Ring-a-Ding

Welcome to yet another wedding blog! Yay! I decided to create this after compiling images and ideas in secret for the last four months while my fiance, Austin, and I had a ring commissioned. So why not start at the beginning?

Austin and I had been together for the better part of 3 years when I started getting The Itch. As lovable as Austin is, he's not the sort of man who would think of marriage without some prompting, and like most men has little-to-no knowledge of engagement ring style. After a few sleepless nights imagining being presented with a 2nd-hand heart-shaped cubic zirconia on a silver band 10 years from now, I decided it would be best to take matters into my own hands.

Not my dream ring.

One night as we were lying in bed I decided to strike.

"Baby?"
"Yeah?"
"If you were to buy me something... uh... shiny, can I send you some images of shiny things I like?"
"....sure."

Yesssss! I knew I was in. At this point I had already begun perusing rings but wasn't in love with anything in particular. I just assumed I'd find something online that I liked and that would be the end of it. Once I started looking in earnest though, the idea of ordering a very expensive jewel through the internet seemed like a pretty sketchy idea, since the ring I liked the best so far I had found on ebay. Now we all know that ebay is great for things like $1 DVDs from China, but for fine jewelry, not so much. I then shifted my focus to looking for a jeweler here in Chicago. As before, I let Austin know of this change of plans after the lights were out. I took his snoring as a confirmation that I could continue with my in-person search.

My first step was yelp, a site dedicated to compiling customer reviews of various establishments across the city. If there was any way to avoid getting swindled, I figured checking with my fellow yelpers would be the best way. Since the idea of window shopping in jewelers row causes me to break out in a cold sweat, I figured searching for a smaller neighborhood jeweler would be the way to go. The first place I decided to check out was Lincoln Square's Stanley Brown Jewelist, which was a quick bike ride from where I work. They had a modest selection of rings in their store, but their inventory showed a wide range of styles and uniformly good quality. After talking with them for a while, I left with my mind filled with images of filigree rings and an appointment to return in a week to look at light-yellow diamonds. With luck I would have a ring in precious-few weeks!

Wrong.

Little did I know that I was beginning my ring quest at the height of ring-quest season: December. You see, there are these holidays called Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Years, and people tend to get engaged during this time. A lot. Also, custom designing a ring takes a lot of effort. I probably looked at hundreds of rings online before stumbling on the designs of McTeigue & McClelland, which are incredibly inspiring. The ring that I liked in particular was called the Belle Epoque Ring, which combined so many aspects I like in a ring, including a bezel setting and filigreed detailing.

Getting warmer!

What I didn't care for was the sides and band detail, so I ended up designing those parts myself. The fine people of Stanley Brown were very patient with me as I experimented with designs, and were surprisingly invested in the whole situation. I was really impressed by my whole experience there, even if it did take way longer than I was expecting. But after 4 months of visits, emails, and phone calls, my ring was finally done. Now I just had to wait for Austin to pop the question! But that is for a later post.