15 Nov
Ring, Ring
It’s a well known fact that I’m not particularly sentimental. Sure I got teary eyed at the thought of getting rid of the Orange Hat (which I kept, by the way) but generally, I’m not sentimental. I didn’t keep any of my high school yearbooks, prom dresses etc. Heck, I didn’t even have my wedding dress until last year (It was at my mom’s house).
I also didn’t keep really any mementos or keepsakes from the time my husband and I were dating/engaged. Of course the one (ok, technically two) thing I’ve always had is my engagement/wedding ring. My husband completely surprised me with my ring. We never once went shopping. I never once told him what I liked and yet he managed to have the perfect ring made for me. When the time came, we had a custom wedding band made to match the engagement ring After our wedding, I had the two rings soldered together on the advice of our jeweler. I adore my rings. They are perfect in every way.
Well, they were perfect. Perfect until one day last week when the inside of my ring kept scratching my finger. I finally grew irritated and took the ring off and took a look. It wasn’t pretty. The setting of the engagement ring broke away from the band. I’m pretty sure I gasped out loud. I reported the damage to my husband who dutifully took the ring to the jeweler. The report was not good. The rings are not fixable. New rings need to be made. The jeweler doesn’t want to make the same rings again, basically because if it broke once, it’ll break again.
You guys, I am devastated. These are MY rings. The rings that my husband had made for me. The rings that I was supposed to wear the rest of my life. Of course new rings will be made and it really is just a ring and the important thing is our love and relationship, but I can’t help but be upset. I had no idea that I would be so sentimental about rings, but I am.
And of course moments after leaving the jeweler and designing new rings, I had the brilliant idea that my husband should have been the one to do it, just like when we got engaged. Crap! I should have thought about it 30 minutes sooner.
So for the next five(!!) weeks while my rings are being made, I’m going to fret about whether I’ll love them like my old rings. In the meantime I’m wearing my grandma’s rings. I rarely wear them because they are so old, but they have great meaning to me.
So tell me, if you had the chance to re-design your wedding/engagement rings would you do it? What would you change?
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When I was pregnant with Alexis and couldn’t wear my rings anymore, I stuck them in husband’s medicine cabinet where I knew he would see them and managed to mention that I sure would love to replace the center stone and get a better wedding band while I wasn’t able to wear my rings anyway. Despite the not even slightly subtle hints, he didn’t figure out he was supposed to DO SOMETHING. Thus, it is doubly his fault that my wedding band has been lost for a year. Ahem.
I wonder if it will ever occur to him to replace said wedding ring?
Total bummer.:( I think it’s appropriate that you helped design the second time around though. You’re a family now. There’s no surprise in popping the question this time around. Plus, it’s a Jim + Amy (+awesome babies) unit, why shouldn’t you be there? I understand the sentiment of leaving it up to him, but it’s almost like, regardless of whether or not you were actually present, I feel like you would end up with the same ring — a ring you love — because you are such a big part of Jim, and vice versa.
Wow, I hope that makes half as much sense as it did in my head.
That makes complete sense. Thanks!
you’ll love the new rings because they are a symbol of the marriage and the love. sure it is normal to mourn the loss of the old ones, but please know that it is ok to let yourself adore the new as well.
I know that you are right. At least I have a few weeks to get used to the idea of new rings. Thanks!
I’m quite attached to my rings. Silas bought my engagement ring without any help and yet it’s so perfect for me! Simple and down to earth. Thinking about it now, though, I wouldn’t mind having something a little more sophisticated. The plan was always to replace them when we had more money later. But I just really love them. They remind me of how much love went into our newlywed days even though we were broke for most of our first year.