Wedding Blog

…Featuring special guest, Mr. Mary Jane!

After thinking about his options some more, Mr. Mary Jane decided he wanted to go with a custom ring instead of a standard style. We started the design process by looking at a basic style he liked, then tweaked the colors and added some bling.

The final draft?

[This image was created by me in Photoshop; it’s based on photo found here.]

His ring will be very similar to this design, but with minor alterations to the connection points in the four corners. It’ll be white and yellow gold and between 8 mm and 10 mm thick, with a side-diamond on each of the 8 corner points.

Rather than paraphrase the thought processes and considerations that went in to Mr. Mary Jane’s decision, I asked him to share them with the hive. Here’s what he said.

Me? A male, sharing thoughts? And on a wedding website?! What, does she think I’m some kind of softy?! OK, so maybe I am. Oh, and I’m not a very creative (or good) writer! But I’ll give it a shot.

About 3 months ago, we Mary Janes (I had little choice in the name, I swear!) became engaged. She got a ring; I guess that means I’ll eventually need a ring, too. And so a story develops…

Not long after the engagement, the comments started. I’d hear that I “need a ring.” OK, I suppose I do. But I never really took any initiative or displayed any desire to “jump up and run over to the jewelry store”. So I got questioned repeatedly about what I wanted and when would I get started on my search.

Now, I do want a ring, but I’m not terribly excited by what is out there in terms of men’s rings. The way I see it: there are four categories of rings for men. There are some plain rings, some fancier rings, some artistic rings, and some butt-ugly rings. Yup, four categories. And to correspond (respectively) to those categories, men can be simple, showy, esoteric, or just poor jewelry-picker-outters.

I think I fall into the esoteric category. I wanted my ring to be simple, but not too simple; fancy, but not too fancy; sharp, but not too sharp; classy, but not too — OK, you get the point. I also wanted a ring that sort of fits my personality. People often think of me as “modest\”, (Haha! I have them fooled quite well! Did I type that ’out loud’?) *ahem* Aaaaanyway: my searches revealed that a simple, fancy, sharp, classy, elegant, unique, but toned-down (or “modest”) ring can be just a teensy bit hard to come by.

In Miss MJ’s first post, she shared the gamut of where I was coming from and the ideas of what I (originally) liked. But none of them were quite what I wanted. (There’s a difference between liking a ring, and wanting to wear it forever, you know?) In the second installment, we had paired things down a little more. You may have noticed that my choices got simpler, fancier, sharper, classier, eleganter, and uniquer. (The Grammar Police are so going to throw me into the Big[Grammar]House for that.) And finally in Miss Mary Jane’s third post, you got to see something a little more to my (and Miss Mary Jane’s bling-loving) liking. The comments you made on that post (yup, I do read ’em!) helped cement the choice Miss Mary Jane and I had been leaning toward: The white gold on the outside and the yellow gold on the inside.

So we went to the jewelry store, got an estimate, and ordered the parts. (Yes, my ring has parts! Like a carburetor or a garbage disposal. Manly.) They arrived in less than a week: one white gold band and one yellow gold band (and the corner-posts to put them together). They’re going to trim up the yellow one, slice the white one in half and go from there.

[source]

Since the diamonds are going to be set in white gold, it was important to me to get diamonds that are high in color and clarity. (If you’re going to go “bling”, better go all out, right?) So we asked that the diamonds be VVS or better clarity, and G or better color (the same standard we had for Miss Mary Jane’s side stones). And when the ring’s done, it’ll be entirely high polish. (I’m expecting maximum shininess here. I’m sure Miss MJ will love it — haha.) I’ll be able to choose if I want to keep it polished or have them give it a brushed or satin finish, or a combination of different finishes on the different bands.

Left to right: Examples of polished, brushed, and satin finishes.
[source for all three]

Am I on the edge of my seat with unstoppable excitement for the day my ring is done? Not necessarily. But I am definitely looking forward to the day when I get to start wearing it.

Now, let’s have a big hand for Mr. Mary Jane, girls! (Haha, that ought to embarrass him!) We can’t wait to see the finished product. It’ll be done in about 6 weeks. (Crap, that means I have 6 weeks to come up with the money! :D) In the mean time, we’ve got engraving to think about…

Did your Mister choose a unique ring? What factors influenced his choice?