Rings and things

I am not a huge fan of bling. All I can think about when I see a huge piece of jewelry is "Wow you could have spent that money on something more practical". Expensive jewelry makes me nervous, I am a very forgetful/clumsy person and I feel like I would break it or lose it.

Case in Point,
One of my co-workers engagement rings was about 10,0000. The diamond alone was 9,000. It's a trillium cut diamond set in an family ring. So the ring wasn't really made to hold this giant diamond and one day it fell out! She luckily found it (it was sitting on her car seat), but I can't even imagine the amount of panic she must have been in when she realized it was no longer sitting on her finger.

When Travis and I first started talking marriage I told him, that he didn't have to spend a ton of money on an engagement ring. I would be happy with something vintage. To me it was more important that the ring looked like "me" and was conflict free, than the size of the diamond.

While home going through some of his stuff at his mom's house, she brings out a jewelry box and hands him her old engagement ring. Now this ring needed some major work. It was gold and once she was divorced she turned it into a mothers ring, so it had a emerald and ruby on it now but I was honored that she wanted him to have it to give it to me one day.

Before we had work done to it, I showed it to a close friend of mine. The first thing she asked me was "Are you going to get a bigger diamond?". I was very offended, the diamond is half a caret, which to me is enough, I have tiny fingers and a huge diamond would look almost comical. Then she asked "Didn't his parents get divorced? Don't you think that's weird?" Yes, his parents were divorced, or I don't think she would have given me the ring, and no I don't think that is weird. She wanted to the ring to symbolize love again, and what better way then to pass it off to someone who can make brand new memories with the ring without the stigma of what it meant before. I tried to keep in mind that the comments were coming from a person who wants a 15,000 engagement ring. To me the ring is a symbol of commitment not of status and that the size of the price tag on the ring does not equal the amount of love that person has for you. I think it's so selfish and superficial to expect that the only way a person can show you that they love you enough to marry you is by dropping a small fortune on a piece of metal and rock.

When Travis was ready he had me go to the jeweler with him and tell him what I wanted done to the ring. We did this together for two reasons. One we wanted to make sure that the ring could be dipped into white gold and two that the ring could be sized enough without compromising the integrity of the ring (The ring was a 7 and I wear a 4). Because of either of those would have been a problem, then a new ring would have to been bought. We were lucky in that neither of those were a problem. I explained to the jeweler what I wanted and then waited!

For anyone who's talking marriage I fully suggest going with your significant other to design the ring. I have heard so many stories of people who hated what their ring looked liked or it's something that is just not them and being the picky person I am I was afraid that would be me

When I finally received my ring I loved it. It's exactly what I wanted, simple and beautiful. Everyone keeps telling me it's pretty. Which to me is really not a compliment, because I know my taste are a little off-beat and I think some people just say that because they feel they have to. The best compliment I received is " That is so you", which is exactly what we were going for.