For his proposal, Mark picked out a stone for me which was placed in a temporary setting. He wanted me to have the opportunity to pick a setting for the stone he had selected. On Saturday afternoon, 4 days after the proposal, we went to Continental Diamond to shop for my engagement ring setting.

We walked in and were greeted by Roz, our sales lady, who was very enthusiastic about our engagement. The temporary setting was a little on the snug side, so she immediately set about having that sized while we were there, which was great! She then focused my attention to the group of 8-10 display cases housing their engagement ring selection and assured me we would be looking at EVERYTHING! She took out a tray, set it on top of thr first case and indicated anything I liked would go on the tray. To say this was a little overwhelming would be an understatement! However, the really cool part about this process was Mark's involvement. He pointed out some rings he liked, indicated a few he didn't, and made comments which really made this a joint effort. At one point, he suggested looking at the three-stone yesterday, today, tomorrow style rings, but then made the observation that this style of ring doesn't really highlight a single stone, and since he picked out my stone specifically, his preference would be to pick a setting that is more focused on the center stone. I thought that was sweet and I couldn't agree more, so we quickly moved past that display case. At the end of it all, we had a good number of rings on that tray and I had no idea how we'd whittle it down, but after some side-by-side comparisons, we ended up with a small handful of options to decide from.

We then moved on to the display case with the wedding bands. Here, thankfully, Roz, just kind of started pulling things together to show us how the rings we were considering would pair with wedding bands. This is where the magic happened, and where some background comes into play...

In our three years together, Mark has given me several pieces of jewelry. The earrings and pendant I wear daily have an intertwining theme and he has told me that they appealed to him because they represent how our lives intertwine. Also, when we text, email or sign cards, we always sign them with "xoxoxoxo". We also have talked about how individually, we were both quite content with ourselves, our lives, our accomplishments, but together, we are so much better, you know the idea of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts...

So back to the rings. One of the settings I had chosen has a split shank that crisscrosses, forming an x on each side of the stone and the stone itself is round, so it is an "o", which ties in so nicely with our customary xoxoxoxo signature to each other. When Roz put one diamond band on each side of the engagement ring, a transformation took place and the the whole setting together felt like a total representation of how we feel about our evolution together. Our decision was made, and my favorite part of the whole thing was that it was a joint decision and it was effortless.

That is not the end of the story, though... This is all a new process to me. I had no idea what to expect when shopping with a stone that would need to be placed into a setting; I thought you pick something you like, they take it out of the case, put the stone in while sizing it appropriately and you leave. Apparently not. This is not unlike a wedding dress, I guess! You pick what you like and 6-8 weeks later, you'll have a ring made for your stone! (No wonder Roz wanted to make sure that my temporary setting fit comfortably!) As luck would have it, the ring arrived the day Mark left for a week long Canada fishing trip, so I had to wait until his return to schedule an appointment to get my stone put into its final setting. I scheduled the appointment for Thursday, June 11, a date the store was open later, so we could also shop for Mark's wedding ring. Well, I had to get my stone to them so they would have time to set it. Not wanting to be without my ring for any longer than absolutely necessary, I opted to take a bus from work out to the store to drop off my ring on the morning of 6/11 so we could pick it up that evening after work. Of course that day was rainy and humid, and I only had a 20 minute window from getting off the bus to get back to the bus stop. Detours, rain, and quick stepping for several blocks aside, I got the trip completed successfully and got to take my new ring home with me that night!

Do I love it as much as I thought I would? Nope, I love it more!

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