I posted about our engagement when it happened, but I never posted anything about the ring we picked out. I would like to write this out, just so I can remember it and also because today marks 6 months that we’ve been engaged and two days ago was our anniversary of 6 years together. So, here goes..

I’ve known for almost as long as I’ve known Dallas that he is morally opposed to the way that diamonds are acquired and marketed. Luckily I was never one of those little girls who sat and dreamed one day of the big shiny diamond that she would someday wear, so it wasn’t really an issue with me. But then… what do you get? I just didn’t know. I don’t wear much fancy jewelry, especially not rings, and I had no idea what I’d want. And Dallas had no idea. Honestly, this is probably part of the reason it took us 5 1/2 years to get engaged!

When we finally decided to get engaged, we decided to pick out a ring together. Like I said, I wasn’t sure what I wanted, and Dallas didn’t want to make that decision for me, especially since it’s something I’d be wearing every day for the rest of my life. We researched jewelers online and decided right away not to go to “Jewelers Row” down on Wabash. A lot of what we were reading said that they’re kind of like used car salesmen down there and that definitely was not the experience we wanted. We read up some more on local jewelers and decided to visit Stanley Brown in Lincoln Square. We read their Yelp review and it had 12 reviews and every one of them was a 5-star review. I was suspicious, but then I noticed that one of the reviewers was a coworker of mine, so no way they were made up reviews. More research showed that Stanley brown is old-school and have been in business for almost 100 years. They have a charity drive for dogs. They got great reviews everywhere we looked. All signs pointed to them knowing their shit, not pressuring you, and being trustworthy.

So, we picked a day and went in for a visit at Stanley Brown. We told them right off that we didn’t want to look at diamonds and that my birthstone, sapphire, was probably what we’d want. They did not blink an eye. Their philosophy is that there’s no right and no wrong. It’s just whatever suits your style and your budget. I found this refreshing, especially at an older, traditional jeweler.

Honestly, we don’t know much about jewelry so our first visit was just learning. Cuts, settings, etc. I didn’t have any idea of a gem shape or setting that I wanted, so they had me just keep trying different things on. After a while I started to get a sense of what I liked and what I didn’t like and what was in our price range. We worked mostly with Debbie the co-owner of Stanley Brown and she was totally knowledgeable and helpful. In our first visit we picked out a setting we liked and the shape of the stone we liked in that setting. From there Bruce, Debbie’s husband and co-owner of Stanley Brown, went and tried to find stones that would look good in the setting and are comparble to what you like but that are in your budget.

On our second visit to Stanley Brown we looked at the stones that Bruce selected for us. It was Halloween, I remember, and Dallas was super annoyed with the trick-or-treating kids all over the place in the Lincoln Square business district. On the contrary, the jewelers were handing out candy to the kids and really enjoying their company. At one point the cutest kid came in dressed as a lion. Debbie and I totally commented on his costume as someone else at the store gave him candy. I turned back to the ring and next thing I knew Mike and Theresa and their baby, Nicholas, were right in front of me. Totally busted!! For some reason we’d looked right at Nicholas, dressed as a lion, commented on his cuteness, and never even noticed our friends! My head was totally in a different place, that’s all I can say about that. So, Mike and Theresa were the first to know about our engagement! Back to the stone. We picked one out that we liked and that was at the high end of our price range, but still in the budget.

I also brought in a string of black pearls that Dallas had gotten me that are too long. I asked about them and Debbie said they could adjust the strand to make them however long I wanted. We also talked about possibilities for things to do with the extra pearls, but I decided to just hold onto them until I figured out what I wanted to do with them.

The following week was our final visit to Stanley Brown. All we had to do was pick up the stone in the setting. And get my necklace. And pay. Actually, we may have paid on the second trip, I can’t remember now. We went out to the garage and got into the car and it won’t start. So we had to take the Western bus up to Lincoln Square to pick up the ring. Fun!

We walked into the store and the clerk was so excited. She went back and got the ring and brought it out and put it on my finger saying “I assume you want to wear the ring out of the store!” Well, we never really thought about or planned what to do with the ring once we got it, so wear it out of the store, I did. I guess we were then officially engaged. Hah. We went across the street to a new market that had opened and who did we run into? Mike & Theresa again! They were the first to officially congratulate us on our engagement.

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