Ring of Fire, the trilogy

Remember when I told you that Mr. S. sent me a gcal invitation with the title “Ring of Fire” to “schedule” our ring ordering appointment for, oh, last saturday? Right. We were WAAYYY too lazy to leave the house. All day. So we procrastinated again. Then, we made “ring of fire II” attempt, on wednesday, but then a friend of Mr. S’s called and asked if I would accompany her to Ikea. To IKEA?! WHAT?! Um, yes please. So we had to postpone that one too.

That brings us to Ring of Fire III. Ok well this is the deal about the rings. I ordered a beautiful ring from SingleBbeautiful on Etsy. It came and I loved it – but it was too big. Oops. Said ring sat around for quite a while, and I kept showing Mr. S various rings and he would say “I like that” and then we would forget about it. But, it being a month till the wedding and all, we thought we should probably get on it.

Anyways, we swore we would go on Friday, at lunch. There is a jeweller that I had visited in my more ambitious early days of wedding planning, and I liked him a lot. He is an actual artist and not some stuffy jewler that tries to convince you to buy all kinds of white gold and diamonds and schtuff. Not that there is anything wrong with those things, but it’s just not us.

We we walked in (finally!) and handed him my ring. Can you resize it? – we asked. Sure, no problem. Phew – see, my ring is hammered recycled argentium silver with inlayed white sapphires. He actually asked if they were diamonds, which I thought was pretty impressive because after all, he is a professional. This is my ring:

Anyways, he seemed really impressed that they were white sapphires and told us how much he likes to work with them, etc etc. At any rate, I was worried about resizing the ring cause I had read online that silver, especially with inlays, is hard to resize. But he seemed undaunted. So Mr. S. starts to explain that he wants something similar, only without the stones and a bit thicker and as he is speaking the shop owner pulls out a ring and says “like this”? We stare. Um, yes, actually, exactly like that. That is right, folks, the jeweller actually read his mind. We liked this guy. We arranged for engraving in his – the same engraving that is in my engagement ring (I will not be having my wedding ring engraved, since it is so thin) and he said he would text us when the rings are done. In about 8 days.

WOOOOOOOOOO

This is finally done. We have been procrastinating this task for so long and it feels sooooooo good to finally check it off our list. We are meeting with the honey man and the florist tomorrow and the venue coordinator on sunday and then, my friends, we are almost all set! (except for 100000 details but that’s another story..).

We made all kinds of giddy jokes in the U-bahn about how thank goodness we didn’t need a Ring of Fire IV and that the fourth sequel to a movie is always really bad and that the third one is usually the best! haha! (we’re so funny..)

So… we’re so happy to have found a non-stuffy jeweller who was nice to us and didn’t lecture us that we need white gold or platinum or diamonds instead of silver and sapphires. Oh, and in case you are ever in Munich, you should visit him cause he has some wonderful other jewellery pieces that I oogled today.

Here is his website – it plays new agey music which is hilarious. http://www.artweger-design.de/

In terms of planning…

There have been a few "advances" this week, most notably finding a photographer who I am interested in (still waiting for a price quote) and finding an officiant (aka free marrier) to do our non civil ceremony. They are tentative steps, but concrete ones, nonetheless. The next "big" planning step will be to meet with our venue next weekend to discuss big details, like potential meal plans, the possibility of doing the ceremony outside etc etc. I have to say, I am having a lot of fun.

Also, I toured a bunch of jewelers on my lunch break last week to scope out rings. I am not particularly enthused with the style of ring that is so popular at the moment in Germany, a sort of palladium grey plain thing with sharp edges… it's a bit too modern for me… and I am looking for something with a bit of embellishment to go with my beautiful sleek engagement ring . I found this pair that I like a lot:

I did find our great place with a guy who took the time to show me rings in all different metals in different cuts and weights. We decided that I will bring the boy back for a meeting together because, as the salesman claims "he can only make ring recommendations when he sees the couple in person". Just my brand of kooky :)

Another thing I would like to get done this week is to go to the Standesamt (civil marriage office) and find out what crazy forms and documents I will need to marry in Germany! I have heard rumors about a six month old-at-the-latest birth certificate (what's that about? I thought birth certificates were supposed to be…uh…from your birth!) so I am anxious to get started on that one.

Other "thoughts" that I have been letting float around are 1) décor/flowers (I have been saving an awful lots of photos, like this one ) 2) favor ideas and 3) possible ceremony configurations. All in all it's still "fuzzy" but that's the fun part.. scouting out all the ideas!!!

The Ring

No, not the horror movie! As I've been flitting around happily announcing my engagement to everyone who will listen, I have, of course, been showing off my ring! Several times, people have asked me: do they not do diamonds in Germany? Hm… yes, my engagement ring is a plain silver band (with amazing romantic engraving inside). But to tell you the truth, I didn't know that it was such a "must" for an engagement ring to have a diamond on it? What I do know is that engagement rings are not all that popular in Germany. In fact, the Wikipedia article in the German Wiki links back up to the American article about engagement rings.

Talking to many people, I found that engagement rings aren't as wide spread as I am lead to believe. My mother, for example, got an engagement couch. All of the German couples I know have no engagement ring.

The boy has watched enough American movies to know what a good old fashion proposal looks like, so I think he wanted to fit that scenario, but with his own twist. I really like the engraving on my ring – it's the expression of love is on the inside, private, for us, instead of being on the outside in the form of a diamond. The engraving is, by the way, the password for my new engagement laptop – my boy sure loves electronics. And another big plus to marrying a web programmer – free awesome wedding website! Coming soon…

The other big question we have is: which hand?! In Germany, the rule seems to be engagement ring on the left, switch it over to the right for the wedding. What is the US "rule"? I haven't decided where I'll wear my wedding ring – any help out there?

What do the readers out there think about engagement rings? A necessity? Diamonds necessary?