Ring A Ding Ding!

What better to get me back into my blogging groove than a whole lot of wedding goodness?

As friends and family know, Will and I got engaged on January 8, 2012 and have hit the ground running with wedding planning (well, one of us has). We will be getting married on Friday, September 7, 2012 and could not be more excited about this big step in our relationship, the fun we will have, and the love we'll share with everyone on that day.

Without giving too much away, I'm planning to share fun details about planning now and again throughout the year until the Big Day. And first things first, the ring! I've never been a big jewelry person, and I've really never been a big diamond person, but when it comes to this ring, I. Am. Obsessed.

I feel very lucky that I got to be part of the design process. In our pre-engagement information discovery phase, I let Will know that I would really like an antique ring for a number of reasons I won't go into. Without knowing enough to know what it was actually called, I definitely knew I wanted (actually needed) a bezel setting due to my afflictions of clumsiness, scatterbrained-ness, and general like-to-shove-my-hands-in-my-pockets-itis. Any sort of snagging prongs would not be good for this girl. With the parameters somewhat set, we started looking around and ended up in San Francisco's absolutely gorgeous Lang Antiques. This place is just .... wow. If you aren't a diamond person, this store would convert you. It is tiny - it could not be more than 10'x15' including the cases - and absolutely packed wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling, dripping with diamonds. It is a mesmerizing, shiny place.

I had fallen in love with a particular ring on Lang's website, and it did not disappoint in person. It was not quite the right fit for us, though. I had been rather stubborn (shocking, I know) about having an antique ring rather than one designed to look as though it were. That being said, when we were learning more about The Ring, it turned out that although it was a very old diamond, the setting was actually a new one designed in the Edwardian style. Dun, dun, dun! As you can imagine, this began to soften me on the idea of simply having one designed.

I am so glad we did! I could not be happier with the end result. We shared the description of the ring with - wait for it - Will's co-worker's wife's uncle, who is a jewelry designer in Carmel-by-the-Sea. I asked for a few tweaks here and there, he put his own spin on it, and voila! A custom ring I can't stop staring at. Most important, Will was absolutely thrilled with the end result, which made me happier than anything.

For jewelry buffs out there, here is information almost verbatim from the appraisal with all sorts of words I don't understand. I speak only the language of sparkly: the ring is platinum and the band tapers up to a bezel with millgrain around the edges. Centered in the bezel is one round brilliant cut diamond. Recessed on each shank with millgrain edges are 4 round brilliant cut diamonds, each set in a bezel. The gallery underneath has a

high polish and the bezel for the center stone has 2 rows of diamonds; each row is flush set. The top row has 14 round brilliant cut diamonds and the bottom row has 10 diamonds.

And there you have it!