Since I hadn't been able to find an engagement ring I liked, we had decided to have mine custom made. Unfortunately, the designer was only in town on Friday - the day after Ian had knee surgery! So I ended up going with my mom, which was a lot of fun.
The shape of the ring will be very similar to my wedding band (see previous post) but instead of having channel-set diamonds I'll have individually set stones (alternating diamonds and black sapphires, with the centre diamond the biggest stone and the others gradually getting smaller). They'll be mounted flush with the band so there won't be anything sticking up to get caught on anything, which was what I wanted.
I need to take my wedding band in to Birks for them to send it off on May 10th. The designer guestimated that the engagement ring will be ready around the beginning of June but the saleslady said he always underestimates so I probably won't have it back until at least mid-June. I'm thinking of going out and buying a sterling silver ring to wear in the meantime. Yay for more new jewellery! ;)
Meanwhile, Ian's ring is a bit too big for him so we'll have to take it back to Epochs to see if they can send it away to the maker to be re-done in the right size. Though I guess we'll have to wait until Ian's moving around a little better first, as he's still really gimpy right now.
No other concrete plans to report, though we're still tossing around ideas. Since Ian's surgery went so well and he doesn't need to be on crutches, we'll probably be able to get some venues looked at this spring to start to narrow down our choices. That will also help us decide on a theme and a date, and then we can get into some serious planning!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Step One: Get Engaged!
I proposed to Ian on April 6th, 2009 and here's the full story!
I started thinking about proposing back in January when Ian was in the Netherlands. I'd though about bringing a ring with me and proposing there (we spent Valentine's Day at a gorgeous B&B in a tiny town in northern Holland) but I didn't have time to get a ring before I left. Also, there was a transit strike in Ottawa at the time and I wasn't able to GET anywhere to look at rings! :P The other problem is that he doesn't wear rings so I didn't know his size and couldn't just order something.
So after I got back I went shopping one day but didn't find anything I liked. I knew I wanted a titanium ring for him because we'd talked about them before (we saw some when we were shopping for a Christmas gift for my sister a couple of years ago and he really liked them) but the "generic" jewellery stores didn't have anything really interesting. A couple of weekends later, I went shopping with friends to the big mall downtown that has two "quirky" jewellery stores in it in the hopes that I'd find something there.
The first store we went into was really busy and I couldn't get close enough to the display cases to really see the rings so we went to the next one and I absolutely fell in love with one in particular. The only problem was that it was discontinued and since you can't resize titanium (you need to get the ring remade) I couldn't get it because I wasn't sure it would fit. So we looked around some more but didn't find anything else that was nearly as nice so we stopped for dinner at the food court to talk it over and I decided to get it. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the mall closed at 6pm on Saturdays and the store was closed by the time we finished dinner!
I went back on my own to pick it up and talked to the store manager and discovered I had two options if it didn't fit - I could return it and order a different ring in his size, but the awesome part was that the company that makes the ring offers a lifetime size guarantee. They will make a new ring if your finger changes size while you own it. So yay! I had a ring!
The next challenge was to decide how to propose. Going out to a fancy dinner and proposing in front of strangers didn't appeal to me - neither of us are really public people and I'm horrifically shy so it just didn't seem "us". I came up with the idea of commissioning a piece of art based on our characters from City of Heroes (we started dating when he saw me geek out about a computer game and figured we might have something in common!) and just had to find someone who could do it. It took quite a while to get the picture (I was so impatient, lol!) and I couldn't even wait for the full "final" version - I proposed with the smaller proof that the artist sent instead. ;) The costumes and the newspaper clippings in the headlines are from our main characters but the actual people in the picture are based on us.
Monday night when Ian went upstairs to start the BBQ, I put the picture on his desktop and waited for him to come back down and see it. He ended up not coming down until the steaks were ready, which gave my butterflies (which I'd had since I got the final proof Sunday night!) more time to flutter through my stomach. When he finally came downstairs and saw the picture, he was so fixated on it that he didn't notice me coming up behind him with the ring. I ended up having to put it up right in front of his face before he saw it.
His reaction wasn't quite what I'd expected - when I asked, "Will you marry me?", he replied with, "You suck!" He did eventually say yes and explained later that I sucked because he had been out on Friday looking at engagement rings for me! He'd apparently been thinking about it since January too, which was kind of funny. He absolutely loved the picture and thought it was pretty awesome, which was what I'd hoped for. :)
Last night, we went out to look at the rings he'd been looking at for me. He'd picked out some gorgeous solitaires from the Birks Blue Collection but when I tried them on I thought they stuck up too high from my finger and figured I'd get them caught on everything. Instead, I picked out a small channel-set band that I'll use as a wedding band and we're getting a custom-made engagement ring that will have flush-set stones too. Pics forthcoming when I have that one too!
I started thinking about proposing back in January when Ian was in the Netherlands. I'd though about bringing a ring with me and proposing there (we spent Valentine's Day at a gorgeous B&B in a tiny town in northern Holland) but I didn't have time to get a ring before I left. Also, there was a transit strike in Ottawa at the time and I wasn't able to GET anywhere to look at rings! :P The other problem is that he doesn't wear rings so I didn't know his size and couldn't just order something.
So after I got back I went shopping one day but didn't find anything I liked. I knew I wanted a titanium ring for him because we'd talked about them before (we saw some when we were shopping for a Christmas gift for my sister a couple of years ago and he really liked them) but the "generic" jewellery stores didn't have anything really interesting. A couple of weekends later, I went shopping with friends to the big mall downtown that has two "quirky" jewellery stores in it in the hopes that I'd find something there.
The first store we went into was really busy and I couldn't get close enough to the display cases to really see the rings so we went to the next one and I absolutely fell in love with one in particular. The only problem was that it was discontinued and since you can't resize titanium (you need to get the ring remade) I couldn't get it because I wasn't sure it would fit. So we looked around some more but didn't find anything else that was nearly as nice so we stopped for dinner at the food court to talk it over and I decided to get it. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the mall closed at 6pm on Saturdays and the store was closed by the time we finished dinner!
I went back on my own to pick it up and talked to the store manager and discovered I had two options if it didn't fit - I could return it and order a different ring in his size, but the awesome part was that the company that makes the ring offers a lifetime size guarantee. They will make a new ring if your finger changes size while you own it. So yay! I had a ring!
 |
| From Wedding Words |
The next challenge was to decide how to propose. Going out to a fancy dinner and proposing in front of strangers didn't appeal to me - neither of us are really public people and I'm horrifically shy so it just didn't seem "us". I came up with the idea of commissioning a piece of art based on our characters from City of Heroes (we started dating when he saw me geek out about a computer game and figured we might have something in common!) and just had to find someone who could do it. It took quite a while to get the picture (I was so impatient, lol!) and I couldn't even wait for the full "final" version - I proposed with the smaller proof that the artist sent instead. ;) The costumes and the newspaper clippings in the headlines are from our main characters but the actual people in the picture are based on us.
 |
| From Wedding Words |
Monday night when Ian went upstairs to start the BBQ, I put the picture on his desktop and waited for him to come back down and see it. He ended up not coming down until the steaks were ready, which gave my butterflies (which I'd had since I got the final proof Sunday night!) more time to flutter through my stomach. When he finally came downstairs and saw the picture, he was so fixated on it that he didn't notice me coming up behind him with the ring. I ended up having to put it up right in front of his face before he saw it.
His reaction wasn't quite what I'd expected - when I asked, "Will you marry me?", he replied with, "You suck!" He did eventually say yes and explained later that I sucked because he had been out on Friday looking at engagement rings for me! He'd apparently been thinking about it since January too, which was kind of funny. He absolutely loved the picture and thought it was pretty awesome, which was what I'd hoped for. :)
 |
| From Wedding Words |
Last night, we went out to look at the rings he'd been looking at for me. He'd picked out some gorgeous solitaires from the Birks Blue Collection but when I tried them on I thought they stuck up too high from my finger and figured I'd get them caught on everything. Instead, I picked out a small channel-set band that I'll use as a wedding band and we're getting a custom-made engagement ring that will have flush-set stones too. Pics forthcoming when I have that one too!
 |
| From Wedding Words |
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