The ring story, or how I get to be an eco-chic bride

So. About my fabulous ring. The stones are from an anniversary band my paternal grandfather gave to my grandmother. Her band was yellow gold and had two identical rows of small diamonds in graduating size. A couple of years after my she died, my aunt (who inherited it) gave the ring to me. It was a very sweet thing, and it meant a lot to have such a personal remembrance of my grandmother. (Consider, if you will, that up until that point my only beqeathment was a set of decorative Christmas pillows.) I loved the idea of being able to wear Nanny's ring someday, but the setting on hers wasn't exactly my taste and the band was way too big.

Once GF and I got engaged, I started looking around at anniversary band designs to see if there was something out there that would work with her stones, which weren't all the same size. I eventually found a really cool one over at Blue Nile. We were going to go to a regular jewelry store in L**** to see what they could do for us, but then a friend of GF's mentioned this amazing guy who did his and his wife's rings last year. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have a show room, and the only way you can find him is by a referral from a previous customer.

So I called and made an appointment to meet him in a small office and he told me a bit about his philosophy and why he decided to start doing individual commissions. (He usually just designs and manufactures jewelry for the stores.) He said he was getting discouraged by what was happening in the jewelry industry. He talked about why it can sometimes be bad for the consumer to shop at a store with a showroom of inventory. Because the store has made such a huge financial investment, they have to push that inventory and clear it out if they're going to make a profit. So unless you're adamant about what you want, it's possible that you could be steered away from what you have in mind to what they need to sell. And sometimes he's seen stores mark up their inventory by as much as 700% and then have huge half-off sales, in order to clear out the showroom and make room for new things. In addition, people may even get misled in the stores about the quality of their stones, not because the salesperson is lying but because they've been given bad information. And since they're not experts they only know what they're told. So this guy decided to open his business up and see clients on a limited basis, find out what they want, and make it for them from scratch. That's it. Pretty cool, huh? So I showed him my picture and he said he could absolutely do that.

I was glad that we didn't need to buy any new diamonds because the whole diamond trade makes me uneasy. I probably would have voted for a synthetic stone or gemstone if I'd had my heart set on something like that. Turns out this guy doesn't go through Africa or DeBeers, though. He gets his diamonds from Russia and has them cut in Israel.

So a week after I gave him my ring and the picture from the Internet, he called me in to try on a wax model of the new ring, with the stones set in it. This way I could see how it looks and feels on my hand and suggest changes. I loved it and told him to go ahead and do the real thing. Which, as you can see, turned out beautifully. I love it a lot, and I also love that I have this beautiful family heirloom to wear, especially since both my grandfather and grandmother have passed away. So it will be a nice way to honor them, I hope.

I won't tell you what the total price was, but it was low enough that Gentleman Friend just booked us a room for our wedding night that not only has a waterfall in the breakfast nook but also liquid Cadbury coming from the taps and pillows made of brie.

ps. I'm taking Friday off and going down to Snowbird tonight to center my chi. GF and I are going to be hanging out with his family in this cool place. We'll need it too, on account of yesterday was pretty special. 25% of GF's coworkers were laid off, and someone ran into my car with a scooter and scratched it all up. Also I hurt people's feelings, almost lost a family dog, and said a real bad swear word when my car was hit. It's time to head for the hills.