Design My Own Engagement Ring - an Inspirational Story

Are you thinking - I want to design my own engagement ring?

Every little girl dreams of her wedding from the time she is a young girl until that wonderful day that the big event actually happens.

We all think about what our dress will look like, who our bridesmaids will be, what kind of flowers we want, all the way down to the ring our future fiance would be giving us.

I always wanted to design my own engagement ring - to choose the specific cut of diamond, solitaire setting or diamond wrap, and the type of precious metal it would be set in. Every time I thought about it, I came up with something completely different than the last idea.

What started out as hand-drawn sketches in my junior high notebook evolved into computer print-outs and magazine clippings by the time I reached college. Had I met the one, no, not yet. But I sure was going to be ready when I did!

Eventually, I started dating the man who is now my husband, and we got serious very quickly. When we started even vaguely talking about engagement and rings, I made it very clear that I knew what I wanted and any man who was going to ask for my hand in marriage was going to let me design my own engagement ring.

Let's just say that initially, he didn't take that statement well, and he let me know that any woman who wanted to be married to him was going to let him pick her ring out himself. Oh boy, were we at a crossroads or what?!

We decided that we weren't going to let that issue stop us from being together (thankfully) and he "caved" and we started looking at rings together. We went to many jewelers and picked out stones and settings and gold-types. My heart jumped for princess-cut diamonds with baguette and round diamond wraps. For fun, we tried out some rings that were already created, as well.

Even though I had wanted to design my own engagement ring for a long time, there was something I had never seen before, and it really caught my eye - diamonds that appeared to be "floating" in their setting. There were no prongs to hold them in place. I asked the jeweler if we could see it and for him to tell me exactly what this type of ring was.

He told me that the round diamond was "tension-set" (also called pressure set), which meant that the metal was formed and then pulled slightly apart so that the diamond could be placed inside. This caused a pressure that held the diamond into place and, unless the ring was melted down, the diamond would never fall out of the ring. I was amazed by the thought of this, and I tried a few on.

Stubborn as I was, I didn't want my man to think I was giving in to his wants (I still wanted to design my own engagement ring!), so we moved on and designed a few more. Then we agreed that, of the engagement rings which I designed, he would pick the actual one he gave to me when he proposed. I was okay with that; after all, I still got to design my own engagement ring.

Little did I know that he had seen and remembered the way my heart jumped from my chest as the jeweler described the tension-set ring to me. Two months later, when he got down on that one knee and asked me to be his wife in the back of a horse-drawn carriage at midnight, I was amazed to see the very ring that I had fallen in love with on my left ring-finger. And I couldn't have been more excited.

Although I had wanted to design my own engagement ring for as long as I could remember, I simply fell in love with one that had been created by someone else. In the long run, letting my now-husband choose the ring was the biggest surprise, and the best one, I could have gotten.

If you're still thinking - I want to design my own engagement ring, sure, go ahead. You could check out the rest of this website for more tips and ideas, and remember to have fun!

by Laura L.

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