Our Thirty Little Toes - Colón FamilyJust Our Style
Since each of our rings has a cute back story, and we though it would be fun to share them with you.Her Engagement Ring
We decided to balk at tradition and go ring shopping together. Left to his own devices, Domingo would have happily handed over his credit card to the sales associate when she said the rule-of-thumb was two to three months salary and wind up with much more ring than Sarah would feel comfortable with. Since we already had Sarah's wedding ring picked out, we wanted to find a match; no easy feat since most wedding rings are designed to match engagement rings and not the other way around. Rather than let Domingo sweat it out himself, we thought it would be fun to look at diamonds together.
It turns out, engagement ring shopping is not an ideal task for the frugal perfectionist. At first Sarah liked the idea of multiple stones - maximizing the surface area of the diamonds (and therefore the shiny factor) without paying extra for having all the carat weight in a single stone. Unfortunately the stones jutted out from the engagement ring and the wedding band wouldn't sit flush against it. A channel setting or anniversary band seemed to be the way to go with smaller stones, but it was impossible to find a ring where the stones extended to the same point as the mother of pearl in my wedding ring. In all total we went through four different ring styles, three malls, and even a purchase agreement that Sarah opted to cancel a few hours later. Sarah's indecisiveness was winning. Fortunately we stumbled upon a jeweler who didn't wait for Sarah to change her mind before starting the work on customizing a setting. Having seen the wedding ring, and listening to her concerns he was able to create the perfect ring. Simple, elegenent, and a perfect match to the ring that would be her wedding ring.
As for Domingo, well anyone willing to put up with all that is a keeper.
Her Wedding Ring
One of our favorite activities together is window shopping (we know, Sarah's spoiled.) Really Domingo likes to get out of the house and enjoys shopping while Sarah likes to bargain hunt. We both enjoy rare finds and neat knickknacks. One day we found ourselves in a jewelery store and stumbled upon a ring that Sarah adored. It had white mother of pearl inlay and small diamonds. Domingo offered to buy it for her, but she declined. While she liked the ring, the price was more than she would ever consider for a purchase for herself, and if she wasn't willing to spend that much how could she ask anyone else to?
Sarah kept thinking about the ring the next day, and again Domingo made the offer to buy it. Domingo told Sarah he wanted her to have it, and nothing would make him more unhappy than knowing she wanted it but wouldn't allow him to give it to her. It was the first time someone spent a non-trivial amount of money on Sarah outside a birthday or holiday. It was such a sweet gesture, she knew she wanted it to be her wedding ring someday.
His Wedding Ring(s)
Ring shopping for Domingo presented a challenge. Domingo disliked the notion of gold, and didn't want any embelishments like diamonds or other gems. He didn't like "shiny" metals and preferred thinner bands, but almost all simple bands come with a polished finish and a average thickness of 6mm. Visiting jewelery stores weren't helping, as the jewelers typically offered us rings with "smaller diamonds" when we requested simple.
The quest for not gold led us to an online titanium ring website that allowed us to get a thin band in non-polished finish. While on the site Domingo's eye caught another ring shaped like a dodecahedron. It looked like a nut as in a nut & bolt. The engineer in him was intrigued. We decided he should have two rings - a traditional one to wear as a normal wedding ring and a geeky one to ware for conferences and special occasions. Afterall, Sarah has two rings, why shouldn't he?