(there is a very limited selection of gifs suitable for this situation)
To tell you this story, I'll have to travel back in time a good few months and then take you step-by-step through my crazy ring-based mental processes. Are you ready? Did you make sure to go to the toilet? Have you got a snack?
Right so. All my life I thought I'd just get a plain wedding ring. That's what's the norm for my family, and by and large it's the norm for most of the rest of the UK (although this is changing of late). It would have to be yellow gold, because my mother had been carefully coordinating all my 'good' jewellery since I was about 16. I didn't mind, I liked yellow gold and frankly white gold sounded like a lot of work with all the re-dipping required.
So this is the starting point, for reference:
After a bit of pondering and browsing, Jon said to me one day that he quite fancied a ring with a bit of a Celtic pattern, and showed me this one:
(Clogau's Annwyl Ring)
I was quite taken with this idea, and that we could match - he could have the slightly thicker one and I could have the thinner! I was certain I could find something similar in yellow gold. He also told me that the ring above was by a company - Clogau - who make rings containing Welsh gold. Now, I loved that - wearing a ring made from gold found in the UK. I had recently discovered the Fairmined Gold movement, but had struggled to find vendors who used fairmined gold as a matter of course, and who made products that suited my tastes (although it seems the list appears to be growing, which is wonderful!). Welsh gold seemed a great way around it. That, and the Royal family had worn Welsh gold wedding rings for generations, which I'm sad to say influenced me a little bit more than perhaps I would like to admit.
(I will add, that it was only later I discovered that the amount of Welsh gold in each ring is actually miniscule. Welsh gold is so rare that it only makes up the smallest percentage of any piece of jewellery, but my intentions were pure!)
Anyway, whilst I was browsing their site and becoming ever-more impressed, I noticed a big banner at the top listing a contest. To win this bad boy:
(The Am Byth Ring)
It was BEAUTIFUL. I mean look at it! The intricate vinework, the gorgeous mix of rose and yellow gold, the diamonds! Needless to say I entered the contest. Several times. And got a number of family members to enter on my behalf as well. Because at £2,800 I was never going to be able to buy it. It was totally about as far away from what I wanted as it was possible to be - blingy, intricate, big - but I was utterly in lust.
I didn't win, needless to say. And with a bit of distance, it's probably for the best. But it opened my mind to other ring options, and I began to window-shop some more.
I was adamant that I didn't want a curved band, although realistically that probably would have sat best with my engagement ring. But I wanted something that wouldn't look odd if I wore it on its own.
I'd become more interested in the idea of an engraved band, something a bit vintage-style. Shamefully, I created a pinterest board where I collected my ideas.
Including this beauty:
It was beautiful. And I was convinced it was totally and utterly and completely out of my price range. So I left it there for months, coming back to sigh over it, and then trawling through pages of Etsy engraved rings which all seemed to have millgrain edges or flowers, neither of which I was super fussed on.
Finally, at the start of July, I worked up the courage to email the jeweler, Mitchel and Co., about it. It was in budget! It was amazingly in budget! And the engraving was done by the "best engraver in the industry (he also engraves for the royal family!)" (again, I'm a little ashamed by how pleased I was to learn that).
I dealt mainly with Charlotte, who was supremely helpful and friendly, and when we took a trip out to the shop, in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter, they were welcoming, professional and really really helpful. The ring was designed and made in-house, so it was made to my specifications, and I knew where it had been.
After I first went to the store, it was about two and a half weeks before I worked up the courage to order the ring, and then another month whilst I waited and fretted for it to be done. Would the engraving look okay on yellow gold? What if I hated it? What if it looked rubbish with my engagement ring? What if the diamonds were too much?
WORRYING WAS SILLY. IT'S BEAUTIFUL.
They are now storing it for me, for free, until the big day. I arranged this with them prior to purchase, and having seen the finished product I think it was doubly wise of me. I love it so much, I just want to wear it now. I'd definitely be trying it on all the time if I had it around the house.
I also love how it goes with my engagement ring. The gap doesn't bother me, and I think they look beautifully vintage together! And all for under £400. And did I mention, it's beautiful and I love it? Have I said the word beautiful enough yet in this post?
How early on did you get your wedding ring, guys? Did you always know what you wanted, or did your preferences swing wildly all over the place like me?
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