Holy Diamond Batman!

Thursday, Douglas and I took a huge step toward putting the ring search to rest.  We visited two jewelers: Morrison Smith and a local Fink's location.

We hit up Fink's second, just to see what they had, and I have to say that our experience is what you would expect at a location that's in a high-end mall.  There were lots of rings with diamonds everywhere.  There was even a setting that had diamonds below the center diamond to fill in the gaps near the prongs.  I simply don't understand this at all.  The woman helping us was very nice but definitely came across as a sales person (I know, funny to say considering she IS a sales person), but good sales folks don't emphasize the fact that they're trying to sell you goods.  This woman kept emphasizing "we can make anything you want", although her solution to simplifying a ring design was for the designer to sand down the sides that he would be creating from scratch anyway.  It's not a good thing when you're making things that should sound simple: "we can create whatever you want" sound really complicated "we will take an existing ring and just sand it down but charge you just as much although you won't be using any of these extra diamonds".  What?

So the ring I looked at there was the engagement ring that goes with this wedding band.  The engagement ring was a slightly thicker band and had a square rock set on top.  Each side of the band had this tiny leaf etching with diamonds through out.  (This is also the ring with the diamonds that were under the large diamond to fill the gaps).



So Fink's in South Park was a big no go for me.  That was ok, though, because of how great the experience at Morrison Smith!  Douglas and I initially went in to just check the place out, see what they had, and see how the sales people were.  We tested the waters by asking about a ring Douglas had recently acquired and wanted to get re-sized.  After getting an estimate on what would need to be done to Doug's ring, we moved on to start browsing the engagement rings.  I perused a few cases and ended up actually starting at the estate jewelery case.  There was a small ring with some etching on it with some teeny tiny diamonds on the band that kind of caught my eye.  It was a great example to start the conversation about what kind of ring I would be looking for.  I ended up not liking the ring as much when I got to look at it up close, so we moved back to the other cases I had walked by earlier.  I didn't have it in my head that I was going to even look at solitaire settings given the other diamonds I have to work with, but all of the rings with side stones just weren't cutting it for me.  Probably the 2nd or 3rd solitaire that I tried on was the one I kept coming back to.  It has a nice wide band, which I liked because it not only balances out the diamond but also made the ring feel comfortable on my finger.  I ended up wearing this ring in between every other one I tried on and did not want to take it off.

Now, I've watched enough wedding shows on TLC and WE to know that giddy feeling that a lot of women get when they find THE dress, but I never thought that I would get that feeling with a ring.  Mom's advice to me before I went was "you'll know it when you see it" and she was right.  I LOVE this ring!  I was bouncing when I left the store, bouncing when I went to bed, and have been bouncy ever since when I think about the ring.

I know I know, with all of this build up with all of these diamonds and all of these settings, this will be a bit anti-climatic for some folks, but for me, it's perfect!

One last tidbit I'd like to share before the unveiling.  Rings, it turns out, are like dresses.  You cannot judge them in the case alone.  You have to try them on and be open to trying on styles you think you don't like.  To me, this was something new because the last piece of real jewelry I shopped for was back when I was a wee lass getting ready for my confirmation.  So it's been quite a while.

Without any more further ado, I present to you, my setting:

I honestly can't tell you how much I LOVE the idea of the 6 prong setting.  It really keeps the round-cut stones from looking like squares.  The way the band branches up into the prongs makes it look like the diamond is, as my Mom put it, sitting in a nest.  I love how simple and clean the design is and it really makes the diamond shine without making it too overstated.

So there it is.  My future ring.  The only decision left (for me) to make on it is white gold or platinum.  I have quotes for both, so I'm well aware of the price difference.  The big thing for me is going to be how much nickel is in the white gold alloy since nickel is the reason why I can't wear earrings or necklaces.  So I have a few more questions to send their way, but this is 100% my ring.

Once the details get ironed out, it should take about 10 days for them to create my very own hand-crafted engagement ring (and yes, there will probably be a countdown on this blog once the order is placed).

psssst....I'm really excited!