Engagement Ring Shopping: Landmark

My friend Lisa got her engagement ring from Lion’s Gate. She tells a pretty funny story about the situation concerning a multitude of doors, buzzers and a Russian man with dozens of loose diamonds.

How could we NOT visit this place?

It’s since change hands, now its known as Landmark Diamonds.

After the requisite weird doors with buzzers, we entered a modest showroom. For some reason, I was really glad I had my boyfriend with me.

Engagement Ring Shopping: J.B. Hudson

J.B. Hudson was not really on our “list,” but we were shopping downtown, so we stopped in. The luxe wood and multitude of cases could have scared us, but didn’t. We found a Martin Flyer 3-stone setting that was pretty cool.

The employee who helped us was close but not hovering, friendly but not pushy.

The lights were dim, but the ring still sparkled like a star.

That ring caught our eye and made it onto our short list. Perhaps that one will be mine.

Engagement Ring Shopping: Continental Diamond

My roommate Rachel’s friend (Ashley? Rachel?) got an engagement ring from here, so consider me “referred.”

We walked into the shop and noticed a bunch of people shopping (it was around 1:30 on a weekday). There must have been at least 12 customers in the shop, and probably 7 visible employees.

We checked out the cases, finding Martin Flyer rings as well as A. Jaffe (both were designers of our short-list rings), but they didn’t have the styles we liked, and the other rings they offered left plenty to be desired.

But, I was hopeful, as there were quite a few people perusing and buying jewelry, so we gave it a shot.

Engagement Ring Shopping, Part 1: Stones

As a man, I’ve never particularly cared about the engagement ring. While the women all ogle over the thing, I stand back with the rest of the guys and laugh at the poor bastard who spent all his poker money for the next 20 years. (Let’s face it though, it’s not like she’s going to let him play poker ever again anyway.)

Now that I’m in that spot, I can see just how quickly things spiral out of control.

It wasn’t 2 minutes into looking at the first store when the first vulture stopped circling and rested down on us. I don’t take the term vulture lightly here, either. Some are nicer than others, but at the end of they day, they look at all us men as dead meat available for the taking.

I’ll never forget the moment she pulled out the “box of extras” from below the display case. That’s the moment when I knew my carcass was being picked apart for every loose morsel.

Who needs 5 diamonds on an engagement ring anyway? Seriously, people, when was 1 not enough anymore?

Engagement Ring Shopping: Cartier

We took a little trip down to Chicago last weekend, so my beloved could watch his Green Bay Packers get trounced by the Chicago Bears. It was a sad (and very cold) day for him.

We drove (!!!) down, and made sure to give ourselves enough time to relax, check into our hotel and hit Michigan Ave. for some prime shopping.

And then, we saw it… (cue angel choir) Cartier.

Of course we had to look!

Engagement Ring Shopping: Scherazade

One of our first stops was Scherezade in the Galleria, Edina.

Oh, was I excited! The woman who asisted us was helpful calm and PATIENT, showing us styles that aligned with those styles we liked, not pushing or leading us astray.

She was also smart enough to stay away from the money topic, unlike one lady we worked with at another store (coming soon).

Enjoying Your Lunch?

There used to be a time when I would debate over the number of home games my team had won the previous season over lunch. Who did Brett Favre complete his first pass to? Who holds the record for most hot dogs eaten in 12 minutes?

These were the topics that consumed my energy.

Now, however, it’s virtually impossible to have a meal without talking about something related to getting engaged. Did you know they were only dating for 8 months? Did you know they only had 3 months between getting engaged and getting married? Which ring design do you prefer?

I catch myself, from time to time, staring at a TV in a restaurant with a game on and thinking, “I couldn’t name the 12 starters on either side of the ball anymore.” I usually return to my woman, who is staring at me, thinking, “did he hear any of that?”

Probably not.

Engagement Ring Shopping: Tiffany & Co.

For some reason, I crave the little blue box a.k.a. any gift from Tiffany & Co.

Did the company do exhastive research on colors that can make women crave and salivate over the contents of the box? How does that little teal-blue color (pantone 1837 for the dorks in the group) make eyes light up like it does?

I always imagined my ring would be from Tiffany & Co., so that was naturally one of the first places we went to look at rings.

And boy, was I disappointed!

Size Does Matter (2)

I don’t think I ask for too much in a ring. Here’s my short list:

The stones:
No baguettes
No funky shapes
Center stone: 1 ct+
No pave or micro-pave
No visible-to-the-naked-eye inclusions
Something that sparkles from across the room (lol – every girl’s subconscious wish)
More than one diamond — three or five would be nice
Different sizes and heights — I’d like the center stone to be a different size from the sidestones

The Band:
Nothing too plain
Nothing too ornate
A band that is not too thin
A band that is not too thick
No built in channels or grooves
A band that doesn’t taper as it gets closer to the stone

Is that too much to ask?

I had NO idea I was so particular, I thought I’d be thrilled with any old ring. Suddenly, I have become an “engagement ring Nazi.” Luckily my GTB has the same taste and the same stipulations as me.

I guess this ring will be an extension of “us” but I can’t help but feel that some people will find this off-putting.

Who knew there was so much to care about?

The First Mention Of A Ring

I’d been thrilled with our relationship, but I wasn’t sure when the ring-speak would begin. Could I start it? Would he need to open up that conversation?

Well, he brought it up first, while we were in Playa del Carmen. When he mentioned it, he asked if I had a stone-size in mind. This is something that I was not willing to negotiate on, thanks to my friend Ashley. When her now-husband asked how big she wanted to go, she said, “Oh, I don’t care, less than a carat is fine.” But, I know that she wishes it were bigger, most days of the week.

So, I said, “Oh, 1 carat or bigger.” The groom’s eyes just about popped out of his head. After a few minutes, he was like, “Really? I was thinking like 1/2 or 3/4 carat.”