The ring

I was really looking forward to going to the Jeweler to pick out the setting, I enlisted my friend E. to help. E. has been friends with my FH long before I met him and she has become a good friend of mine. I thought she would be the perfect person to help me pick out a ring that he and I would both love. I had preconceived thoughts of what the setting would be. I really liked the three-stone setting and the channel cut setting. But when I tried these two settings on, they just didn't seem right. The three-stone setting seemed too bulky and the channel cut setting just didn't wow me. I also determined that I didn't really like a lot of band showing which both of these styles had. I really loved my temporary engagement setting because the stone was placed high on the band in a "trellis" setting. Knowing this, the jeweler's assistant handed me a ring with a split band and pave diamonds on the top of the band as well as the sides. This setting didn't really grab me at first so we put it aside and tried on a number of other rings. Eventually we got back to the pave setting and the uniqueness of it really started to wow me. And E. gave it the big thumbs up too. So, with that we had my finger sized and we called my FH to tell him the big news. He wasn't able to come that day but that was OK because I needed to come back the following week to pick up the ring after it had been resized.

Here's a picture from the designer:

 

The proposal

My future husband (FH) is building a new home. He had the plans approved long before we met but started construction in January of this year. On the fourth Saturday in March he told me he was planning on making me dinner and serving it on the 2nd story deck of the house. The house has only been framed but the stairs are in place and the deck leading out from the Master Bedroom is stable. Having an overly analytical mind, I thought this would be the perfect setting for a proposal but I didn't want to get my hopes up, so I showed up to the dinner with the mindset that it was going to be a romantic evening no matter what.

He had set up a small table on the deck with a white table cloth, candles, wine glasses, plates, utensils, etc. For dinner we had salmon, pasta, and salad. He had my favorite bottle of Chardonnay - Rombauer. I can't remember what we had for dessert. All along, I kept wondering "Is it going to happen now" "is the ring in the wine glass?" No. "Is the ring in the dessert?" No. Finally after a yummy dinner and dessert and a full bottle of wine, he said he wished we had more wine... And then we chatted some more. And he took my hand in his. And told me how happy he was. And he asked me to marry him. I knew it was coming but I think I was a little in disbelief. My FH is quite the funny guy and he has joked before about us getting married... Perhaps I was nervous but I said "are you serious?" Oh gee, not the answer he was looking for, I'm sure... But he said yes, of course I'm serious. And I said yes, I will marry you.....    

And then he gave me the most beautiful and thoughtful diamond ring. I love it so much. We had actually talked about the ring; the shape, the size, the setting. He had the ring set in a temporary setting so I could pick something out that I really liked.