More About Rings

We bought Sam's wedding ring this weekend! Yay! It looks like this:

14k two-tone gold with diamonds and sapphires! I really like it, and what's more - Sam loves it. In fact, I keep having to tell him that he can't wear it until the wedding. So he pouted, stuck it in the box, and set it on the closet shelf. (I'll be sure to take a picture of the real thing soon.)

We got it from the Zales Outlet Store here in Camarillo. It was only $430, including tax! Even on sale, the regular price on Zales.com is $599. So I feel like we got a great deal. And it's beautiful. Simple, unique, and colorful. I'm very happy with it.

We went to a few jewelers to look for a wedding ring for me too. And even though I liked a few of them, I didn't really LOVE them, you know? I feel like if I'm going to wear this for the rest of my life, it's gotta be something that I get a little giddy and girly and silly about. Problem is, I'm not one of those people who usually gets giddy about jewelry. So I'm having trouble finding a ring that I really love.

I found out about vintage/antique/estate jewelry online, and here are some rings that I think look truly beautiful. I've noticed I tend to like intricate details in the things I wear. I love embroidery on clothes, and apparently I love filigree on jewelry. Here's the Art Nouveau ring I found this weekend that I really love:

Love the sapphires, love the tiny diamonds, love the scrolling leaf pattern. But I can't get it. For one, it'd probably take about 2 months to resize the ring to my teensy tiny size 3 1/2. For two, it's friggin $1300. For white gold, not even platinum. Why?? And why does it have to be so pretty? I need to convince myself this ring is unnecessary. As pretty as it is, I have my doubts about it actually being worth that much.

So I've been trying to find something similar, or some other vintage ring that I like. I found this floral Edwardian Wedding Band that I like, but it's all in diamonds:

Very pretty! I've sent an email to ask if this can be set with half in diamonds, half in sapphires. If so, this would totally be the one for me. Here's hoping! It's only $535, and it can be ordered in any size! What's best about the floral patterns is that the prongs that jut out on my engagement ring (it has 6 prongs, so it doesn't sit well with other rings) won't matter, because it's not a straight wedding band and has all those grooves and notches. (If that makes any sense) I'm betting this ring could sit up close to my e-ring with not problem.

If this one doesn't work out, there's a lot of other antique rings I really really like too. Like these other ones from AntiqueEngagementRings.com:

Very pretty, and not at all a bad price for platinum rings with diamonds of that quality. (I can't believe I know about this stuff now!) I like the first one better, but it's almost $900... Well, I guess we'll see what happens.

Oh, and this isn't about rings, but I found shoes that I'm in love with. I'm not sure I'll be using them for the wedding, cuz I was hoping for open-toed shoes, but I'm considering buying them anyway just for the sake of buying them. Here's Two Lips style Tessa:

Gorgeous embroidery, love the color (obviously), and they look comfy. If I wore them for the wedding, I could dance around all night, I bet. And I'd enjoy wearing them afterwards too. I could walk around normal places thinking, "I'm wearing my wedding shoes!" and I'd feel giddy and silly. Is this too much blue? Blue makes me very happy.