Window shopping for engagement rings is fun. Actually picking out your own may be less fun. Well, maybe that’s just me. After spending years (literally) gawking at rings under glass, you’d think I’d know exactly the right one. Wrong. I got stuck when it came time to pick my ring. I just got caught up in the whole ‘it’s your wedding ring’ thing. Whatever ring I tried on was good for that moment, delightful on a few occasions, but ultimately not something I could wear FOREVER. That’s the rule: Wear your wedding ring forever. (More on that later)
Yeah, forever. There are a couple of schools of thought on wedding rings, you know. Let’s see. You have your ‘whatever he picks out I’ll love’ camp. Just a lovely sentiment, really. Especially if you guy has uber-fine taste or a bevy of your girlfriends as backup. (Didn’t they have an episode on Sex in the City about Aiden picking Carrie’s ring with help?) Try as I might I couldn’t convince myself to join this camp. The FOREVER rule kept popping up.
Then there’s the ever hopeful, highly effective ‘hint what you want’ camp. My husband used to say while we were shopping, ‘Point out what you like so I can get an idea’. I did. It worked- up to a point. I felt like the curator at a museum and I’m sure he got tired of hearing me say ‘yeah, something like that only less…’ which is an entirely frustrating sentence.
And, of course, the ‘do it yourself’ camp. Brilliant guy that my hubby is he gently encouraged me into this camp. He rightly realized what I couldn’t say out loud- I want to love my ring so much I never want to take it off and will wear it forever! This is my forever rule. My brain equated loving my ring with loving my guy. Not a rational thought, but honey, who’s rational when engaged?!
DIY meant designing a ring from scratch for me. It was a ton of fun and really more of an emotional process than I expected to work with local Boston designer, Kristina Pitaniello, to create my engagement ring and two wedding bands. Our two meetings with Kristina were in her studio where we viewed her bold jewelry and talked about our relationship and how we met. Amazing how she came up with a ring that captures the essence of ‘us’. I love remembering it and talking about it. Can you tell?
What got me going on this was my Twitter friend, Arnt Eriksen (@arnteriksen). He tweeted about a beautiful set of rings that were edgy, beautiful and quite expressive. Hopefully, I’ll get the link soon to share.
Signing off from Savannah
