Weddingbee Blog

Okay, okay, I know I haven’t actually shared photos of my engagement ring yet, but I promise I’ll share soon. Today I want to talk about the ring I wear on my right hand… my beloved Aggie ring!

What’s an Aggie ring, you say? Never heard of it? Many people haven’t, so don’t feel bad. This is what an Aggie ring looks like:

(Source)

That is, of course, not MY ring – I just wanted to get a good detail shot so you can see what it really looks like up close and personal. Aggie rings are a HUGE tradition here at A&M. It’s a class ring, which isn’t really all that important at most colleges, but we take our traditions very seriously here!

So, today I’m going to share the fun and exciting story of the day I got my Aggie ring!

It all started on the morning of November 13th, when I went to my best friend (and bridesmaid!), Audrey’s house to make shots. Why shots? Well, let me tell you about it. There’s another tradition at A&M (I’m telling you, we’re all about the traditions over here) that when you get your ring you are supposed to “dunk” it. Usually, this dunking is done in a pitcher of beer. You simply drop the ring in, set a timer, and go. (Here is a video of a typical ring dunk that I found on YouTube, in case you’re curious.) Usually there is a lot of puking involved in ring dunks, for obvious reasons. Then you go out to Northgate (Our tiny town’s version of Austin’s Sixth Street) and party ’til you drop. Fun, right?

Well, to be honest, I do not drink beer. At all. Hate the stuff. And, puking? Not a fan. So, an alternate tradition is to do shots – the same number as the last two numbers in the year you’re graduating. I’m graduating in 2010… so 10 shots. Gulp. (I’m seriously curious what people who graduated in 1999 did??!). But now you’re asking “Miss Cardigan, you say you don’t want to get drunk off a pitcher of beer, so instead you do SHOTS? How is that any better?” Well, my friends, I’ll let you in on a little secret: We cheated. We’re both pretty small girls and we did NOT want to get completely wasted (we’d like to remember our night, thank you!) so we watered down the shots. A lot. We probably took about 5 or 6 total. And they were mixed shots. Don’t tell anyone!

So, the morning of our ring day, we made shots!

Getting them ready!

We kept them all in their soup pot and put it in the fridge for safe-keeping! That’s about half of them.

The special shot glasses – the ones for our last shot, the ones we’d be dropping our rings into!

So, with all 20 (20!!) shots made, we went about the rest of our day, waiting anxiously because we weren’t going to be able to pick up our rings until 6:15 that evening. My sister and cousin came into town to celebrate with me, so we spent the day hanging out, and we all had dinner with Audrey’s family before we went to get the rings. Then, it was finally time!

Before we picked them up, sad because our fingers were still naked…

Presenting our rings to each other. We had a serious case of the giggles, if you can’t tell!

I got it!!!

Mr. Cardigan was very excited for me! (He gets his this year!)

After we picked up our rings, we headed back home for a little hanging out before the dunk! And then, at 10:00 that night (see a theme here? 10 shots… 10:00 PM… 2010?)… we dunked!

Getting ready. Do we look terrified? ‘Cause we are. (Photo taken by Audrey’s mom)

We did it!!! (Photo taken by Audrey’s mom)

So, after the dunk we headed out to Northgate to hang out with our friends, celebrate our new rings, and just generally party ’til we dropped.

With our friend, Ellie.

So, there’s the story of my right-hand ring. It’s incredibly special to me, and I plan to wear it for a VERY long time.

Do you have a special ring other than your engagement ring? I want to hear about it!