Weddingbee Blog

When we last left off, Mr. Cardigan and I were feeling pretty bummed because I was unhappy with my wedding band, and we had no idea what to do about it!

After we visited that first jewelry store, I was feeling pretty crappy about the entire idea of wedding band shopping. I was sick at looking at gorgeous bands online that I couldn’t afford and didn’t even want to step foot into another jewelry store ever again. I kept reading stories on boards here at Weddingbee about girls going to shop for their bands and spending two hours in the store and having so much fun… and I was jealous! Why couldn’t I have had an experience like that? The first time I ever went into a jewelry store seriously looking to purchase something, I had a horrible time… just my luck!

So, needless to say, I just ignored the whole thing for a month or so.

You’ll notice that this is what I tend to do when I run into a problem. I ignore it and hope it goes away. Every once in a while, I would revisit the band, try it on again, and try to fall in love with it. But, unfortunately, it just wasn’t happening. Every time I put it on, it just reconfirmed that it just wasn’t right for me. I had kind of accepted that I may just have to get a plain old band and deal with it for a few years until we could afford to upgrade it.

But then, (dun dun dun!) one night I was online window shopping at Kohl’s (one of my favorite pastimes!) looking for a new watch. On their front page, there was a big advertisement for the 2 day sale they were having on all diamond jewelry – 60% off! I was intrigued and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to look, so I clicked on over and started browsing.

Imagine my surprise when I found IT – The. Ring. The exact ring I have been lusting after for months – the ring I wanted all along! 10K white gold… channel set diamonds… very sparkly. AND IT WAS ON SALE!

Do you want to guess how much it was?? Really – because I don’t think you’ll be able to guess. Go ahead.

No. Cheaper.

It was on sale for $99 dollars. Are you KIDDING ME? I checked it about 10 more times just to be sure that was the actual price, and then I bounced around on the couch waiting for Mr. Cardigan to get home from his exam review. I couldn’t sit still, I was so excited. The second he walked through the door, I pounced on him and made him come look and my computer. He liked it too! YAY!!! Success!! So I told him that we absolutely had to go to Kohl’s the next morning to see if they had it. Y’all, it’s almost embarrassing how excited I was – I could barely even sleep that night! The next morning we got up and headed to Kohl’s and I anxiously waited while the lady behind the counter searched to see if they had it in stock. They did!

My precious! From Kohl’s

I slipped in on my finger, and I fell in love. The lady kind of scoffed at me, as she obviously didn’t really like it with my e-ring, and she kept trying to talk me into going to a real jewelry store to try on a contoured band that would fit with my ring better. Seriously lady? I’m trying to buy something from YOU, and you’re trying to talk me into going to Zales?? Something is definitely wrong with that picture! But, no matter how much she tried to talk me out of it, I knew that even if it doesn’t go with my ring perfectly, there was no way we could afford something like this at a different store. It’s not the best quality ring out there, I know, and it doesn’t really look completely perfect with my ring, but Mr. C and I agreed a long time ago that we would be upgrading whatever we got now, because the bands that look really good with my ring are way out of our budget.

So, while it’s not the most amazing ring in the world, it’s a perfect ring to start off our marriage together, and I’m so incredibly happy with it.

OH, and did I mention that I got to scratch off a coupon and we got an extra 20% off on the ring??? AWESOME!

There’s only one tiny little problem (there’s always something, isn’t there?). It only comes in the standard size 7. I’m a size 4.5. The lady at the store was worried that the setting would be compromised if we sized it down that far, but my lovely friends on the Weddingbee boards assured me that it should be okay. We went ahead and got it, and we’re going to take it to the jeweler who made my engagement ring and see what he thinks. We are pretty confident that he’ll be able to size it down, but if he doesn’t, Mr. Cardigan said that he can probably make me something similar for a really good price (he’s a family friend, so he does it for us at cost, which is a huge savings!).

I’m crossing my fingers that our jeweler friend will be able to size it down, but for now, the wedding band saga continues!