Ringa Linga

I'm beginning to realize that my love for the color blue is a little scary. Seriously, I want it everywhere. Maybe I should get blue tints for my glasses, so everything I see will automatically be blue. Sadly, I'm only mostly joking...

Anyway, I've been looking at wedding bands, and I'm really liking these. Yes, because of the blue. They're from E-WeddingBands.com:

This one is 14k white gold and has a round, blue diamond center stone with two smaller white diamonds on either side. 1/2 carat total weight, so it's not too big, not too small. I really LOVE this one. I'm generally not a jewelry person at all, so when I like something, I really like it. You could probably stick a blue sapphire in the middle and I'd still love this ring. But I like the idea of having something unique. (My mom would probably say, "Why do you always have to be so different??") And at $495, I think it's a great value.

If I were to get something that's actually a band, I think I'd like something like this. White gold or platinum (probably white gold cuz it's cheaper) with blue sapphires and diamonds that go halfway around. Nice! I really like it, but I don't love it. Using 14k gold, it's $659.

So why am I considering a ring I only like when there's a less expensive ring that I love? I've got 2 reasons:

1. The first ring only comes in gold. We think my engagement ring is platinum (we're somehow not sure). I normally wouldn't care about what it's made out of so long as it lasts, but I want to solder my e-ring and wedding band together eventually. Would there be complications because of the different metals?
2. Since the first one is a 3 stone ring, will it look okay sitting flush against my solitaire e-ring? Particularly when/if I solder it? It might be a large clump of stones...

I figure I'll go to a mall jewelry store, try on a similar style, and ask the salespeople about how it'll look, metal soldering, etc. Then I'll just buy it online. I feel a little bad taking advantage of the salespeople like that. But then I remember that they're mostly pushy, stuck-up people who drool over my every word when I'm looking at a $1000 diamond ring, but sneer in my face when I ask to see a $99 sapphire-only ring. (This happened in two different stores some months ago. The moment I said, "What about a ring with only sapphires?", their smiling faces turned into bored, ugly sneers, and they basically threw the $99 ring at me...)

I'd normally feel a little nervous making such a big purchase over the internet, but all the brides I've talked to who dealt with them said they got beautiful rings with awesome service. And they're listed with the Better Business Bureau. Yay!

The only other ring I might like better is a solitaire enhancer, called a wrap. Like the name suggests, it wraps around the solitaire to make it look like one multi-store ring. Like this:

But with just the blue sapphires on the sides. Preferrably round or pear-shaped. But I have yet to see that anywhere.

I feel like I'm being nitpicky, but I figure it's only natural. I take a long time deciding what to wear from day to day... how much more for something I'll be wearing for the rest of my life?

Note:
We found a ring that Sam really likes at the Zales Outlet store, but that was several months ago, so it's not certain that it's even there anymore. From what I remember of it, it was white gold with diamond(s) and sapphire(s) in an inset channel. (Thankfully, blue is Sam's favorite color too.) It was around $400.