Wedding Blog

Like many brides, I’ve done my research on rings. I think it started in college when my girlfriends and I would always talk about what sort of ring we would have if we could choose. Some of my friends wanted a simple solitaire, while others preferred shaped diamonds or precious stones. I actually wasn’t sure what I would want, so I started looking online.

I think I probably designed 50 rings on Blue Nile and Mondera, and there seemed to be one common theme—I liked the pear shape. Blue Nile was really helpful in that I was able to see so many different settings with a pear diamond. I didn’t like the pear alone, so I tried many different side stones with it. I came up with a few “perfect combos” and then it hit me—I wasn’t going to tell Champ exactly what I wanted. I think telling him that I loved the pear shape was enough. After all, he does need to decide on something, right? I think I would have been silly to tell him all about my ring designs. I knew he wanted to have input, and what fun would that have been for him?

Check out this ad for personalized designs… creeeeepyyy. Why is she naked, why does she look “pleased,” and where is anywhere? Please tell me they’re talking about a personalized toe ring. Weird.

Back to my ring. So this is the story I get after our engagement: it took six months for Champ to design my ring with Walter, a consultant from Washington Diamonds.

Champ is an attorney, and by nature he is a perfectionist. He wanted the “perfect pear.” The pear shaped diamond is considered to be a round brilliant diamond at one end and a marquise shape at the other. It is sometimes referred to as a tear drop due to its rounded side and pointed edge. A length-to-width ratio between 1.45 and 1.75 is typically considered most desirable for the pear. He tells me that the pear diamond has what they call a “bowtie”- a sort of shadow that is cast by light in the ring, and this is something you want to avoid.

And here is the final product of Champ’s personal design. He picked every diamond in the ring, even all the pave stones on the sides of the ring! Sorry for the picture quality, it’s hard to get a good picture of a ring.

Another thing I should mention while I’m on the subject of rings. A few months ago, I went to a Wedding Expo (AKA mini wedding inferno) with a fellow bride to be (and also a DIY inspiration to me) and like any expo, we were hounded by vultures. We both got our rings cleaned at a booth, and I totally gave in and bought the product. Well, it’s AMAZING. It makes my ring so so shiny and really polishes the platinum if I have the time to use the cream and brush. I use a toothbrush and it works wonders. It’s called Something New Jewelry Cleaner and it is a two-part system. Best of all, it’s all natural and even smells of banana and coconut oil! Mmm!

Any other pear girls out there?