This simple knotted gold ring is reader Laura's engagement ring, since she didn't want a diamond. She says that everyone she shows it to seems to dislike it, but not me, I'm in love with it.
I also love tear shaped sapphire ring from Conroy + Wilcox which is also made with a diamond.
These rings by Sarah Perlis are lookers, but what I love the best about them is that they are made with rough cut diamonds, which is such a celebration of imperfection.
This ring is also by Sarah Perlis, and it has a classic look to it, while still being unique and simple.
And finally, my friend Lauren's engagement ring, made by conceptual artist Tobias Wong as part of his diamond project. The hidden diamond ring, because "who else should care."Exactly. The perfect solution to the diamond Olympics.
43 comments:
I love my engagement ring but it was a journey. When we first started talking about getting married, my fiance's mother told him he could give me a diamond ring from his deceased grandmother, but he knew nothing about it. He told me, I presumed it was round, and got to looking at ways to set it. A few months later he found out it was a marquise, and when he told me, I literally almost cried.
Which is so silly! I just had all these settings in my head that would work for a round, and not a marquise, which I thought of as so 80s and ugly. He promised me it was a good size and sparkly, and he adored the grandmother who wore it, so I decided to try to love it and see what I could find to do with it (it was in a huge yellow gold and turquoise setting, which was perfect for her, an artist who lived in New Mexico, but not really me, so there was no question that we would reset it).
Thank goodness I went to a few high end jewelry stores and told them my dilemma-- a salesperson at one of them, after scoffing that "we don't carry marquises, no one wears them these days" showed me a beautiful yellow diamond marquise set sideways, and I fell in love.
I did a lot of hunting but couldn't find anything premade that would work. I wanted something with an antique vibe, so we found an awesome local jeweler who helped us design a ring with milgrain and some tiny diamonds in the setting, and made it from scratch. My ring is totally unique and exactly my style, yet embodies the history of the family I'm about to marry into. It's precious to me and I love it!
Oh, yay for this post! My ring is a green stone (tsavarite? A green sapphire? I don't know for sure and don't really care) set in white gold that my fiance had custom made (with my sister's help) and I love it. Neither one of us felt totally cool with diamonds, my job involves working with people from the parts of the world that get exploited for them. My fiance said that green just makes him think of me, and I was really touched by his efforts to get something that felt like me, not just a giant piece of bling. I do get bling envy every once in a while, but then I think about how unique my ring is and how if really fits my style, and I am instantly over it. Plus - i am really glad we aren't starting our lives together in debt for a piece of jewelry.
Check out Dawes Design for some other awesome rings - she makes a ring with a square peridot stone that is really, really gorgeous.
Ah! My ring is from Conroy Wilcox, and they are making our wedding rings too. I have a very plain and flat setting of a rosecut stone. I love it! It feels special and meaningful, since we chose it together, but also not ostentatious or 'bling.'
Nothing wrong with bling, but I wanted something flat - I do a lot of cooking and I didn't want to be picking biscuit dough out of the ring prongs for the duration of my marriage!
It's totally simply and different from the norm, which I can't help but love, too.
my wedding band is extremely special to me. my great-grandma gave it to me when i was 17. i worked in the nursing home where she lived and i would often sit with her for hours while she told me wild tales of her life. she was a wonderful woman. she would sit and read to people that were dying and she always talked to EVERYONE and made them feel at home. i wore the ring all the time and eventually had it fitted to my ring finger because i knew it would be my wedding band. it was her 25th wedding anniversary ring from her 2nd husband.
soon after my now husband and i started dating, she broke her hip and her health started to go down hill. i often stayed late in the night with her and one night he came to play cards with me and keep me company. there is one time in the night that she woke up and smiled at him and nodded to me. she fell into a deep sleep and later passed early in the morning. i will never forget her and everytime i look at my beautiful ring i'm reminded of her.
*my husband did an excellent job of complimenting that ring with my engagement ring. don't want to leave him out. he picked it out by himself and i couldn't of been more surprised when he proposed with the big diamonds. i love my rings.
My engagement ring is pretty standard in that it is a simple tiffany setting to work with our wedding band but really different as it's a sapphire and not a diamond.
I really don't care for diamonds at all, and love blue (as most people can figure out pretty quickly). I've never had anyone accuse me of it not being an engagement ring but even if they do well poop on them.
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/blablover5/Wedding/DSCN0473.jpg
For a long time, I was unsure I even wanted an engagement ring - I was uncomfortable with the idea of diamonds, with the non-feminist social origins of womens' engagement rings (in Sweden, for example, the men and women both wear rings), the environmental and social implications of diamonds and with the notion of beginning a life together with a lot of $ invested in a ring and not each other. Add to that the fact that many standard engagement rings seem almost mass produced, apart from the stone size, and I found it hard to get excited about an engagement ring. I decided to focus on designing a wedding ring instead.
But the sparkle. I fully admit to sparkle envy. And he's of a much more traditional vein than I am - the ring was important to him, though he agreed to respect my decisions. So I found a very modern-set sapphire ring on etsy that I fell in love with. It fit my aesthetic, ethical and budgetary requirements. And regardless, I just fell in love with the design.
It's hard though - he'll buy it in the next few months for the actual proposal, but already his friends are bothering him. Because I couldn't possibly want a ring that only costs $750. Because women always want something more expensive and blingy than they say. No one believes him that this is what I really want and that I have no other blingy ring agenda.
Grr. The ring comparison games have begun already, even with my opt-out ring.
My fiance surprised me with a ring that he had chosen the stones for and had made especially for me. He knows that I love blue and the sea so he chose aquamarine for the centre and then smaller diamonds for the edging. He then was introduced to a jewellery maker in Hatton Gardens (area of London famous for it's jewellery especially diamonds) who made the ring for him.
It is beautiful and fits perfectly. So much so in fact that the guy he bought the stones from (an ethical diamond specialist) had it photographed for his website to advertise what he can do.
http://www.duttsonrocks.com/rock.php?here=0&a=53&d=2
i insanely love my ring, it was previously owned by my man's grandmother and before that was owned by the grandmother's great aunt. i love that it was handed down from not one but two happy and loving marriages, that it carries with it so much history and hope. and i love that while i will have it for the rest of my life, i am only a small part of its life, and my oldest grandchild will own it after me.
thank you for this post, i love your blog.
My engagement ring is very special to me. It consists of two small round diamonds-one was from my fiance's great grandmother's earring (his brother's wife to be has the diamond from the other earring) and the other diamond is from my father's family.
They happened to be the exact same size and shape, so we designed a setting that looked like it was looping the two together as a symbol of our joining families.
I, too, was anti-prong. Maine Jeweler Etienne Perret makes beautiful rings that are simple and psuedo-traditional, but unique. Mine is from him and I love it.
http://www.etienneperret.com/album/3
I actually am a woman who doesn't care about diamonds. Fiance knew that going into the engagement, thank God. Before he went ring shopping he talked to his parents, and without asking, they pulled out a ring that's been in their family for generations.
First, it was his grandfather's, who gave it to his wife. He died when fiance's dad was five, and once fiance's dad was old enough, he received his mother's engagement ring to propose to his girlfriend. And, so they passed it on, as per tradition.
So now I'm a third generation ring bearer. It's special, that way.
I happened to fall in love with a man who was divorced, which means that the beautiful ring that was his grandmother's ring was sort of out of the question for me, since it was worn by his previous wife. Darn!
But...he found me an antique ring that a jeweler friend had found at an estate sale. It's lovely. It's the original setting and original diamond from the early 1900's, art deco style, and couldn't be more beautiful. So, while I wish I could say that this ring has been passed down in his (or my) family, at least it's a ring that we both love, and will be passing on to our children.
lovely! my ring is a weird, super square white gold band with an emerald cut light blue sapphire that I got to pick out myself - it's my wedding ring, I had no engmt. ring though. anyway, I told the husband how much I wanted a forget-me-knot ring (like the one shown here, but with more ropy-ness) from http://www.curiosityshoppeonline.com/, but sadly I don't see them on their site now... maybe they just have them in the store? I still want one for some anniversary someday (it's just that usually we don't do presents). so cute!
Thank you for this post!
My ring is rather mainstream but it means the world to me. It is white gold with an ascher diamond and my fiance had it made based on elements we both liked from the many, many rings we had seen but never fallen in love with.
With so much hype that's anti-diamonds and pro-recycled, I sometimes feel guilty that my ring is new and has a diamond. But it was independently made. And it's just for me, there is not another one out there.
Even better, the first day I wore it to work a co-worker said "that ring is SO you!" It is undeniably the perfect ring for me.
ooh i love all of the rings you posted! i have more of a conventional ring that i love (small princess cut diamond on a simple, no frills band -- just the way i like it), but i kind of wish i would have considered a more indie route :)! are there indie wedding bands =P?
I read something in here about men wearing engagement rings and had to share.
After I got my ring, my fiance expressed that he felt left out. He wanted a ring too. One day, I was walking around the mall and spotted a black, anodized steel ring at a jewelery cart and knew he would love it so I bought it, brought it home, and gave it to him. Without a word, he put it on and hasn't taken it off since.
There was no particular reason for giving it to him other than he simply wanted a ring. I mean, why deny the man something he wants? I get a ring, why can't he have one too?
Did anyone else do this?
I have a traditional round shape diamond- but it's perfect for me because it looks larger than it is, but I know that it just looks larger because of the clarity of the cut and the height of the prong. It's also delicate without being too plain.
A friend of mine received a non-traditional ruby ring, and her fiance received a very simple band as his engagement ring. Now my fiance wants one, so we're going to start shopping for one! Why not? He wants something that says he's engaged, too!
I have to say all these stories about "indie" rings are wonderful!
And my ring isn't indie at all. That's right, it's from Tiffany. I originaly didn't care about the style of the ring, but I fell in love with the Tiffany Ribbon ring. My fiance and I are young and will be purchasing our first house soon and I really didn't think I would ever have my dream ring. But, he insisted because my favorite movie is "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and he knew how much I loved the ring.! It might be about the smallest ribbon ring Tiffany has ever made, but we didn't want to have to take out a loan for it. While it's not unique, it is different. And people always remark how it fits my personality (style and size wise). And, he's been wearing an "engagement" ring on his left hand for about a year now. We have yet to pick out his wedding band, but I'm so excited to pick out something with him that he will wear for the rest of his life!
I love these stories! For the record, my vintage ring is very traditional looking, and I love it. I decided I wanted a less indie looking ring for my engagement ring (though I love these....) and that I could get one like these later. Your engagement ring doesn't have to be your first and last lovely ring right? Hopefully you have a lot of happy years afterwards for various celebratory jewelry purchases... or so say I!
I have a traditional engagement ring, art deco style, cushion cut.
super thin pave band with matching thin thin pave band.
But I'm going to the court house months before the "wedding"
I'm thinking of using this ring
http://style-for-style.blogspot.com/2008/07/no-price-but-priceless.html
one more thing....
I see some comments citing ethical reasons for not wanting a diamond.
But there are blood rubies, and saphires too.
no matter what you choose, make sure it has a kimberely certificate.
there is also the question of "dirty gold"
a term that is totally new to me, I never knew that mining for gold had a huge negative effect on the environment.
now there is more to be conscious ofthan just picking a pretty ring.
p.s. I have that same knot ring, I love it.
Love this post! Especially the hidden diamond and three stone above it, but I have to say I love the idea of a simple gold knot engagement ring. It's so beautifully simple and appropriate!
I love the rough cut ones. Very nice.
Oh I just love that imperfect diamond! And the hidden diamond is so cool... very anti-Olympic (in a good way)
we bought mine together in Thailand at a little jewelry store called Nova. It is simply silver and gold with a small, beautiful opal. It's simple, practical and best off all sturdy, I'm not very graceful so wanted something that could keep up with me.
YAY! Thank you for posting this follow up and for mentioning my engagement ring! Want to know the coolest thing - not that it matters in the long run - but suddenly people are loving my ring! To me it's a perfect symbol of what we have - simple and easy love. Awwwwww. = )
It is so rare to see other girls with non-traditional engagement rings. This post is so full of awesome!!!! I had wanted the ring I have on my finger for a long time. I was 17 (I'm 26 now) when I first saw it. I was passing time in my Grandpa's house, looking at pictures in architectural magazines. There was an ad for a company called Teno, and I looked it up as soon as I got home. I saw this ring and I knew I had to have it one day.
Fast forward to a year ago... my (then) boyfriend and I were wandering around in Soho while on vacation. Lo and behold we glance down a side street and there was the Teno store. I got to show him my ring in person, and try it on. Well in may he surprised me with it, and we're getting married in September!
It's 4.5m wide, steel band, with a round sapphire in the middle and two small diamonds on each side. I love it so so much. I get mixed reactions, but most of them are positive (not that it matters). :)
http://teno.com/yuriwanddi.html
It's much bluer than that in person.
I'm so glad to read of other women with non-traditional rings :) Mine is actually a product of the "right hand ring" phenomenon. It's a pretty swirly intricate design. I love it so much, but I am sick of the comment "How are you going to put a wedding band with that?" It annoys me so much. The worst part is, however, that my fiancee's mom and sister don't believe we are actually engaged because I don't have a solitaire rock. Stupid traditions.
I just started reading your blog tonight, and I love it! I am getting married in 2010 and my fiance is from England (I'm from Missouri), so we are trying to have a budget wedding with the hope that we can spend money helping his friends/family fly over here.
I love the engagement ring with the hidden diamond, I've been trying to figure out what I would like as a wedding band and I love that...do you know where that was purchased??
OH!
so funny... i am so excited about this but i read this post when it came out and was thinking of all kinds of joyful rings...
and a month later, i got engaged. to the most beautiful man. and he gave me a ring that is so perfectly mermaid-ish me :)
it's a large blue opal set with two blue topaz stones - one baby blue, one ocean blue (both opal and topaz are stones for our birthmonth). it is set in sweeping waves of silver, and was created by the most gorgeous ring designer who lives here on the coast in australia. i'd give you her website, but she doesn't have one - she only sells through markets. her rings are scrumptious and organic, with the silver swirling and twisting like the ocean to hold in the precious jewels. she also works a lot with freshwater pearls (which aren't perfect circles - they are more like a river).
Oh! i can show you a picture of my ring though..
www.goddessleonie.com/6/post/2008/10/where-love-meets-the-sea.html
wishing you all gorgeously-yourself-ring-and-everything-else journeys :)
big love!
Leonie
I have a traditional wedding ring because my fiance is a traditional sort of person. I had wanted a moissanite, three stone oval white gold ring because I wanted him to save money and they're more sparkly than diamonds and they're lab grown.
When it actually came to buying it, he WANTED to buy me a diamond, so I gave him my top two criteria: oval and white gold. It's an oval solitaire on a plain band because he doesn't like ornate rings (I do.). But I love it because it represents us. The more traditional solitaire with a very rare oval diamond.
When he went to buy it, the guy looked at him like he was nuts.
"NO ONE wears oval shaped diamonds anymore. It's not fashionable!" "Well, my fiance isn't a normal girl and this is what she wants."
I have grown to like simple, and I plan to buy a simple band with a bit of etching and miligrain to match his. :) To me, my ring reminds me of the main thing to remember in marriage: compromise is key and a marriage is a partnership.
My "traditional" engagement ring is from my grandma, and the diamond was her mother's. When my grandma first suggested that I have it as an engagement ring, I was blown away by the sentiment, but very unenthusiastic about the ring itself. I've never been much of a jewelry person, and certainly not an expensive jewelry person, and this diamond was over a carat and set in this giant thumb ring that stuck out an inch. Very not me.
But my grandma and fiance and I went to a jeweler and my fiance found this perfect simple setting where the stone doesn't stick out and catch on anything. So now I have that, but I really only wear it on special occasions.
My everyday ring is a $1 hematite ring. My fiance has a matching one. I like how light it is, and how easy it is to replace if I lose or break it. I also like the color and style enough that now I'm looking at titanium and palladium wedding rings, which are similar but much less breakable. ;)
The wedding rings are still in question, though. My fiance really really doesn't like wearing rings, and as a nurse he feels like he'd have to take it off frequently to keep his hands sanitized. But other nurses keep their wedding rings on, and it's super important to me that he have some visible symbol of being married, so... yeah. It's still up in the air what we'll actually do.
I've got a lab-created saphire ring (designed by the fiance)in white gold and I love it! I'm an environmental engineer (he loves blue) and it just fit us perfectly. I'm also a Target girl (designer looking clothes at a fraction of the price), so the white gold is COMPLETELY me!
My fiance and I spent ages looking at rings - the only conclusion we came to was that we didn't like traditional rings. We went to a local designer who created my champagne diamond and silver ring. We were on a strict budget because we are emigrating to the UK early next year. I adore my ring and we are now looking at options for his engagement ring.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/36362500@N00/2998902026/
Upon our engagement, my fiance's mom (who lives far away) scanned some pictures of his great-grandmother's ring, which she'd been keeping, and emailed them to us. I wasn't in love with it from the images, so we looked in the local mall and jewelers. But I also didn't like the style, prices or dubious ethics of the big showy diamonds.
So I decided to give the fiance's great-grandma's ring another chance. His mom sent it through the mail (unaware of the contents, our landlady threw the package down our stairs upon delivery! Luckily the ring was unharmed).
I tried it on and the ring fit just right. It's a slim yellow gold band with a white gold setting for the small diamond. According to the fiance's mom, the diamond is cut in an "old mine" style, which just isn't used anymore.
The ring is small and sparkly and not too showy, which fits my style just right. Plus it has so much history and is a part of his, and now our, family. I also like how, just as in a good relationship, patience was required to recognize its true value.
Rebecca, I understand what you mean about the price being so important. We found sapphire estate ring that I completely fell in love with. And? 60% off! I always had a much smaller budget in mind than he did, and when two friends reported that their rings clocked in at five figures, I was shocked! I couldn't imagine wearing that much on my hand every day when there's just a huge list of things we could do with that money. So while I'm glad they love their rings, I'm much happier with my three figure dream ring. But he's caught some flack from people because it isn't a platinum diamond ring. And when he tells people I offered to pay for half (which he won't let me do), they have insisted that he did the right thing. Sigh.
I love this post. Wish I would have found it sooner! I have a non-traditional engagement ring that my fiance and I picked out together. It was important to me that it was hand made in the city that we live in and got engaged in, San Francisco. Sarah Graham, http://www.sarahgraham.com/ I ended up with two of the Pebbles rings, with three different sized diamonds.
I love my rings and think they are so much more "me" than a big diamond sitting on my finger. But I would be lying if I wasn't a little bit self-conscious about how others react to me when they see it. Most people don't comment at all or say something awkward like "neat" or "interesting." Really??? When I've seen a friends engagement ring, no matter what it looks like, I view it as a symbol of their love and commitment to one another. And THAT is beautiful... so I say so. I'm trying to remain true to myself and conscious of my beliefs but it can be damn hard when I've got a bunch of big diamonds staring back at me. I'm guilty of feeling the pull. I'm so grateful for the comments here and hearing other peoples' stories. Yay unique rings!
My engagement ring is not indie, antique, passed down, or anything like that. It is brand new and purchased from a regular jewelry store in the mall. It wasn't custom made, and it fact, I can go in the store at any time and see the exact same ring that I wear in their glass case. It's not particularly big or small. But, I LOVE it. I love it because it's beautiful to me and because my fiance picked it out for me. He looked at all the rings and picked one out that he thought would fit me best and he did a great job. Every time I look at my ring I think of how much he loves me and our love for each other. I love wearing my ring because for me it says, my fiance and I love each other and this is our physical symbol of that love. I agree that the symbol of two people's love doesn't have to be a diamond and it doesn't have to be anything at all; but it is in fact extremely personal.
I loved reading all these stories about everyone's rings and how special they are. I can understand the hesitation some women have about diamonds and what they can often stand for. I just wanted to share my story because I have a super-regular-traditional ring and couldn't be happier. I think that a woman's ring choice is personal and I wish it didn't have to be about who has more carats or what kind of stone, but more about appreciating what lead two people to have a ring in the first place: LOVE!
I'm so thankful for this blog!
After reading through it, I began my search with my boyfriend for the right ring for us. We went to Twist, an incredible jewelry store in Portland, Oregon, where we live, and found some awesome artists like Pippa Small, L. Frank and Me&Ro. I shared my search with one close friend who understood my personality and aesthetic, and, without ever seeing this blog, she recommended some rings from Conroy & Wilcox to me, too. My fiance ended up going with this version of the sapphire ring pictured on this blog, and I am so absolutely thrilled with it. It is so clear, so lovely, so simple, so refined.
We got engaged just a couple of weeks ago, and upon going home to South Georgia for Christmas, I was reminded that folks down there aren't quite used to non-conventional rings. While most women simply called the ring sweet or dainty, a few were blown away by it and thought it was perfect for me. I now understand the slight strangeness women encounter when people respond hesitatingly to their ring choice, but when they see how much I love it, they warm up to it and are encouraged by my enthusiasm. It's a great symbol of our engagement, and I want nothing else!
Thanks again for posting!
I love these stories.
My ring belonged to my fiance's french grandmother's cousin. I just had it appraised for insurance, and the jeweller said the diamonds are about 120 years old! It sounds like it is Victorian era, with a crescent moon of rose cut diamonds and a little star with an old European cut diamond.
It's amazing to think that something this tiny has not gotten lost the last hundred years!
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