When we finally started seriously talking about getting engaged, Mr. C was concerned about shopping for a ring. He isn't much for shopping. This is a man I have to drag to the store a couple of times a year to get new jeans, or whatever. I had actually had my eye on a ring I had spotted on an antique jewelry website, and it turned out the office for that store was in the diamond district, not too far from where we both work in Manhattan. So we decided to go there together after work one day in August.
We went down some back hallways in the bowels of one of the big stores on 47th Street until we found the right office, and scooted inside a room smaller than our closet, to meet with Stu. After introductions and confirmation of what we were there to see, Stu pulled a folded piece of paper out of a filing cabinet, unfolded it over the desk, and out spilled the ring. I almost gasped out loud - it was even more beautiful in person!
While I was mesmerized by the ring, Mr. C and Stu chatted about the ring's value, diamonds in general, and looked at a couple of settings without diamonds, and a couple of loose stones. Then we left. Mr. C said he wasn't really sure how to rate the ring, since it was the first he'd seen. I told him I thought it was beautiful, and tried to keep my crazy "cake" face from overtaking my body.
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| Image via Hyperbole And A Half, which cracks me up every time. / Drawing by Allie Brosch. |
Since Mr. C wanted a bit of "comparison shopping," for kicks, we walked down to Tiffany's. We went to the engagement floor, which was neat, but the salespeople seemed rather disinterested, they only had one setting for cushion cut diamonds, and the markup was totally crazy. Still, it gave Mr. C an idea of what else was out there.
That was pretty much the end of it, until about six weeks later, when I noticed that the first ring was showing up marked as "sold" online! I asked him casually if he had bought the ring yet, and he told me he hadn't. When I pressed him, he stuck to his guns and said no, he really hadn't bought the ring. I couldn't believe it! After all that, it was gone?! I tearfully informed him the website said it was sold, and he sighed and told me that he had quibbled over the price with Stu, and they weren't able to reach an agreement. He figured Stu must have sold it to someone else in the meantime. He assured me that he had some other jewelers bidding to make a replica, but I was sad. It had just felt like that ring was meant to be my ring. I apologized to Mr. C for making a mess of things, and for acting totally crazy, and reassured him that I would love whatever he chose.
Fast forward to our proposal in October - when Mr. C got down on one knee, I was completely shocked to see "my" ring in his hand! Turns out he had completely pulled one over on me, and his story about the ring being sold to someone else was all a big fat lie! He had gone back to purchase the ring the following week, and had been waiting for the right weekend to propose ever since.
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| So sparkly! I snapped this with my phone the day after we got engaged, just before we got on the road back to NYC. That's Ford F-150 upholstery right there, y'all. :) I am also hiding a completely destroyed manicure (remember all that teak sanding?) |
So now you've all learned I'm totally gullible, not to mention I act like a bower bird when presented with sparkly things. But boy, do I love my ring.
How did your engagement ring come to be yours? Did you shop with your significant other, or did he/she go it alone?
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