Mrs...it has a nice "ring" to it

I knew all along that I wanted to use diamonds from my mother's engagement ring. Those diamonds had come from her Grandmother's engagement ring. They have family meaning and I know I want to eventually pass them down through my own family.



My ring inspiration



I changed my mind a hundred times about what I wanted, but when I was visiting my Grandma in Bathurst, I saw a ring in the window that I loved, but I wanted to put my twist on it.

I visited two jewellers in Macarthur Square, Alan Evans (who made my Mum's ring from which I was taking the diamonds) and another jeweller, Gattea Jewellers.

Noah, the jeweller at Gattea was amazing. He took the time to draw up a basic design for me when he did the quote, gave me a lot of freedom over what I wanted and politely explained to me why my initial idea of microclaw is somewhat impractical for every day life. He also had a fantastic price that was significantly below what we budgeted, and we even managed to use better quality diamonds then we originally planned.

Noah sent me the CAD of my ring and I was so surprised and pleased. The computer graphic was better then I could have ever imagined.

He quoted about 8 weeks for the ring to be done, however it only took him 7. I got my ring on September 10th, only two months after we got engaged.

There are 39 stones in the ring. The centre stone is .47 carat, "L" coloured (I actually love it's slightly yellow tint, it plays nicely against the sharp whiteness of the other diamonds and the white gold) SI1 clarity and is a cut which is known as a "rose cut" or "old mine" cut.
The other 38 stones (12 pave down each side and 13 surrounding the centre stone in a halo fashion) are .01 carat, F colours VS diamonds.
TDW of the ring is almost 1 carat (.85 carat) The setting of the ring makes it look much larger, particularly the way the centre diamonds "pops" out of the halo setting.

All in all, I LOVE it!
 

I love the subtleties of the heart in the crown of the ring







The heart theme is also subtly included in the side of the ring

A very "us" proposal.

I never thought John would be able to surprise me. He can't lie to me, he gets this little smirk on his face and I know then and there he is hiding something. A few more gentle prods and he usually gives it up to me, more then likely because it is better then listening to me whinge and complain.

My original plan for my engagement ring was to take the two diamonds out of my Mum's engagement ring and put them back into the original setting of my Great-Grandmothers ring. That ring had special significance considering my Grandfather had recently passed away. However, I changed my mind, and I plan on resetting the other ring later to wear on my other hand.

A few months ago, we were out shopping and I was looking at sparkly things in the window of shops. (One of his nicknames for me is "Crowicus" because I like shiny things)

C: Bub, I don't think I want Pop's ring as my engagement ring anymore.
J: Well, what do you want then.
C: I don't know, I think we might just buy something
J: Well, point it out to me, because your Mum doesn't know what you want eit-
C: When were you talking to my Mum about engagement rings...
J: Ah, um, she, um, was talking, ahhh, um, to me about it
C: You asked them didn't you
*John starts to smirk*
*Dissolves in to excited giggles and jumping around Mcarthur Square like a two year old*

As you can expect, I was then sweating on a proposal. Every time we went out, every weekend I was expecting it. Yet it didn't come.

Saturday, July 10th 2010, we were at home. John had gone to work in the morning and was chilling out on the lounge playing PS3 and I was doing some work on the computer. He was a bit weird but I just put that down to him being tired from working. He got up and said to me "I'm going upstairs." Understandably, I was confused as to why he would announce something so mundane, never the less, I said ok and continued with my work.

A few minutes later he called me upstairs. I told him I was busy and to wait. (I thought he was going to show me the cat being cute or something.) He yelled back for me to hurry up, I yelled back to wait, some expletives were exchanged before I trudged up the stairs looking for him.

I walked into our bedroom, to find him on one knee, ring in hand. Before he could even get out "will you marry me" I was crying.

After he proposed, I didn't want to tell anyone. I just wanted to keep it between John and I. It took a good two hours after before we called our parents. However, I did make him go on facebook and update our relationship status. After, we just went out for dinner at a local Thai restaurant we both like.

I love the way John proposed. I didn't think he would surprise me like I said. However, he floored me. It was when I absolutely least expected it. I like that is was in private and at home, just him and I and our little family of cats. I would not have changed it for the world.

All because two people fell in love...

Was it love at first sight. Probably not. We were both a little intoxicated. Ok. A little more then a little intoxicated...

John and I met a few days before Christmas, 2006. My friend, Kylie, and I had made the trip to Penrith to go clubbing at Bloc (wait, it gets classier.)

Kylie has started talking to some boy who was in the army. He then came up to me and said "You should talk to my friend, he is in the air force." He introduced me to John and we started talking. John told me wonderful stories about being in the airforce, based in Albury. We exchanged numbers at the end of the night, and planned to meet up with the boys again the next night.

Saturday night, he continued the "airforce" story and it wasn't until our first "official" date 4 days later that I found out he was actually a mechanic. (By that time, his eyes had suckered me in)

We had our up and downs throughout the last almost 4 years. We have travelled overseas together, (trust me, you learn how much you love someone when you have a panic attack in a third world country) made big purchases together (I'm still convinced the playstation 3 was a mistake) and become adults together, living with each other for the past 12 months.

Every single day I discover another reason why I love him. I have never met someone who understands me like he does, or someone who I can read like an open book. I have never met someone who makes me feel so comfortable, confident and alive. I have never met someone who can make me laugh, who can challange me and who can annoy me, all at the same time.

I truly believe that this is what it feels like to have found your soul mate.