Curious about my engagement ring? Well, let's just say I'm obsessed with this little sparkly gem! Many have told Ryan "great job!" And its true, great job Ryan... for letting me pick out my own ring. Some think its tabu to pick out your own engagement ring, but I say hey, if you're going to spend that much money on me and I'm going to wear it for the rest of my life, it better be something I love! And its not that I don't have any confidence in Ryan, or think he doesn't know my style. But even I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted. I knew when I saw it, in that moment, I would know.
Ryan & I had been dating for 9 years, so it was no secret that a proposal was in the near future. I had a feeling he would be doing it soon and asked him if he knew what I wanted. I had been talking about how I wanted a vintage ring for awhile and even had a Pinterest board with several rings on it (check the board out here). He replied, "Ummm... I think I know what you want, but I would feel better if you picked it out. I want you to love it!" I am so glad he said this.
I did a lot of research beforehand, reading up on vintage style rings, average cost, some general terminology, local vintage jewelry shops, and felt confident that I would find my ring. Ryan and I also set a budget for ourselves, something very important. It was a saturday in August that we headed out to several stores in Portland. First on the list was a little shop called Antoinette's. A co-worker of mine had recommended it. He recently got a ring there for his now wife. It was a little hole-in-the-wall shop, but they had hundreds of beautiful vintage rings and the owner and her son were so knowledgable and helpful. I quickly fell in love with one... after trying on, like, a million. I didn't want to make any decisions right away. So we moved on to the next shop. Here I found 2 more rings that I loved. Now things were getting difficult. We ended up going to 2 more stores, but with no luck at either. Pooped from ring shopping, our eyes dilated from all the sparkle, we decided to sleep on it.
The next morning I woke up feeling a bit stressed, how was I going to decide on 1 of the 3 rings. At the time, I loved them all. I had to go try them on again! So, we headed out to the 2 shops again and I again I tried those rings on. This time, it felt different... it felt real when I put the first ring back on. It looked amazing on my hand, the fit was perfect, the diamond sparkled. And I knew then that it was the one. We ended up going back to the second shop to try on the 2 other rings, but they didn't quite live up. I felt a bit bad, because the first ring was the most expensive of the 3. But it was still in our budget and Ryan assured me that he wanted me to have the ring I loved. So, I went for it!
The funny part of this story is that I ended up going back in on my own to purchase the ring... not with my own money, but the shop was right on my way home from work, and WAY out of Ryan's way. So it made the most sense that I would go in and pick it up. It was pretty surreal yet it felt weird as the owner handed me the tiny box. It felt even more weird handing it over to Ryan when I got home. It was strange and kind of annoying that I had this beautiful ring sitting in my apartment, yet I couldn't wear it. Technically, Ryan hadn't proposed yet. And I had no idea when he would. It was 4 months until he proposed... 4 very long months! But the anticipation and build-up made it that much better. And when he finally did propose and I slipped the ring on my finger, I had no regrets about my decision, both on the ring or to marry Ryan. It was the perfect moment and the perfect ring and I couldn't be happier!
It is a platinum, art deco diamond ring from the 1930s. It's a transitional cut diamond. The detailing on the sides of the ring are amazing and my favorite part!
