getting the ring- the saga

When we first were considering settings, we went to several local jewelers. Abracadabra seemed nice, but small. Austin and Warburton was high quality, with a similarly high price tag. And then we stumbled on what we thought was a winner, rated by local newspapers' readers' polls as the best jeweler in town.

They ordered stones for us, and we found the perfect one. Given the type of setting I wanted- low profile, half bezel set- it had to be a custom ring.

Long story short, the ring was originally made in the wrong metal, so they remade it. In the meantime, Calvin proposed to me sans ring. The ring came in, and it looked lovely:

Only problem was, six weeks later, the stone was loose. The whole reason I wanted that type of setting was so that the ring wouldn't be loose. Back it went, and it came back fixed. A month later, it was loose. Back it went, and it came back fixed. Less than two weeks later it was loose again. Back it went, and they recognized that it wasn't made properly in the first place.
Lewis Jewelers pledged to remake it with some slight modifications, and we came in to examine a wax cast of the ring with the stone. Only problem is, the stone was chipped. Significantly. It was now .02 carats smaller than it was before.

Calvin was refunded his money, and we were back to square one.

I now have a fabulous new ring in a slightly updated design that is oh so comfortable to wear. From Abracadabra:


The jeweler's comments on the ring are
"This Custom made ring is a unique one all around! The center stone is an oval Red Spinel with great fire. The customer choose the ring design, as a take on a tension mount, but with a bridge underneath for sizing and stability. Channel set diamonds run in two ribbons along the side of the center stone. The ring is cast in an up and coming metal, Palladium. Palladium has many of the same properties as Platinum. It's whiter, has increased wear resistance, a pure 950 metal, and is more resistant to tarnish. The romantic twist? Palladium is named after the Greek Goddess Pallas. She is the Goddess of Wisdom, the Arts, and the embodiment of Purity & Strength. Who wouldn't want a bit of that in their ring?"

While Calvin did most of the work with Steven, the owner of Abracadabra, all of my interactions with the people who work there have been fantastic. You can check out more of the amazing work of Abracadabra here.

Did anyone else have issues or complications with their engagement rings? If you did, how was it resolved?

our alternative to diamonds

Miss Peony over at Weddingbee has a great post about different aspects of the 4Cs of diamond shopping- cut, clarity, carat and color.

Which got me thinking about my own engagement ring. I do not have a "traditional" engagement ring, in that it isn't a diamond solitaire, or even consisting only of diamonds. The concept of "the traditional diamond engagement ring" stems from a giant advertisement campaign by DeBeers in the 1930s. This Slate article does a good job of discussing the evolution of the engagement ring.

Conflict, violent and corporate sponsored tradition aside, I knew that a diamond engagement ring wasn't for me. When we first started looking at rings more than six months prior to getting engaged, we looked at a lot of different things. And trying on diamond rings just didn't feel like me. It was too sparkly, too bling-y, too girly, and not in a good way. And I am rough on my hands, so I knew that a traditional solitaire and setting wouldn't work for me.
(l to r: round solitaire with tiffany (prong) setting, princess solitaire with prong setting, both from Blue Nile)

So we started looking at stones, and, not surprisingly, I was drawn to red. I love the look of deep red stones.

(the Carmen Lucia Ruby from the Smithsonian)

In the process of looking at stones, we learned about a very cool gemstone that is a favorite among jewelers and is not well known by the public. It is rarer than diamonds are, and comes in nearly every color of the rainbow. May I present to you...

The Spinel

(image found here)

The thing that I really like about spinels is that they come in a deeper red color than rubies typically do, which tend to be more bright red/pink red. I love the color of garnets, but they are an incredibly soft stone that is not durably enough for everyday use in a ring. Spinels are an 8 on the Mohs hardness scale; sapphires and rubies are 9, and diamonds are 10. They are durable enough that synthetic versions are used to create the stones in class rings.

Once we figured out the type of stone, we had to find the right stone, and then figure out a setting.

What are your thoughts on a non-diamond engagement ring? Do you have an alternative engagement ring, or a completely different symbol of engagement?