The Ring

John and I have been engaged since May. When he proposed near the Eiffel Tower, he didn't have a ring; mostly because he didn't know what I wanted and I didn't know what I wanted. Just before we moved to Dublin in 2005, I bought myself a ring that I've been eyeing for a long time. After getting engaged, I wore this ring until we decided if I wanted a more official ring. We knew that we do not want a diamond because of the whole blood diamond issue. Also, when I tried on diamonds I just didn't like the way they looked on my finger. Therefore, we decided just to stick with the ring that I had.

Then, in August, I decided that I wanted a “proper” engagement ring for my birthday. So John humored me and we went and looked a bunch of rings. Again, we really didn't see much that we liked. Then we went into this little out-of-the-way store and saw rubies and sapphires. We really liked the way the Sapphire looked on my finger. However, most of the rings still had diamonds in them. Then one of my friends suggested I check out Design Yard because she's gotten jewelry there. One day after work I went and looked at their jewelry selection, and found this diamond ring that had an amazing setting. While looking at it, one of the sales clerks said that we could get a different stone put into the setting and that it was a Dublin designer who made the ring. After bit of a hassle and negotiation (the person we worked with was concerned that we couldn't pick our exact stone and wanted to make sure that we would love the ring before ordering it), we decided to order the ring with a sapphire. Then we waited and waited what seemed like forever (but was really only about 6 weeks), but the ring arrived to the beginning of November and I absolutely love it!

I've gotten many compliments on the ring, especially how unique it is. I think it's interesting that a lot of people think that it has a very modern design. However, I just think that it is clean and simple. Maybe that is part of why people think it's modern. Even though I've had the ring a couple months, I still get distracted by how pretty it is on my finger. One day, this led to a discussion between John and myself about why my ring is so great and this is what we came up with:

1. The ring changes color in different lighting and based on what I wear.
2. A Sapphire cost less than a diamond.
3. My sapphire is bigger than any diamond I remotely liked and looks good in a larger stone.
4. The sapphire's more dramatic.
5. My ring is unique, so no one else should have one like it,at least not in a sapphire.
6. We didn't buy into the marketing of the diamond trade. Traditionally, sapphires have been engagement rings stones longer than diamonds anyway.
7. In bright light, I can see all the cuts of the stone. This is what distracts me some times. :)
   
8. This ring was made just for me!