The ring

I'm a big fan of colored stones. FI and I started casually thinking about rings early last year. Knowing how particular I am about my jewelry, he asked me to tell him what sort of stone and setting I wanted. Of course I was delighted with this freedom of choice, but subsequently burdened with picking the one most expensive and expressive piece of jewelry I'll ever own, even over the wedding band itself, since that will be much more of a symbolic and practical piece.

Anyway, first I fell in love with Alexandrites for their color changing properties, but then real Alexandrites seem almost impossible to find. Seriously, the color change is so cool!

Just as I let the Alexandrite idea pass, I saw these beautiful rose gold haloed champagne peach sapphire rings on Etsy. They were so beautiful I nearly fell out of my chair.

So I fixated on the idea of a champagne peach stone. I previously had no idea that these even existed... My eyes were opened, my mind completely blown. I used to think sapphires (birthstone for both of us) only came blue.

FI found this beautiful stone at The Natural Sapphire Company in New York, and had it set in a halo of tiny diamonds. I really love the halo, it visually contrasts the colored stone against my hand.

Since he discovered The Natural Sapphire Company, I've been online to browse their inventories for kicks. Everything looks so yummy; so much beauty, in all the colors of the rainbow!

We joke that I'm going to get hungry one day and eat my ring, and also that it was inspired by my many hours of playing Candy Crush. There may be some truth to that.

We're engaged!

FI proposed this past weekend, and it's been wedding planning at full speed since then. Part of the beauty of it all is that he understands my personality really well. He understands my neurosis in needing to have everything planned far in advance, and supports my crazy attempts at subpar craft projects.

But I've perhaps embarked on the most intimidating project in my life to date - I'm going to design and sew my own wedding dress. It's also going to be quite a challenge to keep under wraps because I'll be moving into his place next month, and they say it's unromantic (or even bad luck) for the groom to see the bride's dress beforehand. I'm not a big believer in such superstitions, but it will be good for life balance if I'm not constantly working on the dress.

I joke (or do I?) that by making my own dress, I can save loads of money and finally splurge on a specific pair of Christian Dior pumps. I never particularly thought of wedding dresses as works of art. But Christian Dior shoes? That is an entire other story.

They even look wedding appropriate. Somewhere just shy of $1,000. 

Maybe?