Weddingbee Blog

I know I’m not the only one who’s faced a whole stack of random comments and opinions during the process of getting engaged and subsequently being engaged, right? Sometimes people can just be so quick to get up in your case, fire a million questions at you without blinking and don’t seem to have a filter from their brains to their mouths!

Most mean well, but you’ll always have the odd person who says something that really hits home. Like the time a “friend” from work used my engagement ring as inspiration to send to her man, got engaged a few months later, and proceeded to tell me that, ha! Her ring is so much bigger than mine. {Um, really? Did that just happen?}

Rings are just so personal, you know? They’re so different for everyone—there’s no one perfect ring. The important bit is what goes into the purchasing, creating or handing-down of the ring, and that’s why they mean what they mean. But then there’s the creation itself: what style, what size, what colour, what cost? For some, it’s a whopping piece of bling. For others, it’s a simple gold wedding band. Maybe it’s both? Maybe it’s neither.

I remember the first ring that Mr. Jaguar gave me: an anniversary present a good few years back.

It was a beautiful ring and  is one I still own – a white gold band with a gorgeous little diamond stone. I remember sometimes, on the sly of course, parading around with it on my left hand, trying it on for size and seeing what it felt like to have a ring there. I remember thinking how perfect it was, and wishing that it was an engagement ring.

And more recently in my “Woah! I am not yet engaged and will be a spinster alone with her cat forever” phase, I remember hunting down my future non-existant engagement ring. I found one I liked on the internet and eventually went and checked it out in person. In more than one store. On more than one occasion. On more than one continent. (What? We were in the vicinity of Tiffany & Co on 5th Avenue! How could I not check it out?)

If you’re curious, this is the ring I lusted over for a very long time.

I know what you’re thinking—high hopes much? But believe it or not, I’m not a big girly girl. I didn’t specifically want a ring from that store. I just liked the style, and figured it was a starting point. I saved it to my bookmarks. I may have even dropped the occasional subtle (?) hint every now and again. I think I may have even dragged Mr. Jaguar into the Bond St. store here in London, casually hinting about it.

(Oh my goodness, just typing that makes me feel like such a princess. I had no shame!)

It’s not the ring that I’m wearing on my finger right now.

Mr. Jaguar tells me that he went and checked out my dream ring and wasn’t that impressed with it in person. He then went on to choose one that he was drawn to, and that he thought I’d like too. I have loads of people asking me how he chose it or if he had help, but at the end of the day, it was all him. I think that’s what I love the most. I love that he knew me well enough to know I’d love the ring, regardless of me never having liad eyes on it before.

I’ve talked about my proposal/e-ring story enough by now for you to know that I ended up with a sweet token gesture. I wore my £10 ring with pride while my official ring was resized. I was proud to flash that hand at whoever was interested and to share our happy news. And I was obviously thrilled when the real thing came home to me: I still am now.

My engagement ring is the perfect fit for me – in all senses of the word.

I will never, ever tire of trying to be all artsy with the bling. Never!