Congrats to another happy couple

Hey kids,
Posts might be thin between now and mid-November, but we'll see. Work has reached a fever pitch for me, but even though I have my head buried in the sand (how many cliches can I stick in this sentence?) I am really happy that October is here! I'm appreciating Halloween even more this year as I daydream about next year.

A friend of mine got engaged over the weekend in Vegas. Congrats, Monika and Carter! He presented her with a lovely 1920's antique sapphire engagement ring. I knew they would be next, and I'm so excited for them!!

Here's her lovely ring:




Beautiful, no?

Crappy iPhone Preview Photos of My New Ring!!

Ahem, please ignore the chipped nail polish.

I love my ring!!! I am worried, however, that we sized it too small after all. It was hard to get on, and it's leaving a mark on my finger, not that I plan on taking it off, nope, finger could turn blue and I'd deal with it. What a bummer. I think we'll have to re-size it so it's a quarter-size larger.

On the other hand, there's no way it's coming off accidentally (like that Olympic beach volleyball player, thank goodness she found it later). So that's a plus.

These pics are crappy but give you some idea of the deep pink color and the sparkle. It's SO sparkley. I was mesmerized as I walked to work. Good thing I didn't walk into the street at the wrong time and get hit by a car. That would've been anticlimactic, to say the least.

Better pics to come!!

The most awesome email ever

This lovely message hit my inbox yesterday:

I just wanted to let you know that your order is ready. The ring is beautiful! Please let me know when you would like to stop in to pick it up. Our hours are Monday through Friday from 9 am to 6 pm.

Woo-hoo! That was fast--we ordered it on 8/2 and we got the email on 8/11. We're going tomorrow morning to pick up my ring. I'll try to take a decent photo and post it this week.

So exciting!

Got ring?

Or rather, the title of this post should be GOT RING!, because yes, my friends, we were successful in our quest for the one ring to rule them all...or at least, the one ring to rock my left hand.

We went to Brilliant Earth in downtown SF on Saturday morning. We were undercaffeinated but very excited. Mr. T cautioned me against getting my hopes up too high (probably a holdover from when we tried to get iPhones a couple of weeks ago and couldn't, and Mr. T was crushed. We've since gotten the phones, but that's another story...) Anyway, I had done my homework and looked at all their sapphire rings, and I decided that even if I didn't like any of them in person, we'd place a custom order, so I printed out a bunch of inspiration pix too.

Brilliant Earth is an awesome company that uses only ethically mined gems and metals, and they don't overcharge for their products. They also donate 5% of their profits to African communities. Sales associate Beth Leinonen met us at the door and escorted us to the elevator. The building is a fun old SF building that's tall and narrow, and when the elevator's doors opened and we stepped out into the hall, I noticed that all the doors had frosted glass windows with stenciled-on business names...it felt like we were going to visit a private detective in a Chandler novel. Beth laughed when we brought up the noir feel and mentioned she wanted to get a ceiling fan for their office so that you could see it circling through the frosted glass.

We walked into the BE office--small and simple, containing a table, three chairs, and a bunch of rings set up underneath a high-tech lamp. The display rings were mostly diamonds, although a couple did have sapphires set in them. We sat down and I started trying things on like crazy. To review, here were the rings I was considering:




This was the "Heirloom Sapphire Ring". I liked this on my hand okay, but it was priced a little higher than our budget. Mr. T wouldn't have split hairs over a few hundred dollars, but I didn't love it enough to want to go over budget, and there were a ton of gorgeous rings in our price range.

On to ring choice #2:


The Delicate Antique Scroll ring. This was actually both Mr. T's and my favorite ring when we looked online. However, when I got it on my hand, it was not quite right...I don't know if it was that the band was too narrow or that the lovely details were lost unless you were close to the ring...but it just wasn't the one. I tried it on with wedding bands to see if the "too narrow" problem would go away, and it was better, but I was still unsure.

Ring #3:


I really liked the Art Deco Filigree ring on my hand. The band was wider, the stone was not too "sticky uppy" as I told Mr. T, and the side was lovely...in fact, when I had it on my hand and turned it to view the side of the band, Mr. T and I simultaneously said, "That's very Lord of the Rings!" which made me laugh. The thing was, I really didn't like the diamonds. I thought I would be okay with diamond side stones, but once I saw them I just didn't like them at all. Actually, the ring I tried on had a diamond center stone, too, and it was just bizarre to have a diamond ring on my hand. It looked wrong.

I tried on a few others that I hadn't picked out previously, as well:

The Halo style was pretty, but didn't feel like me. Ditto for the next one:

The Pave Split Shank ring was pretty on my hand, but stuck up too far, and felt very traditional, especially with all those diamonds on the band.

The design of the Flower Bud ring was really sweet:


I loved the carved band, and the sweet "hidden" pink sapphire was fun. However, it stuck up too far on my hand and I just knew it would get caught on everything.

At some point I asked about swapping in pink sapphires, which you know I've been thinking about for awhile, and Beth brought out a tray of lovely hot pink sapphires, which she said had just come in--they'd been waiting months for them (so it was meant to be!!). I was super nervous to be handed a tray of gems. I'm not always the most graceful girl--what if I knocked the side of the tray and it went flying? We'd be on our hands and knees picking sapphires out of the carpet for hours! I noticed that Mr. T stayed well away from the tray, with hands in his lap. I guess we were both nervous! I picked out my favorite and held it up to the rings. Then I asked about smaller colored sapphires for side stones. I looked at the pink center stone with blue, green, and pink sapphire side stones, and eventually chose four darker pink stones that were close to the color of the center stone. Mr. T said, "Wait, did we just choose a band?" and I realized, that yes, indeed we had. Without further ado, I present my ring:


This is actually a Photoshop mock-up that Mr. T did. The real pink sapphires are a bit darker and richer--they were so gorgeous in person, I fell in love right away. Even Mr. T, who was doubtful on the pink sapphire thing, took one look at them and said, "Oh, that makes sense."

We found out a couple of interesting things: first, the sapphires are found in nature in many colors. I thought they started blue and were heat-treated to change the color, but it turns out they're found in all colors, and the heat treatment is just to remove a milky film on the surface of the stone...some stones don't need the heat treatment because they're near a thermal vent (I was torn about one super sparkley lavender sapphire that hadn't needed the heat treatment for that reason...it was lovely. But pink had to win, let's face it). Beth also said that the "heat treatment" just meant that the stones were thrown in a coffee can and heated over a fire for 15 minutes.

Second, I found out that my ring size is 6, which is smaller than I thought! My knuckles are bigger, so I thought my band size was bigger, but once she got the professional metal sizer out, I was indeed a size 6. Mr. T also got his finger sized and I think he was either 8.5 or 8.75. It was a warm day, and since Mr. T wants a titanium ring, which can't be re-sized, Beth suggested we take his ring measurement a few more times in different weather to be sure. Mr. T also found a ring he liked, but he doesn't really want white gold or platinum, so we're going to look for a similar style in titanium.

My ring should be ready in about 2 weeks, just in time for the engagement party, providing all goes well. I'm super excited to pick it up!!!! Hooray!

Exciting...

Two exciting actual wedding-task related things (see, you knew I'd get around to doing something one of these days):

The engagement party date was set, invites/the Evite went out, and people are RSVPing! It looks like my family won't be able to attend, unfortunately, but I'm excited anyway.

Mr. T and I set an appointment to go look at rings. Yep, in a little less than two weeks I will be trying on some bling. Not that I'm not fond of my little garnet. But I am super happy to be thinking about sapphires!

In not so good news, the venue is still in the air. We still don't know for sure about the football schedule, and the one venue I've tried contacting that's in a different area has been super flaky. Not a good sign. Well, I'll keep thinking positively...Send me some venue luck wishes!

And Yet More Bling

Could one of these be the one?! I found Brilliant Earth online and I like their politics: They use conflict-free gems and recycled or ethically mined metals. Plus, they're local, so I can go see their stuff in person. They had a few sapphire rings in reproduction vintage settings that I liked, for reasonable prices. I'm excited! Here are the ones I liked:

Heirloom Sapphire Ring




Delicate Antique Sapphire Ring--love the scroll work on the sides





Art Deco Filigree Sapphire Ring (I think this is my fave)




I would like to see if they could do these with pink sapphires, since I've become a little attached to that idea, but I might also like the blue. I need to see them in person, I think.

I'm so excited to have found this company! Good looking rings, and ethical policies. Love it.

More Ring Porn

We found the ring!



I'm just kidding. This is NOT my ring. I was browsing through M.S. Rau Antiques' site, and they have some crazy antique jewelry. This one is a 15.73-carat sapphire. Yes, FIFTEEN. I don't think I could lift my hand while I wore it.

Also, I sorta liked this one, although it goes against everything I said I didn't care for: diamond, gold, etc. But...it's a pink diamond. And it's rose gold. Regardless, there's no way I'm owning it, because on a site that unabashedly advertises $150K rings, this one is "Price upon request." Actually, so was the sapphire.



I don't know when we'll really look for the ring. In a few months, I think. I'm considering having it made by a friend of a friend if we can't find just the right thing.

Bling

I've been looking at ring porn online for awhile now, even though I had no idea when/if the proposal was coming. Still, a girl can dream, right?

Through my research and talking to other folks I've learned that you don't want white gold or sterling silver for your wedding ring. These are fine for regular rings, but for something you wear every day, you want something that won't wear off (white gold is coated) or bend (sterling silver is too soft). So, it's platinum, palladium (like platinum but not as expensive...wasn't there a club called the Palladium? I think we used to call it the Get-Laid-ium when I was in college.), or something like Titanium. I wouldn't mind Titanium except I want the ring to be shiny, I think, not like brushed nickel. Is Titanium shiny? I'll have to do more research.

I've never really liked diamonds all that much. I LOVE fake, over the top sparkley rhinestones, but the real thing? Not so much.

I like sapphires, but you have to make sure they're the right color. Some just look like a dull black.

Here are some of my favorites so far:

This one is not vintage, but I like the sculptural quality of the set. And I like that the set fits together so seamlessly--you can't tell you're looking at more than one ring.





This one is "vintage style," which frankly is just fine with me. It's the look, not the price tag, that interests me. This peridot is lovely. I wonder if it would stick up too far on my hand, though? I don't want a ring that gets caught on everything. That would bug me.





I adore the style of this ring. What I don't adore is the rose gold (it's okay, but I wouldn't want it on my hand everyday) and the opal (bad, bad luck for those not born in October). Other than that it's perfect!



I like the band on this ring (it's that mokume gane stuff) and part of me really likes the idea that there's a stone underneath that cover (this one's a garnet). Again, I don't think I'd want it for my wedding ring, though. A regular ring, yes, in a heartbeat. But I kinda want to see the bling.




This is one of the more expensive rings I found online that I liked, so that probably rules it out entirely. I love the color of the sapphire, and I can live with side diamonds, I decided. I like the "baguette" style of the side stones (really, I'm learning a whole new vocabulary lately).





This sapphire is also lovely and also too expensive. I like the "split" style of the band. The diamonds, meh.






The thought of a pink sapphire is attractive. I actually tried on a pink sapphire ring at a friend of a friend's jewelry shop last year, and I must say it looked quite fetching. Sapphires come in a ton of colors--orange, purple, pink, blue, and green.






Here's another pinky. The band is more modern and clean, but I like the idea of a cabochon center stone. I also like that it's a pink star sapphire.






And here's a blue star sapphire. I've always liked star sapphires b/c my mom had a star sapphire ring and I was mesmerized my the star in it. I love things with that glimmer--moonstones, labradorite, rainbow moonstone. Oooh, shiny. The price on this one was very reasonable, under $2K.




Ring shopping is fun. I can't wait to do it in person!

Oh, and if you were wondering, Mr. T (quite unlike the other Mr. T) is into understated bling. He's not sure what he wants yet. Perhaps a simple Titanium band.