's logical to try the Fit Plus.  I'm just not sold on it yet.

I will tell you this much, though.  It's much easier to shop around for Fits and other options than checking out engagement ring styles online!  Be prepared for quite a few ring posts...

R2D(2) - Day 1

I have a wedding to plan.  Like most people, I don't know where to start.  Unlike most women, I haven't had a vision of my perfect wedding since age 9.  The only thing I ever really knew about my wedding was that the details were going to be dependent on the guy I was marrying.  That was all fine and dandy until the right guy popped the question.  Now, I know I can start by looking at designs for engagement rings, but the choices of style, setting, gems, are all overwhelming!

Before I get into that rant, let me start from the beginning.  This is me.  I am a geek.:

 












This is my boyfriend of 5 years, Douglas, who is also a geek:

And this, was my proposal:

Background: Douglas is getting ready to defend his Master's Thesis.  He typically has me proofread sections. 
Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary.  Since everything was up in the air with when Douglas would be headed to DC to defend, we didn't make any solid plans for the day.  We decided that the easiest thing to do was to recreate our first date (which was after we were already dating).  I will share that story in another post.

Story: We dressed up and went to dinner at a decent Chinese restaurant in Charlotte called Shun Lee.  After eating out, we came home to enjoy a small Carvel ice cream cake and a movie.  After deciding to get comfortable, we headed upstairs.  Douglas asked me to sit in his desk chair and pulled out a sheet of paper.  My instructions: read the sheet out loud.  I started reading the acknowledgments page of his thesis - part of which I had helped him edit a few days earlier.  I get to the section dedicated to me, a sweet bit about how far we've come and what the future holds.  As I finished reading, he pulled out an open box with a Violet Lantern Ring in it and asked me to marry him.  I, of course, said yes - and so we were engaged.

Now that we have been introduced and you have a little bit of back story, I want to invite you to stay tuned.  The intent of this blog is to share my anxiety and adventures as I go from engaged to married, or as I'm calling it, the Rattazzi to Davidson transition (R2D(2)).