#34: Lord of the Rings

Now I hope when you read the title of today's post, you didn't get too excited. I will not be talking about the movies, because I fell asleep watching the first one, and never gave the movies another try. Sorry.

BUT I will be talking about rings. Mine, to be exact. Some of you may know the story of what happened to my ring two days after we got engaged.  As you probably know, there are two little munchkins in my house right now, so we use a lot of baby gates to keep them from getting into rooms with breakables. Two nights after we got engaged, I accidentally hit my hand while climbing over one said gate. I, paranoid, checked my ring, and lo and behold, the setting had been knocked loose.

I let my mom take a look at it, and once she touched it, the whole setting came off. I cried and cried like a baby (which J actually said was endearing), and thus started the journey of trying to get it fixed before J left for school again.

With it being just days after New Years' Day, many jewelers hadn't reopened yet. The first two jewelers we went to were closed.  We tried one near my office that we usually get our jewelry repaired at, but he told me he didn't have the correct tools to fix my ring. I was heartbroken.

Heading off to work without my ring on my finger was so tough. I took it to work with me though. Yes, my friends, I showed off my ring to my boss and coworkers in a ziploc baggie. No lie.

Then, my mom finally found a jeweler that could fix it. My mom took it in, paid for the repair and I got it back about a week later, just in time for J to put it back on my finger before he left for school again. Only this time, my whole family was standing there. Kinda not cool, but whatevs. I had my ring back.

Today, I set off on an all new adventure. I went back to the same jeweler who had fixed my ring, because he told me the way my ring had to be reset, I would need a custom wedding band, most likely. So I went to see how much one would run the ol' wallet, so J and I could work it in our budgets. I did not expect to find AND buy my wedding band today. But that's what I did.

I actually met with the guy who fixed my ring, Reza. He is awesome, let me tell you.  His anniversary is June 27th (it'll be his 20th anniversary the day we leave for our honeymoon!) and he said because our wedding date was so close to his, he was going to find something special for me. He really turned on the charm.  We tried pairing my engagement ring with all sorts of bands: curved ones, special made ones, straight ones.  But none of them really appealed to me.  Nor did the price tags. I had NO idea little teeny tiny diamond bands could cost that much! Geez.

I had all but given up hope, thinking I was going to have to finance my perfect fit, custom-made band. And then Reza said, "Oh, why didn't I think of this before?! Genius!" as he took a straight band from a bridal set and matched it up to my ring. It sat lower than my ring, but the diamonds were the same size as my sidestones, and looked perfect as a set with my engagement ring.  Reza looked at me and said, "Now I don't usually do this, but I'll break this set apart and let you take the band today if you want it, because your wedding date is so close to my anniversary." I knew I had to do it, I loved the ring and the price was right (on sale!!) so I said, "sold!"

It feels so good to have another thing on my never-ending checklist crossed off, and I can't wait for J to put this ring on my finger. Next to this one: