My Bling: Part Two

Before I dive in, let's recap, shall we?

I told you all about the proposal and the ring passed down to me from K's grandmother.

I showed you his grandmother's ring, madeover and told you that I'm wearing that ring on my right hand.

So you are probably wondering what I'm wearing on my ring finger.  Well, shortly after proposing, K told me that he really wanted to get me a ring that was mine and that we should choose what we do together.  The original plan was to take the diamonds out of his grandmother's ring and incorporate them somehow into my engagement ring.  But I just couldn't bear to destroy that ring. 

So instead, we went shopping.  And, let me tell you that as soon as I put my ring on my finger, I knew.  Here's the backstory:

The weekend after K proposed, he took me up to the GA mountains for a weekend of hiking, wine tasting and overall fun.  Unfortunately, I got hit with a bad cold the day after our engagement so the hiking was cut short.  Instead, we went to the nearby North Georgia Premium Outlets and saw that they had a Zales Outlet.  We really just went in to start looking and see what was out there, not intending to purchase a ring that day.  But, like I said, as soon as I put this ring on my finger, I knew it was the one for me.  It was perfect.  I have simple taste so I didn't want anything too huge or with a lot of design to it.  The band is thinner than the typical engagement ring which was perfect for my short little fingers. 

The saleswoman wrote down all the details for us so we could come back if we wanted to purchase it.  But the thing was that they couldn't guarantee that the ring I tried on would still be there.  It would be something similar, but the diamonds wouldn't be the same diamonds.  The idea of that just devastated me.  That's how I knew that, that ring, was my ring.  So K paid for the ring and we left it with them (*sniff*) to get resized. 

Here's one piece of advice I want to give you.  Don't let the salesperson talk you into getting a different size than you think you need.  I was pretty sure that my finger was a 4.75 and she talked me into a 5.25.  She said that since it was cold out, the 4.75 would be too small on me later, so I trusted her judgement because this is what she does for a living. 

Well, after waiting for my ring for a painful 10 days, it finally came in and we drove up to go get it.  I put it on, and it was slipping and sliding and shifting all over the place.  It was so uncomfortable, 2 days later I brought it back to be sized down to my actual size, a 4.75.  After waiting another painful 2 weeks, the ring finally came in, in the right size.  And it's gorgeous.  And I love it.

Here's some "ring porn" for your viewing pleasure:

Head on: 

From the side, love the prongs!  Haven't seen any other rings with prongs like mine:  

 Another one, head on: 

And because I love the artsy pictures: 



Disclaimer:  The below paragraph may cause spontaneous tears or induce vomiting.  Please use caution in proceeding and know your limit of mushiness you can take.  Thank you. 

One I love about my ring is the imperfection.  There's a so so small little black dot in the diamond that you can only see when you look at it from the side and I love it.  It makes it unique and it reminds me that there's no perfect diamond, no perfect person, and no perfect relationship.  It reminds me that I have my flaws and K has his flaws, but regardless of those little imperfections, we have an amazing relationship and more importantly, an amazing friendship.  I can't expect him to be perfect and he can't expect me to be either. We're just us.  His quirks are part of the reason I love him so much and they complement my quirks and flaws perfectly.   

I think that's enough cheese for the moment.  :)  Next time I'll tell you guys what we did with the extra gold from his grandmother's ring, and I am so excited and happy with our decision!  

 

My Bling

As I was looking back over all of my posts today I realized that I have yet to tell you guys about my ring.  Shame on me. 

I told you all how he proposed.  I'm still amazed by his creativity on that front, but don't get me started talking about that again.  I'll never stop!  So anyway, I showed you the ring that he proposed with as well, but the story doesn't end there.  Here it is again for those of you who don't want to stalk all of my old blog posts to find it. 

This ring isn't just any ring.  It's special.  Not that they aren't all special, but this one was K's grandmother's wedding ring.  The symbolism of this still warms my heart.  During the proposal he said he knew we'd have to work with the ring because I'm not a yellow gold kinda girl.  And he was right.

So, soon after we climbed back down stone mountain, we started brainstorming. 

We came up with a lot of options:  making it into a necklace, taking out the diamonds and using them in a new ring, melting it down and using it to make my ring.  But after all of this discussion, I just wasn't happy with any of these options.  I felt like to do any of these things would destroy the ring and I wanted to keep it as close to the original as possible.  So after doing some research, I learned that I could get it rhodium plated to make it appear white, but it would still be the same exact ring underneath.  Perfect.  

So I took it to a reputable jeweler here in Atlanta and talked to them about my plan.  I also wanted to get the setting swapped out for something a little more modern with a little less metal.  The center diamond is gorgeous and the setting just wasn't doing it justice.  So after discussing my options, we came up with a plan and I left my ring with them.  

For the coming weeks, I waited on bated breath for the phone call.  Finally, I got the call!!  Let me tell you, when she handed me the ring, I couldn't contain my joy.  They did such a great job with it.  It still looked like the same ring, but with a makeover.  Perfect. 

Ready??

I know what you're all thinking.  I'm not wearing it on my ring finger!  Well, that's a story for another day.  But this ring is currently gracing the middle finger of my right hand.  I'm so so glad that we decided to keep the ring as close to it's original state as possible. 

But wait!  I haven't told you all the coolest part about this whole thing.  You probably noticed that there is considerably less gold in the "renovated" ring.  Well, they returned the gold to me to use for a future project and I can't wait to tell you all what we decided to do with it!