Firstly, I appologize for my weak attempt at a punny title.
Secondly:
We have our wedding bands! And I could not be happier, however, it took me awhile to get to that point. It is not a very long story or even that traumatic, but lets start and the beginning.
Months and months ago we started shopping for rings. Our first stop was TQ Diamonds, the same place Mr. Aardvark purchased my engagement band. I went in knowing I wanted something with no bling that could be worn alone or with my engagement band. I didn't want anything too delicate, and if at all possible, I wanted to co-ordinate with Mr. Aardvark.
After a little poking around we found these:
I was totally smitten! They looked great together and met all of my pre-conceived notions. I even decided to take a cell phone picture. Of course, as I said, this was months and months ago and we were not yet ready to buy, so we filed them away and continued looking. We went to a handful of other stores, but I always found myself coming back to these. I didn't see anything that even came close, and thusly, I did not take any pictures.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. We are ready to pull the trigger. The first rings we by far the best and we both liked how they felt on. We got measured, and put in our order. A few weeks go by and we get the call. The rings are here. That brings us up to yesterday.
The day started out okay for a weekend, except that our furry friend had been particularly annoying during typical human sleep hours, and I don't think either of us slept too well. Mr. A started to griping at the cat, which I (in a totally logical and not at all crazy way) took very personally and got to griping at him. We both got pretty grouchy by breakfast, but we had a lot to get done that day! We had made plans to meet Bridesmaid OT in Madison and planned on picking up our rings in the morning beforehand. We grumpily made the hour or so drive into town and had kinda made up by the time we got to the store.
I was really excited to finally have the rings and jonesing to get them engraved and in our hot little hands. On top of that I did not really feel like dinking around all morning in a jewelry store with an already grumpy Mr. Aardvark. We took a look at the rings. They were just as I remembered! Or where they? Mine seemed to be more of a gloss finish than high polish. I mentioned it to Mr. A who asked if I wanted to tell the clerk. "No, it's fine. " I said and gave the guy our inscriptions that we wanted engraved inside.
We went about the rest of the day and had a jolly time with Bridesmaid OT. A few hours later Mr. Aardvark got a call that they were done so he ran to get them while OT and I shopped and had a girl time.
On our way home, having put our grouchiness on hold to be social all day, we griped a little bit more. Then really decided enough was enough and made up for real.
When we got home, we opened the ring boxes, I was crushed. Suddenly, I hated that mine was not shiny like Mr. Aardvark's. I had been so stubborn and in a rush at the jewelry store that I didn't really think about whether or not I was okay with the difference. Mr. Aardvark had asked (more than once) if I wanted to bring it up to the sales clerk but I had been so wound up that I didn't want to. Now, it was too late! The rings were engraved. (As a side note, I had hoped they would have beautiful script engravings but we were not offered a choice and ended up with regular type). I felt bad that I did not like the ring and I felt stupid that I had not said anything when I could have and I felt too proud to admit any of this to Mr. Aardvark. So I sucked it up.
As we were winding down for the night Mr. Aardvark caught me casually looking at rings on etsy. "You don't like your ring do you?" Again, I told him I did. I was just looking at right hand rings. That was actually true, none of the ones I was searching for were wedding bands. I was trying to convince myself that I have lots of other fingers for "girly-er" rings and that a simple, not-too-frilly wedding band was what I wanted. So in the nature of coming clean, I told him that. It kinda helped me believe it too. And then being the totally sane, rational person I am, I burst into tears. Ridiculous much? I think so. But it had been a long day.
Today I thought I had gotten over the whole thing and that it had mostly been due to the fact that we were so grouchy yesterday. But then I had an idea. At first I tried to squash the idea because it had the potential to create a lot of running around and hassle but then I remembered where that mind set left me yesterday so I shared my idea with Mr. A.
"TQ does all kinds of custom jewelry. In theory, they should be able to polish my band to a high gloss right? I mean if they can't it's totally fine, but maybe they could?"
And then something amazing happened. Mr. Aardvark said he could ask(and may or may not have chuckled a bit at me for being such a ding dong about all of this), and as soon as we got back to our place, I got out the rings.
It was like a weight had been lifted. I just had to be honest about how I felt and suddenly I was totally okay with my ring. Maybe it was just sharing my feelings, maybe it was the possibility that someday I could polish it. But whatever it was, I am now totally at peace with my ring. And to celebrate, and bond with it a little, I decided to have a photo shoot. And let's be honest, if you have read through all of my trials and tribulations, you deserve some pretty pictures!
The boxes are very cool, but I am not sure why Mr. Aardvark's is so much bigger than mine.
Mr. A has a 7mm band and I have a 5mm both have yellow gold mil-grain on the edges.
Here are the three amigos together.
This is what my two look like on-hand.
And here is the band all by herself. I am honestly, very happy. Maybe I will get it polished someday. But maybe not. For now she will sit in Mr. Aardvark's closet until April rolls around and she gets to make her big debut to the world!
Did you have any hardships with your rings? Did you have to work anything out? Or am I the lone ding-dong who got rattled by rings?
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