Put a Ring On It

I realize that I am such a dude about this wedding game. H has been e-mailing me ideas about what to post here (this is probably in concert with the posted link to the blog on her Facebook page)...one of the ideas she came up with, which I feel like such a dolt for not writing about earlier is the ring. Details!

H is not your typical bride to be. She doesn't pay much attention to the traditional conventions of a wedding. Where tradition dictates one thing, H believes another (for ex. the presence of religion at the ceremony)(more on that in later posts). Normally the engagement ring falls under the umbrella of traditional wedding fare...

Not in our house.

The signs were early and often and they were not discreet...I truly believe that Sasha Fierce stole that finger wagging "put a ring on it" routine from H. I think her mother even started to do it. No pressure.

However, there were some ground rules - if you get me a diamond, I might say 'no.' H doesn't believe in them. She wants to be unique. Fair enough. Secretly, I was freaking out - I know nothing about jewelry. Not.One.Thing. Diamonds are easy - there are what, 4 C's? Piece of cake. If you don't want a diamond, then, really, what do you get? I was lost. The answer, of course dear reader, is simple - lemon citrine. With diamonds laid around the stone. And the band separating into two bands on its way to the setting. And a square cut.

Easy...

This is where is gets funny (I guess). H was absolutely confused by the fact that I needed her help with this. She would need to be there to point me in the right direction. The confusion and disdain from/for my suggestion was not lost on me. H actually thought that I would know how/where to go to get a custom lemon citrine engagement ring in the exact way she wanted it. Silly girl. Thankfully - the first stop - out in Lisle somewhere, H realized that this was going to more of a search. Apparently these rings don't just grow on trees. The only gem stone rings this store had were on the hands of one of its employees - a sweet 67 year old lady. She said that we can come back and she'll wear her entire collection. We declined (which is a shame, since Lisle has a great Panera Bread).

It became pretty obvious to me that we were going to need to custom make this ring. We spent a day in the Gold Coast. Our first stop was David Yurman - since, we thought they would know a thing or two about gem stones. They do. Unfortunately, DY, himself, has to sign off on any custom job. He didn't.

We stopped by and talked with several other jewelers in the area and on Michigan Avenue. They were all exceptionally sweet, but none of them really knew what we were talking about. This was getting annoying. H's mom and step-dad use a jeweler in Fishers, Indiana. They thought that she might be able to help. The big city in us was skeptical. We made a trip to Indianapolis to boat and ring shop. Thank god we did. Mary Khamis knows her rings - almost from the onset, she "got" it. She sketched and altered and, most importantly, we felt like for the first time, a jeweler listened to us. Within a month, we had a molding - H loved it so much she wore that around for a day.

From that point on, H was done with the helping. Mary and I worked out all the details...and on September 26, 2008, when I proposed, H got exactly the ring she wanted.

And I get the satisfaction of knowing that everybody that sees it thinks its a yellow blood diamond.