Weddingbee Blog

I realized I haven’t written a post about my engagement ring, nor the proposal behind it.  This could possibly be because my own proposal was definitely not one with any earth-shattering romance in it.  In fact, I kind of feel like the black sheep of the hive because I have no gut-wrenching, heartstring-pulling proposal story, and sometimes when I read them I feel a tinge of jealousy.  Sometimes.  But then I realize that I probably wouldn’t even know how to act if Mr. Biscuit ever made an incredibly grand romantic gesture.

So here’s our unromantic, completely practical, no-surprise proposal story. I hope it will serve as a juxtaposition to all of the other wonderfully romantic proposals of the hive.

Some people thought Mr. Biscuit and I got engaged a little quickly, after a little over a year of dating. Looking from the outside in, I’d have to agree. However, I had been thinking about the marriage option with Mr. Biscuit since the four-month dating mark. I know that this isn’t right for everyone, but we hit some major relationship milestones early on. We went through some issues near the beginning of our relationship that we chose to work through, rather than just throwing in the proverbial towel. Sound a bit like what can happen in a marriage? I think so.

We also braved multiple 10-hour drives together without killing each other on the way to/from vacations. Actually, these drives were rather enjoyable. So, yeah, that taking a trip together thing? Check.

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We dealt with being apart for a few weeks while I traipsed around Europe with some friends.

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We started a “family.”

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Basically, Mr. Biscuit and I started escalating our relationship much more quickly than a lot of other couples our age. We also spent a LOT of time together. In fact, last February we were snowed in for three days together when West Virginia got hit with about two feet of snow. No satellite TV, no getting out of the house for any reason, no outside contact with the world. Some couples may have been clawing each other’s eyes out; however, we played multiple games of Monopoly and had an all around enjoyable time, as long as I won. When I don’t win things, I turn into a demon child, have a tantrum, and storm off. It’s a trait I’m working to correct—I promise.

That’s about the time when I was sure that Mr. Biscuit and I could work as a married couple. We could deal with being hermits in the same house together without anyone trying to stab anyone/anything much. Awesome.

This is not how we acted. Swear.

Mr. Biscuit and I had both expressed an interest in spending the rest of our lives together, but he wanted to wait until he got his bonus in March so that he could afford to buy me a ring. Sweet, right? Well, I couldn’t just leave it at that. I began obsessively looking online for rings, and I truly do mean obsessively. Anyone who knows me knows the talent I have for ridiculously thorough internet research. And research rings I did. I knew I didn’t want a solitaire; it just wasn’t my style. I was pretty sure I wanted a vintage estate ring because I’m 100% an old soul.

After a few weeks of searching, Mr. Biscuit got a really cool envelope in the mail. What could it be? Why, his bonus, of course! Then he said those infamous awkward words: “So, you know those things you’ve been looking at on the internet a lot? You should probably let me know which one you want.”

Squeal!!! I was so ridiculously elated. I immediately showed him site after site of pretty rings, many of them too expensive for our budget. Mr. Biscuit’s face kind of fell because I knew he wanted to get me something nice, but was afraid he wouldn’t be able to afford what I wanted. Finally, I turned off the giddy and realized we had a problem. I told him that we should check out a jewelry store just to see what different sizes looked like on my hand. The machine that is the wedding industry made us feel like anything under one carat would be absolutely inadequate and that one would need surgical loupes to be able to see the center stone.

So we went to our local mall and took a quick swing by J.B. Robinson Jewelers.

Side note–>we have both a J.B. Robinson and a Kay Jewelers in our tiny mall. They’re about 50 steps away from one another, and I’m pretty sure they’re the exact same store—they are owned by the same company. I really don’t understand why they have two store spaces. To give the illusion of choice? I digress.

Aaaand we’re back at the jewelry store. I tried a few vintage-looking diamonds on (I later learned that these were called halo rings), but I wasn’t wowed by any of them. I really wanted a ring that lay flat so I could put my gloves on over it, but they just weren’t doing it for me. I tried on some larger rings and quickly realized that any halo with a center stone larger than .25 carats looked kind of silly on me (and Mr. Biscuit let out a huge sigh of relief!). Then I tried it on. THE ring. A brilliant-cut diamond surrounded by round and baguette diamonds. The way it sparkled under that jewelry-store light was absolutely ridiculous. It was so beautiful! We were still holding out for a lovely vintage ring, though, so we decided to go home and look for a similar ring at a different store or estate sale.

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For the next few days I devoted every spare moment to attempting to find a similar ring in our price range. This proved to be an impossibility. Finally, I had annoyed Mr. Biscuit enough that he said, “OK, seriously, stop it. I bought the ring for you on Friday. It will be here in a week.”

Since this is getting super long, I shall leave you hanging on the rest of the proposal story. Stay tuned for The Ring: Part II, AKA That Time I Got Really Obsessed and Unable to Keep a Secret!