Put a ring on it!

There's already one ring on it, of course - my engagement ring. But in a little less than nine months - yay! - it'll be time to add another one - the wedding ring! 

But before we get to that, let me take you back to the day we bought ring #1. Mr. M and I had been discussing marriage for a while, and he told me that he'd like to propose around my birthday in January. He also said that he really wanted me to pick out the ring myself, since he's not much of a jewelry fan and I'm... well... picky. After nixing the idea of buying a ring at a chain store like Zales or Kay's, and being somewhat terrified at the prospect of wandering around the Diamond District with a wad of cash, we decided to go visit my parents for a weekend and take a trip to my family's favorite independent jeweler. 

On our way to the jeweler, my mom mentioned that she'd seen some really beautiful rings at Sam's Club. I had a hard time believing that they'd have anything worth looking at, but Mr. M and I agreed to go check it out. (I was secretly hoping to be able to prove her wrong!) So we waltzed up to the jewelry counter at Sam's and started looking at rings in our price range. Some were pretty, but I was mostly unimpressed... until I saw The One. 

Holy sparkles, Batman! It was beautiful - a simple white gold band with a beautiful .58 carat round diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds in what they call a "unity" setting. Although they were all graded I1, I couldn't see any visible inclusions, and whatever was there definitely didn't take away from the beauty of the ring. Because of all the facets clustered together, it sparkled like crazy - and the halo-like setting looked perfect on my big ol' size 11 ring finger. Was this it? Was this my ring?

Picture from the Sam's Club website - which really doesn't do it justice!

I couldn't decide. To be totally, brutally honest, I was having a slight snobbery attack. Could I really rock a ring from a big box store? I had to think about it some more, so we left Sparkles there and continued on to the family jeweler. Once we got there, we gave them our budget and started looking at our options. Long story short - we could really only afford a small-ish diamond in a very plain setting. While I truly think that "smaller" diamond solitaires are gorgeous, classic, beautiful rings - I did have the size 11 finger to think about. A half carat solitaire that would look perfect on a smaller hand looked like a tiny chip on my large finger. 

Thus, the decision was made. We hopped back in the car, went straight back to Sam's Club and purchased Sparkles. I haven't regretted it for a moment since. I still get that "squee!" feeling every time I look down at my hand! And my snobbery attack passed quickly - every time someone admires it, I proudly tell them, "Sam's Club!" We saved some money and got a truly gorgeous piece of jewelry - what's not to be super proud of?