implications (wearing a ring? what does that mean? why does only Carrie wear a ring? do only I propose?), and just plain logistics and preference (is the cost worth it? does Carrie even like diamonds? do I pick it or does she get more of a say?). In the end, we decided that a conflict-free diamond, mutually decided-upon ring with a bit more autonomy from my side was the way to go. And thus I commenced looking for The Ring.Or we did, anyway. We started at the factory-made jewelry stores (Shane Co., Jared's, the mall - yuck) just to get an idea of what was out there, and it was pretty overwhelming. The salespeople were mostly pushy and weird enough to almost turn us off the process altogether and really set off the "feminist" alarms (i.e., pulling Carrie aside and saying "they'll go talk about money now," referring to me and the other salesperson). So we got the idea of what's around and what diamonds actually looked like - then took to the safety of the internet again. As we started to orbit around a decision, I took to the streets of Austin to find a store to look seriously. After consulting CitySearch, Kruger's Jeweler's came up at the top over and over. Relying on the research, I walked in hoping for the best.
And the best is exactly what I got. No pressure, just a completely friendly and disarming greeting from Anna, a woman that I would come to work with very closely over the next couple of months. She let me browse a bit and then consulted appropriately as I found a setting that looked promising. We talked generalities back and forth and I let her know that I'd like to do a little custom work with the ring. She said "great, I think that would be awesome." And the seed was planted to pursue my goal of having a personal touch in a ring that Carrie would wear
forever. For me it was trying to find a way to put sapphires (my birthstone) somewhere that they weren't too overwhelming but would still be meaningful. I settled on a setting and asked them to hold it for a bit until Carrie could come down and check it out to give her okay.Which she did! She loved the setting and even loved the idea of sapphires in there, tiny as they were. She left knowing that I'd pick the diamond and handle the final setting, but having no idea when I would actually propose - just enough agency for both of us. So I did pick out the diamond, again with amazing help and not an ounce of pressure from Anna at Kruger's. I left the store and immediately called my parents to tell them the good news - I picked a ring! They were both happy and very excited for us.
A couple of days after getting the news, my mom called me and said that she'd been thinking. There's a diamond "in the family" (hallowed words) and, after thinking about it, she'd like to have Carrie wear it. This stone belonged to my maternal grandmother, who died about five years ago. There's a lot of meaning behind my mom offering it to me for Carrie to wear. Wow - this
made me really happy on so many levels! We did a little talking and it was shipped a couple days later, heavily insured, to my door. I emailed Anna and apologized and updated her on the situation - she was nothing but excited and told me to come in right away to check out the new diamond. I did so asap and she proclaimed it a "perfect fit" for the setting we picked out - awesome! So the stone was put in the setting and I patiently waited to pick it up.I knew that Carrie was coming down soon after I picked the ring up, so I asked my friends Andrew and Julie to hold onto it while we hung out and packed for the road trip. In the meantime, I planted a fake ring box in a bag for Carrie to find in my room while packing - true to form, she didn't look but did bring it up to me, which made us both laugh. So I eventually got the ring and started planning for the proposal!
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