THE WEDDING BANDS

shopping for wedding bands was one of the most fun afternoons for phillip and me.  we returned to the same shop where phillip found my engagement ring and spent a couple of hours browsing rings, putting on rings, taking off rings, the whole enchilada!  the jewelers were patient with us as they explained everything and helped us narrow down our “styles” among the seemingly endless sea of options.  did we want something traditional?  did we want to be trendy?  did we want our rings to “go together?”  did we want yellow gold or white gold or a more non-traditional material entirely?  you see how it can be easy to spend lots of time trying to decide, yes?

we started the day off by looking for a band for me first.  i felt like i was in a dream as i examined case upon case of beautiful diamonds and designs.  i was so lucky to just be there browsing and even more fortunate that one of these gorgeous creations would be mine!  the owner melanie pulled some styles that were good pairings with my engagement ring, ones that matched nicely and others that were a little different but still complementary.  melanie made a good observation, saying that nowadays it’s very common for the wedding band to not necessarily match the engagement ring at all.  sometimes a “set” can be very beautiful but there really are now no rules for what the wedding band must be.  i liked that very much!  there are some things in life about which i am very old school and traditional, but i found that my eye was being drawn to some of the more modern band designs.  how about that!  i could have searched for hours more, but at some point the process gets a little overwhelming honestly.  i found i was stuck between one traditional band and one modern band.  not wanting to rush me, melanie suggested i wear both of them with my engagement ring in between while phillip searched for his ring.  she said that after having them on for a little while i would likely be more drawn to one of them.  well, i cannot argue with an expert, so i kept them both on as we switched gears to look for phillip’s band.

of the probably two hours we spent at harlin’s, i’d guess that most of that time was committed to finding phillip’s ring, i kid you not!  it was so much fun to watch him analyze everything available, going back and forth among certain styles.  i honestly feel phillip did it right because he tried on dozens of rings, which i think is great because you might like the ring in the case but not feel the same way wearing it.  he tried on everything from classic to embellished to diamond-studded to carved, the whole spectrum of options nearly!  as phillip shopped and narrowed down his options, he ended up with three beautiful and very different bands as the finalists.  melanie suggested he put on each one and then stand in front of the mirror at the shop with his hand by his side to see how the ring looked on him.  i thought this was a great strategy because you might like a ring as you admire it over the jewelry case but then find you actually love it when you see it by your side in the mirror.  however, phillip was still very torn among the three!  i then asked him to take off the ring he was wearing and i “married” him with each option by placing the ring on his finger and prompting him to picture us in the church on our wedding day.  instantly he was able to eliminate one of the options, and after continuing this process a few more times he made his pick, saying “without a shadow of a doubt, that’s the one.”  i like that confidence!

with his ring picked, it was my turn to make a choice as well.  as i looked at the two bands that sat on either side of my engagement ring, my first thought was “all three of these look great together!”  easy there, kelsey.  we’re only shopping for one ring today, lol!  reminding myself of that i actually was pretty quickly able to choose which one i favored, but i’m not going to spill the details.  you’ll just have to wait until april 14th to gush over our beautiful bands!  🙂

now, my advice to other couples as you look for wedding bands would be to pick what makes you happiest.  your wedding band is something you will look at every day for the rest of your married life and you don’t want to look down thinking “i shouldn’t have gone with something so traditional” or “this design just isn’t me”.  be true to yourself, take your time, and choose a ring that, when you see it on your hand, reminds you of the promise it represents and makes you smile.  oh, and have fun!