All Things Wedding From Wedding Stationery to Bridal Wear

Oh yes, I know what you’re waiting for—the e-ring. You’re curious to know what Mr. Gingham got me, right? Of course you are, everyone always wants to know what the e-Ring looks like! I’ll end the suspense now… here you go. My lovely trellis setting, princess cut solitaire with a super-thick band (note – the band thickness was very important to me).

I picked this puppy out long before Mr. Gingham and I had ever talked about marriage. I don’t have the most dainty of fingers and I’ve always chosen rings with thick bands, and my e-ring wants were no different. I found the ring I wanted a long time ago on Tiffany’s website (who doesn’t browse there, right?). Anyway, I fell in love with the Lucida ring, but not the price tag.

I know many people who have rings from there, but I just didn’t want one. Because I am a bargain hunter I wanted to find a similar looking ring for much less.

After many hours of “interneting” I found out that Costco carries diamond rings and that their diamonds are actually of a very high quality. Read this article from ABC news for more info. So, I headed over to the Costco website and there it was—my dream engagement ring. It looks just like Tiffany’s but at a fraction of what it would cost there. I ended up showing the ring to Mr. Gingham many, many times, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that ring inside the box he proposed to me with. I love my ring. It makes me so happy every day I look at it. And do you know what else? It appraised for double what he paid for it!!! How’s that for a deal? I’ve already found the wedding band I want, and guess where we’ll be buying it from? Costco, of course! By the way, I never actually saw the ring in person so kudos to Costco.com for doing such a great job with their online images (and I’ve heard they have a great return policy).

Oh, and a little more on Costco (I love that place by the way). We’re the type of members where we get a percentage back from our purchases, so my engagement and wedding rings will actually be making us money that we can use later (I promised Mr. G he gets to buy a new TV after the wedding). We’re also thinking about booking our honeymoon through them. What a place!

Did anyone else bargain shop for their rings, or buy online? Where did you get yours from?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

Valentine’s Day is one of the most popular engagement days of the year, especially for celebrities and bridezillas. In recent years, Harrison Ford, Vince Vaughn, and even Howard Stern popped the question on Valentine’s Day. With the upcoming romantic comedies “Leap Year” and the aptly named “Valentine’s Day”, Hollywood is buzzing about the perfect engagement ring and hottest proposals.

My ears are perked too. There’s nothing like celebrity engagement bling to get a bridezilla’s heart rate pumping.

And when I say bling, I mean bling. Amy Adams, Rachel Bilson, and Jessica Alba are all dripping in diamonds and platinum, and each one is a showstopper. Naturally-white platinum means diamonds sparkle that much brighter, and it’s durable – all those little celebrity children will have quite the heirloom to look forward to. 

Check out some of my favorites. I’ve even given a couple Bridezilla tips so if you and your man-zilla are craving the celebrity style, you can do so at a slightly lower cost.

You’re welcome.

I love Ms Cruz’s non-traditional sapphire ring surrounded by pave diamonds. The Kirk Kara look-alike retails for $4,785… without the center stone.

Classic and oh-so shiny, Emily Blunt has a stunner on her ring-finger. Platinum and diamonds (lots and lots of diamonds), Chad Allison’s similar style at around $3,500 (center-stoneless of course).

Girlie, you are going to tip right over with a rock like that on your hand. Exactly the way it should be. This platinum sparkler features a cushion cut center ensconced in a halo of more diamonds. All this could be yours at a delightful $4,500 (without center stone) courtesy of Mark Patterson.

There you have it. A platinum showdown. I can’t wait to see what other celebrity engagements will abound in only a couple of weeks.

For all of your platinum needs, be sure to check out Precious Platinum . For everything else wedding related, come right back here to Bridezilla. Stay tuned!

This article was originally posted onBridezilla.

I don’t think I’ve told you yet about Mr. Spaniel’s wedding ring, so gather ’round; it’s story time!

Once upon a time, Mr. Spaniel was reluctant to go shopping for a wedding band. He’d gotten the idea somewhere that the only acceptable men’s ring is a plain white band.

(source)

While I really like the simple, modern but also classic style of a platinum or white gold wedding band, it didn’t strike me as being particularly Mr. Spaniel—which he confirmed by his lack of enthusiasm for it. Instead, I figured I knew Mr. Spaniel better than he knew himself, and dragged him along to another jewelry shop to get him to try on rings. I had a feeling that if we found the right one, he’d get excited about the prospect of wearing it, and doesn’t everyone want their partner to be happy wearing their ring? I also had a feeling that the right ring would be two-toned.

(source)

As it turns out, we were both wrong! A plain platinum band actually never touched his finger (he had no interest at all once he saw all the other options), and he seemed to gravitate toward more “interesting” and complicated designs all on his own. But he didn’t go two-tone…

personal photo

He threw some rose gold in there too and went three-tone.

That Mr. Spaniel. Such a diva.

Did your FI have any preconceived notions about the wedding band? Did the choice surprise you?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.

The journey to finding our rings for Mr. French Fries was quite simple. We went to a jeweler, he picked out what type of metal he wanted (tungsten, for the record), what millimeter width he preferred (not sure of the exact measurement… but it’s pretty wide), whether he wanted it brushed matte or left shiny (he decided on a mix of both) and was pretty much done. I love his ring (and love it even more when he tries it on “for size” and checks himself out in the mirror!).

For me, however, it wasn’t that simple.

For me, however, it wasn’t that simple. Because I have a halo ring (I can’t say that without getting Beyonce’s “Halo” stuck in my head, by the way), finding a band that fit flush against my e-ring was somewhat of a challenge. We went to the jeweler where Mr. FF purchased my e-ring, and they didn’t have anything that fit the way I wanted to (or at all).

I knew what I wanted: two bands (yes…one for each side, because obviously my e-ring doesn’t have enough diamonds on it already) that fit flush against the band of my e-ring. With the number of halo rings on the market now, I didn’t think we’d have a problem, but we did. The jeweler that Mr. FF purchased my ring from said they could make a custom ring, and they thought it would be in the ballpark of what we were willing to pay. With that, they took my e-ring for 10 days (side note: it was a long 10 days!) and sketched a design of what the wedding band would look like.

The day that my e-ring was ready to be picked up and the sketches were ready to be looked at, I was a teensy bit nervous. What if it was more than our budget allowed? I told myself to wait and see, and we went to the store. Inside, we got the bad news: ONE band would be more than what we had budgeted. Way more. Like… it wasn’t in the realm of possibility of working with our budget.

Dejected, and somewhat upset that their estimate was so completely wrong, we left the store and decided to wait to buy anything. Then, on a whim one Saturday, Mr. FF suggested we try a local jeweler in town. I didn’t have high hopes that they would have something that would work (they’re a pretty small shop) but decided that it couldn’t be worse than our experience with jeweler #1.

Evidently, it was our lucky day! They had a wedding band set that fit perfectly against my e-ring, thanks to little notches built into the shape of the bands. And, it was within our budget! We decided to wait on ordering them, since the totally awesome saleswoman informed us on the DL that they would be having a wedding band sale in 3 weeks, and that we could get 15% off our total order if we waited. Three weeks later, we went in and ordered my two wedding bands as well as Mr. FF’s band all for less than the quote for ONE custom band from jeweler #1. Score.

So, without further ado…my bands.

There’s a little gap between the bands and my e-ring in the pictures, but that’s just because they’re slippery and setting them up was challenging! I haven’t decided if I want to solder them to my e-ring band just before the wedding or not. The jeweler recommended it, as the bands rubbing against each other can cause damage to the setting and to the stones. We’ll see, since that means not wearing the set until the wedding day!

And now, some shots of our rings together:

Le sigh. I can’t wait to wear them on our wedding day… and forever!

Was finding your wedding band as easy as you thought it would be?

This article was originally posted onWeddingbee.