Wedding Blog

When I first got engaged, I couldn’t help but be like many other girls (including Mrs. Snow Pea ) and stare at my ring for hours. I have never been a jewelry lover… heck I don’t even have my ears pierced! But something about the little shiny piece of rock on my finger made me love my ring.

I especially love my center stone, which is an oval. I love how well-cut ovals are difficult to find but that my stone sparkles like crazy with no discernible bowtie. I have also never met anyone else in real life who has an oval diamond ring and I love how it’s classic yet unique.

I knew that I could never upgrade my diamond because I’m a very sentimental person and I already love it so much! However, I knew that I would probably change my setting later down the road from 18k white gold to platinum for the durability. But when it came time to purchase our wedding rings, I realized that “later down the road” may come sooner than I thought…

This is the ring Mr Peony proposed with - an oval with pear sidestones:

Numerous people have asked me what kind of wedding band I will get, because this three-stone ring will not allow a regular band to sit flush against it. I always figured that I would get a curved band ring custom-made so I can wear both rings on the same finger without any gap between them.

I proceeded to visit a jewelry store near my office during a lunch break to try on some curved bands, just to see what they’ll look like. I hated them - they looked unnatural and really detracted from my engagement ring. I also tried on some regular bands and didn’t like the gap between the rings. I pondered wearing the rings on different hands but decided against it because my right hand is so accident-prone. (It’s true… ask anyone. I’m a total and complete klutz.)

Since I knew I would be changing my setting later on, I figured “why not now?” and decided to go for it. I again turned to the ever-so-wonderful Gary at Engagement Rings Direct, from whom Mr Peony had purchased my engagement ring. I knew that they do some wonderful custom work, and once we started talking about the designs, the possibilities seemed endless! I never realized how fun creating a custom piece of jewelry can be.

Although I loved my three-stone ring, I knew that I couldn’t have a regular wedding band sit flush against it unless the stones were set super high, which I didn’t want. So we decided to go a whole new direction with a cathedral halo setting. Once we settled on a design, they emailed me the CAD images of my new ring:

I don’t know about you, but as an über-computer geek and a designer, I love CAD images!!!

In just two short weeks, our new rings were ready: my reset engagement ring, the matching wedding band, and Mr Peony’s wedding band.

Here’s my new ring! I love this picture because you can see how the cathedral setting allows the sunlight to shine through the bottom of the diamond:

The ring with the matching band. I think it actually looks better with the wedding band, and Mr Peony agrees. I can’t wait until I can start wearing both!

Our two wedding bands. Mr Peony wanted a plain, 6mm, 18k white gold ring. I couldn’t talk him into getting it made in platinum, nor with any sort of embellishments…not even slight ridges along the sides! Gary jokingly referred to it as a “gold washer,” and I started calling it that too.

I still have the two pear diamonds that were in my original ring. I contemplated having them made into earrings and giving them to my sister as a gift, but Mr Peony was dead against it. “I bought those for you! They were a present from me to you!” So we decided to save them and use them in a gift to our future daughter, if we have any.

Have you ever considered upgrading your engagement ring, or having it re-set?