Ring in the new year

Natalie and I got engaged again! Sort of. Kind of. You see, this spring will mark 10 years of us being together. We started dating our senior year of high school after Natalie found my online profile. You bet I rocked the Planet Out website profile! But having got together when we were 17, it led us to some interesting predicaments.

When you’re 19, $300 seems like $1 million. You can’t ever imagine spending more than $300 on anything, let alone a ring. So that vastly limits your options. Plus, all this ring shopping was on the down-low. We didn’t want to be teenagers getting engaged. We couldn’t do that! We had to be a grown up 20 😉

For Natalie’s engagement ring, we ended up in Montgomery Mall surrounded by giant groups of bored teenagers. She wanted something nontraditional, something with a sapphire (and no, sapphires don’t mean something to lesbians–though we have been asked many, many times) and something not too big. And we found a ring she absolutely loved. It was a sapphire flanked by 2 diamonds. Teeny tiny stones. No certificate or anything. It was from fire and ice- a chain mall store whose un-traditional rings we liked but quality was majorly in question.

So, as time went on and we had our big, Jewish wedding and then we got legally married in Connecticut, I loved the ring I gave to Natalie when we had just started our relationship. But I also had some concerns. I could see the questionable gold of the band giving Natalie rashes. And it really stood out (and not in a good way) when she wore it on the same finger as her wedding band. So I decided for our 10th anniversary, we needed to upgrade her ring. So, for the last year we have been wandering in and out of jewelry shops– no rush. Just looking.

Natalie walked into the house a few days ago casually mentioning she had seen a ring she really liked and the whole store was having a sale. HELLO! Natalie had yet to mention any ring she was interested in, at all, this entire time we had been looking. So you bet I wanted to go and look at it. And when I walked in and saw it, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t sure I liked it. It was an emerald cut diamond–I had never seen an emerald cut. And I kind of like the sparkle of other cuts more. But when she put it on, she had that look (and Natalie does not like jewelry)  and I looked at it only to realize it was perfect. Not too big. Not too flashy. Very vintage looking. But it was quality, from a small jewelry shop that has been a New Haven since 1919. And the best thing? It was a Canadian diamond, which had been a non-negotiable for Natalie and me.

So for New Year’s Eve we had the BEST sparkle of all. A new ring I know Natalie will wear until our old, farty hands can barely move.