Daddy Day: The Ring

I started my search for a ring in late August, doing a lot of research online learning about the different cuts and colors and what not. I tried looking at rings online but that really got off to a bad start because I did not like anything I had seen. 

After about a week of that, I approached a co-worker of mine who has a friend who owns his own jewelry shop in Tulsa. I stopped by his office one morning (a Monday) and mentioned that I was looking for an engagement ring for my girlfriend and that I had heard he knew someone in the jewelry business.

One of our engagement photos.

We sat and talked a little about what she liked (at this time I was fairly confident she would like anything and that’s what I told him). Towards the end of the conversation, I told him that actually, she really likes hearts. He said ok, not a problem, I will see what my friend has to offer.

I felt good about that conversation and figured I would give it a few weeks and see what he came up with. The next morning (Tuesday), my coworker walks into my office and lays a piece of paper down on my desk. It had sketches of about 4 rings on it with prices, stone weights and quality. The only way to describe the feeling I experienced when he laid that sheet down is with this phrase: “SH!T just got real”.

I was quite surprised that I had rings in front of me after only 24 hours but he claimed he said he had a ring with a loose stone so he figured he would swing by that night. So there I was with some options that after only a glance, two of them I knew I needed to see in person.

So the next day (Wednesday) he offered to take me up to his friend's shop over our lunch hour so I could see the ones I liked in person. In a matter of seconds, I knew which one I wanted. It was a ring with a main stone, side stones on both sides, and then about 4 chips down each side of the ring itself. The kick was that when you are looking at this ring from the front or back, you can see two hearts cut into the ring itself that allows you to see the bottom tips of the side stones.

I told them I would “think about it” and come back later. That night I started dropping hints to Liz, trying to get an idea of what she would like. Finally I flat out asked, if your ring had hearts incorporated in it, would you like that? She thought about it and said yes, but they don’t make anything like that. I told her that they will make anything I want; I just have to pay for it! To which she responded, don’t do that, it would be too expensive.

That conversation actually gained me two valuable (to me) insights. One: (the original goal) she liked the idea of hearts having something to do with the ring. Two: she assumed since I pressed her so hard on the hearts issue and the fact that I told her I could get whatever I wanted made, she assumed it would take me weeks or months to get a ring so she was not expecting a proposal any time soon. (I found out all of this after the proposal).

So the next day (Thursday) I went back to the store with my co-worker and told him that was the ring for Liz. So he got it out along with a box of diamonds and set them on the counter. Next he handed me a loop, a pair of tweezers and said, “now you get to pick out her main diamond” (all the other stones were already set, the main stone was not). THAT was cool. I felt slightly bad ass rooting around in a box of diamonds. Eventually I found what I thought was the best one and handed it to him. We did the paper work, I paid the man and was about to ask when it would be ready when he told me he was busy and that I probably couldn’t pick it up until tomorrow (FRIDAY!), again, I was struck with that feeling, “SH!T just got real!”.

Here I was assuming it would take a week or more to set the setting and then set the stone. I told him I would be back Friday at lunch to pick it up.

As it turned out, that was good timing because we were headed back to Liz's hometown that weekend and I felt like that was the right place to propose. It was weird sitting in a car with Liz for two hours with her ring not 2 feet from her at any given time in my pocket. We got to Pitt and I transferred the ring into my bag and stashed it in my room at her parent's upstairs. Later that night she even asked to borrow something that I had in my duffel bag at some point and I told her sure, just go get it. I would have loved to have seen my face about 30 seconds after she walked off, me having just given her PERMISSION to go rummaging through the bag I had her ring hidden in. Luckily she did not find it.

At this point I did not have a plan but kind of assumed that I would propose to her Saturday evening. Unfortunately she ended up getting a migraine and slept most of the day and evening (this in turn prevented me from proposing on Sept. 11th…).

So Sunday, her feeling slightly better, I convinced her we needed to go to the wilderness trails and walk to get me some exercise. There, where we went on our first date, I was finally able to propose! (and I am pretty sure she loved the ring).