Weddingbee Blog

On the day that Mr. Parasol proposed, he presented me with this stunning beauty:

Personal photo

To be totally honest, I might have said “yes” to just about anyone to get this ring. That’s how perfect this ring is for me. It’s exactly what I wanted. A solitaire diamond in a princess cut. Not too big, not too small. Simple yet sparkly. Sophisticated and elegant and a little understated. Something I will feel comfortable wearing day-in and day-out for the rest of my life.

I guess you could say that Mr. Parasol pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one. And, yes, it did help that we went ring shopping together before he proposed. We’re not too traditional in that sense, though I did not try on or even see this particular ring until the day we got engaged.

Since Mr. Parasol did such a good job choosing this amazing ring, I thought it would be really easy to pick out a wedding band. We both assumed I would just get the matching band and call it a day. And that’s exactly what we were looking for when we went to try on wedding bands the other day. We told Colleen, the woman who was responsible for finding my amazing engagement ring in the first place, that we wanted a plain, simple band. When she encouraged us, we told her she could bring out a diamond band “just for fun.”

The first band I tried on was the one that matches my engagement ring:

Image via Rakuten / Available from Tiffany & Co.

As you can see, this band has a knife edge that matches my engagement ring. I thought it would be perfect, but as soon as I slipped it on, my heart sank a little. Although I thought I would love the look of a matching set, it just seemed too matchy-matchy for my taste. All of a sudden, these two gorgeous rings started to look like a stack of children’s toys. In all seriousness, when I looked down at my finger I couldn’t get this image out of my head:

Image via Wooden Toddler Toys

While this stack of rings may be great for two-year-olds, it certainly wasn’t what I envisioned for my wedding set.

And beyond looking like a children’s toy, Colleen pointed out that the knife-edge band can’t really be worn alone since it looks pretty odd without the engagement ring. And although I love my engagement ring and wear it as much as possible, I already don’t wear it all the time and know that I won’t always wear it in the future. Given this, I love the idea of having a band that I can wear separately for those times when I want to take my engagement ring off but still want to wear a piece of my wedding set. Thankfully, Mr. Parasol quickly agreed that this band was not for me, so we nixed it.

The next contender was this round-edge plain band:

Image via Tiffany & Co. Outlet / Available from Tiffany & Co.

Since this band looks significantly different from the band on my engagement ring, it certainly avoided the matchy-matchy problem I encountered with the previous ring. Even so, this band just didn’t do anything for Mr. Parasol or me. I can’t really explain it. I looked down at my hand and saw nothing wrong. In fact, I saw what I thought I had always wanted: my gorgeous solitaire engagement ring with a plain band. But I just didn’t love or even really like it. At most, I felt pretty “meh” about the whole look.

By this point in our consultation, I was actually pretty nervous. Colleen had only pulled three rings for us, and Mr. Parasol and I had quickly vetoed the two plain bands. These were the bands Mr. Parasol and I had thought we wanted, and before our appointment we both felt pretty certain we would be walking out of the store with one of them.

Needless to say, I was a little worried we wouldn’t find my wedding ring that day, especially since the only ring left to try on was a diamond band, which was exactly what I thought I didn’t want. I had always been against getting a diamond band. I was convinced it would be too much “bling” for me. But having nixed the plain bands, I told myself I had nothing to lose in trying on something outside of my comfort zone.

Out of all the diamond bands in the store, Colleen picked out this slender two-millimeter ring:

Image via Tiffany & Co.

As I slid this ring onto my finger, I quietly took it in. I didn’t say anything for several moments, and neither did Mr. Parasol (which is quite a feat!). Finally, he broke the silence: “You know, I actually really love it.” And I had to agree. I never thought I would have liked the look of a diamond wedding band with my solitaire engagement ring. But once the two rings were on my finger, I couldn’t believe how amazing they looked together. Rather than detracting from my gorgeous princess-cut diamond, the band actually made my engagement ring look even more beautiful. They just worked together. And the diamond band is absolutely stunning by itself. I will have no trouble wearing it separately on those days when I need to take off my engagement ring.

In end the, Mr. Parasol and I didn’t find what we were looking for, but we did find something much better. And to make our awesome find even more wonderful, Colleen offered to engrave the inside of my band with our wedding date for free! How amazing is that? Now I just wish I could start wearing my wedding band now. My engagement ring looks so lonely on my finger without its companion.

Personal photo

Personal photo

I guess I have just one more reason to look forward to marrying Mr. Parasol: I’ll finally get to wear my wedding ring!

Stay tuned for Part II of our ring-shopping adventures, which will focus on our search for Mr. Parasol’s wedding band.

Did you have trouble finding your wedding band? How did you decide which ring you wanted?