Member- AudieToo
- 8 years ago
- Wedding: May 2014
I’ve posted a few times before that we were designing our rings (engagement and both wedding bands), but I wasn’t sure when he planned to propose. He told me the rings weren’t ready yet, and hinted it would be on/close to our anniversary at the end of July.
Well, very early Saturday morning we dropped some friends off at the airport, and planned to go for a morning hike at a local state park. We picked a nice hiking trail with beauitful bluff views and some geocaches along the way. So those who don’t know, geocaching is like crowdsourced treasure hunting with GPS. You use your smartphone or GPS, an app at geocaching.com, and go find containers hiddens all over the place. There are literally thousands across the world, maybe millions.
So we started geocaching at a one called “River View” near some bluff cliffs. It was a little buggy and we had to bushwack a bit, and it took us forever to find it. I finally gave up, went up to the trail, and waited for Fiance to come back up. He called out, “Come here, you have to see what’s in this one!” I’m all, ok dude. I walk down the trail to him, look at the geocache and see a rubber spider! But then my dumb head looks over at him, and he’s got a ring and he’s looking up at me talking about how he knew from the first time he met me he wanted to be together. He said he’s known for a long time he wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. I cried, told him how much I loved him, and we took some lovely camera pictures of us in the woods, totally happy.
The ring is absolutely perfect. It is a custom design. I received diamond rings from my deceased grandmother and great aunt last Chiristmas, which got the ball rolling. You can see how I was debating what to do here: http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/two-heirloom-ringsboth-important-should-i-combine-need-help#axzz2XhvmW5PS
We found a jewelr in town who did custom work and had great reviews, and they were outstanding. My very smart jeweler suggested that after our initial consultations on design, I let my Fiance take over. He did, and I think it really helped him get excited for the process instead of feeling dragged along for the ride. He made me think the ring wasn’t ready yet, so I was very surprised when he proposed!
My engagement ring is made from the diamond in my great aunt’s ring, and from metal from my grandmother’s ring guard. I kept her engagement ring from my grandfather intact as a RHR, and modeled my ER after its illusion setting design. I discussed all this with my parents beforehand, and they thought it was a wonderful way to honor these amazing and loving women.
It is a 1.14 ct brilliant cut round diamond in white gold illusion basket setting.
Here’s a picture of my ER with my wedding band. It’s both whilte and yellow gold with 4 tapered baguette diamonds from my grandmother’s ring. FI’s wedding band is my great-grandfather’s yellow gold wedding band with white gold trim.
For those of who ask about this sort of thing (and I did too!), I did talk to him about getting married a few months ago. He, at the time, was thinking of a later timeline than me. I told him why marriage was important to me, and why I wanted to get married, and we started designing the rings, even as he wasn’t sure how soon he wanted this to happen. So I definitely did not wait around for him to ask; I proactively expressed my desire to get married. So my suggestion is be open, be honest, and go for what you want in life. 🙂 Just be understanding of from where your partner is coming, and discuss with love and compassion for each other. Worked for us!
