People say they want to be surprised by their engagement ring, and while this is romantic I love that I was able to be involved in the process of mine. Before I got engaged, I really had no idea what type of ring I wanted. Everything was pretty to me--sometimes I wanted a marquise diamond, other times I wanted the princess cut. Then, in my senior year of college, there was this girl who always sat in the row next time mine and a few seats up, and she had a round diamond. Every class I watched it sparkle as she raised her hand; it was dazzling. I finally decided I wanted a brilliant round. As it grew closer to when I knew Nathan would buy a ring, I began looking for pictures of what I wanted. I had a picture in my head of my ring, but the design was surprisingly hard to come across. I began searching magazines and online, and finally found my ring on a website (right: picture from website), but we were on a budget. We went to the Jewelry District in L.A. looking for deals, we found exactly what I wanted, but the price was still a little steep. After L.A., I waited to hear what Nathan thought was best. Eventually, Nathan came across a resource. One of his friends mom's ex-boyfriend was a jewelry designer and was willing to work with Nathan. Nathan met with the guy, showed him pictures of what I wanted, and told him what his budget was.

Nathan was there through the whole creation of my ring--from the time is was just scattered diamonds, to a mold, to metal, to gold, to white gold, to my engagement ring and wedding band. As the process progressed I received emails of simulated pictures of the ring which was so exciting for me to see how it was all coming together(see pictures above and right).

I love that I got exactly what I dreamed of. I love to think of all the effort Nathan put into this ring to get me just what I wanted. And I love that my ring is truly MY ring in that it was created and designed just for me. I still look down with admiration and love of my ring to this day.