Something With a Ring To It

I must admit that I've probably spent more time looking at venues online than oogling over rings. I know, that makes me a bad bride-to-be in some respects, but while I love the idea of some bling on my finger, I pretty much already knew (in general anyway) what I wanted and what I didn't. Granted, over the course of Justin and I actually looking around at rings those wants evolved, but to nothing extreme.

Since we had our big talk in December, Justin and I took the first round of ring shopping the week after Christmas. We were headed out to the Sportsman's League, which you just so happen to drive by the mall to get to, so we decided a quick side trip would be just fine.

We'll just say that the first jeweler was nice enough, but took the first thing I said I liked and ran with it, never really listening to anything else I had to say. I'm usually a pretty cool cucumber, but once I start getting frustrated in major purchase situations, I'm out. I looked at Justin and said "I'm done", turned and thanked the man and continued on. Thankfully the second store was much more pleasant. The manager waited on us, answered all of our questions, asked me questions to help him better find the styles I was interested in, and we left feeling pretty good about all that we'd learned. The afternoon was then spent at the shooting range, which just goes to show the perfect balance of my personality- ring shopping one minute, tearing a target up the next :)

(personal photo)

Justin and I came away from that first day with a few specifics learned.
1- I was interested in a princess cut diamond, either in a 3 stone setting or a solitaire with a cathedral setting. Although I think almost all rings are pretty, the solitaire stones that just sit in prongs on top of the band aren't me.

2- Justin liked the look of channel set diamonds in the band of the ring. This was something that I had no preference toward before, but after he started talking about it, I had to agree.

3- We wanted a wider band than what you normally see. I have small hands and small fingers, but I didn't want something that felt dainty (I'd probably lose that sucker too quick). I still wear my high school class ring on my right ring finger, and although the band on it would be too thick for an engagement ring, I like the solid feeling it has when wearing it so we wanted to emulate that.

(source)

4- Justin wanted to be able to pick out the diamonds himself. Because of this we decided it may be better to visit some of the jewelers around town instead of going with one of the chain stores at the mall.

Funnily enough, that trip around town wasn't embarked upon until somewhere around 6 months later...