Ringing in the Celebrations

When people get engaged, the first thing I say is "Congratulations!". The second thing I say is, "Show me the ring!"

Jeromy and I had visited a couple antique jewelers months and months ago "just to look". We had been talking about an engagement in that vague way that people talk about babies and retirement. To my knowledge, our timeline was firmly set at 2016 at the earliest for a proposal. So while we looked at rings, I knew not to get my hopes up too high.

What little I knew!

Back in February, Jeromy worked in New Orleans for the entire month on a banking client. It was pretty hellish hours. He didn't have a single day off (including Sundays) for the entire month. I would visit on the weekends and lend moral support, but we didn't get to see much of each other.

However, he was finding time to ring shop.

He searched 15-20 different antique dealerships in the New Orleans area in the month of February without any luck. Either the rings were not pretty enough, not detailed enough, or just not right... I'm still not sure how he managed to do all of this without my knowledge.

When he couldn't find anything that satisfied him, he came to Lafayette to look. One Saturday in March, he ditched lunch plans with Laura Leigh and me to pick up Abby and go ring shopping. (I was pretty mad about the canceling plans part.. But I guess I can forgive him for this one, right?)

They were looking at rings that THEY would like, including one that "had diamonds piled up like a castle on your hand", when he looked left and saw this one.

The ring.

An 1930s antique art deco style ring with intricate scrollwork and cutouts, featuring small green garnets on either side of the diamond. He handpicked the diamond to go into the setting, and boy, does it shine.

(As Abby points out, I manage to slip it into every Snapchat I send. Sorry, not sorry.)

Nothing has brought me greater joy, comfort, and contentment than seeing this beautiful ring on my finger. Not because the diamond is so sparkly (but y'all, this diamond is so sparkly!) or because the intricate details on the band is exactly what I envisioned, but because every single day, when I slip on this ring, I am reminded of the wonderful man who gave me his heart, this ring, and, one day, his last name.