A Valentine’s Day Tale
I’m still not sure if it’s normal for a woman to pick out her own wedding ring, but Chrissy did. Like almost everything we do, wedding ring shopping was a joint effort. Chrissy and I had looked for rings at some stores down Jeweler’s Row on Wabash Street in Chicago, but we couldn’t find the exact ring that she wanted. She had her heart set on a platinum three-stone ring with diamond baguettes on the sides. To complicate matters, she also wanted rubies on either side of the main diamond, since rubies are her favorite gemstone (nothing to do with birth stones, she just likes red).
A few weeks later, we were checking out the new Albert’s Jewelers during a bridal event. Albert’s had just moved to Schererville from East Chicago, so the staff was eager to make new sales contacts. Chrissy was looking at engagement rings, but they didn’t have exactly the one that she wanted. It turned out that they did have a three-stone ring with side baguettes, but it was a three-prong setting in white gold. The salesperson actually took a red marker and colored in the two side stones; the ring looked exactly like what Chrissy wanted.
Albert’s has jewelery craftsmen on-site, so they offered to get us an estimate of how much a custom ring would cost. We haggled over what type of diamonds would be used and agreed upon a near-perfect stone (D in color, VS1 in clarity and ideal cut). The engagement ring came in a set along with the wedding band, so the salesperson wrote it all up and then went to Josh, the general manager, for a price. It was too high, and I told Josh that I had seen a very similar set in Chicago on Wabash Street for less. He countered with a better offer, but I relented, so he finally gave me his best-possible-price-ever.
It was a really good price for a platinum ring, a few thousand less than what was originally quoted, and at least a thousand less than any of the options that Chrissy and I had found in Chicago. I looked at Chrissy and asked her if she wanted this one, that I would be prepared to buy it right now if she wanted it. This would effectively kill the surprise during the proposal, but she already knew the proposal was coming too. She was practically jumping up and down by this point, so I took Josh’s offer. We were all pretty happy.
There was problem when it came time to pick up the custom ring, however. You could tell with one look at it that the diamond was not the same stone that we had agreed upon. It was clearly yellow and had inclusions that were visible to the naked eye. They tried to tell me that this was the best diamond that they could put in there for the price that I paid, but a quick check of the paperwork showed that we had specified the exact diamond characteristics in writing at the time of purchase. They had no choice but to give me the near-perfect diamond instead. I also got a laser-inscribed serial number for my trouble.
Two lessons learned here: “Get it in writing” and “Get a lifetime warranty”. About two years after we were married, one of the diamonds in Chrissy’s wedding band fell out. Televisions are supposed to die after five years, wedding rings are not. So skip the extended warranty on the Sony, but definitely get one for your wedding ring. And buy a cleaning kit. Every once in a while, Chrissy’s ring will start looking a little dull, but it’s bright and shiny as new after a quick cleaning. I’m still proud of all the effort that went into that ring, a physical representation of our love.
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