the random object: wedding rings

My wedding rings. Before I tell you about them, let me tell you how this picture came about. One of the two families I work for has an adorable set of twins. Occasionally I will go over in the evening, put them to bed and then have several hours to myself before their parents get home. Most often I will read or watch tv or hand sew, but recently I have started taking my computer. I spend time blogging (like now)or getting sucked into Flickr and Facebook, or I bring tv episodes or movies to watch.

A couple of days ago, I brought my camera with the intention of taking some pics of my wedding rings for this post. I was out in the backyard in the last of the late afternoon sun, my rings on the railing, practicing my macro skills. After about 10 photos, I took a step back to look at the composition and fell down the deck stairs! Ouch! Although it was only 3 steps, it was really quite a spectacular fall! I didn't injure anything but was definitely sore after that! As my old joke goes "Grace is my middle name!"

Okay, back to the random object. I decided to start with this because I forgot to take some pics of the things that inspired this meme. (And of course they may be my most important random object.)

For some reason, for a long time, I had an irrational fear that I would never get married or have kids or be loved. Probably because as a teenager I dated a guy for a few years and in my naive teenagery ways thought that we would be high school sweethearts and blah blah, and obviously, most of the time that is not the way it happens.

I'll save the story of how we met and married for another day, (perhaps our 3rd wedding anniversary coming up in September?) Today instead I will tell you about how he picked the rings and proposed.

Joel knows that I am a picky person when it comes to well, everything. When we started talking about getting married, he asked me if I wanted to go ring shopping with him or have him pick the ring himself. Something girly and old fashioned inside me said I should send him on his own (or perhaps with the help of a friend, but I had never so much as been in a ring store before so I was curious and really wanted to go with him.

The actual shopping part wasn't really anything special which is probably why I enjoyed it so much. We stopped on a whim on the way to doing something else and wandered quickly through the store. We went to Spence Diamonds mostly because we had heard all sorts of ads for their better prices and open showcases. (Who said radio advertising wasn't effective?) I was so sure was looking for something simple and classic that I didn't even go over near the modern stuff. I knew I wanted a solitaire and most likely in a classic tiffany style setting.

As soon as I tried one on, I knew it wasn't right. So we kept looking. We looked at 3 stone rings, engagement bands, super sculptural stuff, nothing was right. And then Joel saw it. THE ring, and he made me try it on even though I was skeptical. I fell in love with it as soon as it was on my finger. (Even though the floor model was about 5 sizes too big.) I loved the squareness of the band, the little frame of metal around the diamond and I love that it had an equally modern wedding band that fit right under the engagement setting. Perfection.

So we got someone to right it down and we left, we didn't even buy it right there. That came a little bit later when we went back and picked out a diamond together.

(photo by Brooks Ryenolds)

Joel proposed to me on a bridge overlooking the lagoon in Bowness Park.  The picture above was taken a year after our wedding, at my friend Amanda's wedding (I'm right of centre.)  We had gone to Bowness park on our first date, and Joel brought me back there to ask me to marry him.  We had had a delicious dinner at Mongoli Grill, and were going back to his house to watch a movie when he made an excuse to stop at the park.  Just like shopping for rings, and like most of the other important events in our relationship, it wasn't anything huge and special, it was just us, being ourselves, and I loved it.  We wandered through the park on our way to the bridge, holding hands, joking and smiling.  When we got to the bridge it was peaceful, not another soul in sight.  And then he started saying mushy things (which of course I can't remember now.)  He got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife and I jumped up and down and cried "Of course!"

The first thing I did was take of my other ring (another random object for another day) and let him put my shiny new diamond ring on my finger.

I found out after that, that many people knew that we were getting engaged that night, including a friend who lived just a few blocks away and had agreed to take photos after he proposed.  So off we went.

I could barely hold my hand still long enough to take this photo.  We called my our parents and friends and generally just floated around.

And now this photo hangs in our room more than 3 years later.  The rings are well worn and loved and are certainly not as blindingly bright as they used to be, but I like it that way.  They almost never come off, and I still haven't tired of staring at them as they sparkle in the sun.

For those who are interested, these are the specs:  Engagement ring is platinum, size 3.25, .75 ct Princess cut IF, F colour conflict free diamond in a bezel setting.  Wedding band is platinum, size 3.25 with 8 princess cut diamonds in a channel setting.