April in Paris!

[phoenixgirl]

He proposed after a lovely day at the Musee d''Orsay and the gardens of the Royal Palace. It''s a Vatche x prong in yellow gold. The diamond was my grandmother''s . . . I got it appraised (without being removed from a different setting) several years ago; the appraisal says 1.10 carats, J/K SI1. My boyfriend said that the jeweler and his assistant both said that they thought it was 1.25, but who knows. I''ll see what the appraiser says this time when I get it reappraised.

Well, I am jet-lagged and on cloud nine at the same time. I can''t believe I have both a fiancee and a wonderful ring to wear! Just one would be excitement enough!

Sorry about the crappy picture . . . I don''t have a macro zoom, but you all know what an x-prong looks like, right? The lines are just so beautiful . . . my boyfriend said that the woman at the store where he had it set told him he had paid too much for the "Vatche" name because it was just a "simple trellis setting," but he said that he could totally tell that the trellis settings she showed him were nowhere near the same.

 

[innerkitten]

Phoenixgirl congratulations on your engagement! What a romantic city to get engaged in...sigh.... I love Paris. And your ring is lovely. From what I can see the stone looks really nice.

 

[innerkitten]

Oh I forgot to ask, did you have any idea he was going to propose?

 

[winyan]

Best wishes for a long and happy future PhoenixGirl! Congrats to your fiancee as well! He is a wise man!

win

PS How romantic, I just love Paris in April!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Yes, I was pretty sure he was going to propose. We weren't outright talking about it, but he had dropped enough hints that I was about 99% sure he was going to propose on this trip. He asked me about a month ago for my grandmother's ring, so that was a pretty strong clue!

We've been dating for five and a half years (since college). I'm excited to be taking the next step.

As for the proposal, it was really sweet, but also sort of a blur. First of all, it was drizzling, but that was a plus in the sense that the garden wasn't swamped with other people. From what I can remember, we got engaged in about three seconds . . . he asked if I wanted my birthday present, said he wanted me to marry him, and all of a sudden there was a ring on my finger! (I think stress and nerves made him forget what he was going to say). But then we backtracked and sat talking, and he pulled out a note that he had written five and a half years ago, when we had been dating for less than two weeks. We were wrapping Christmas presents, and he wrote something mysterious on a scrap of paper and sealed it in an envelope. Then we both signed our names, and he said that someday I would get to open it. It declared his love for me and that someday he would marry me. Of course, I figured it was something to that effect when he wrote it, but it was really wonderful to think that even though we weren't ready to get married back then, we both knew when we found each other. And we both cried a little. So even though I was a little confused at first (what? was that a question?), it was a perfect moment by the end. And since he sort of forgot to ask me the first time (kind of like Ian on the Bachelorette), he has been asking me left and right since then in cute ways. Oh yeah, I also think that it's cute that since he didn't want a clunky ring box in his pocket all day, he safety-pinned the ring inside of his pocket. Pretty clever!

 

[Patty]

phoenixgirl, I love the story of the note that he saved for all these years...and pinning the ring to the inside of his pocket...how sweet!

The ring is beautiful!

 

[Shay37]

Hard to type through the tears. What a lovely story. I am a sucker for a romantic story. The ring is so lovely and I hope you always get to wear it in health and happy times. Congrats and best wishes.

Shay

 

[sumi]

*sigh* how romantic. lovely ring!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Thank you for the congratulations everyone!

One happy serendipity was that, despite the fact that I stupidly booked us on a flight from Paris to JFK with a continuation from LaGuardia to Richmond (it never occurred to me that the flight would not be leaving from the same airport at which we had arrived!), we got to see my sister and brother-in-law. They live in Greenwich, so they came and picked us up at JFK and drove us to LaGuardia. They had signs and balloons and champagne and presents for us. It was so nice to have our engagement celebrated that way! I was just expecting my sister to ooh and aah over the ring -- I thought that going out of her way to transport us was nice enough, so I was definitely surprised by the fanfare.

I also wanted to share what I know of my boyfriend's odyssey in tracking down the ring. He apparently called all the PS vendors I had directed him to, and then began calling jewelers linked to the Vatche site. He said that every place he called had to special order it from Vatche, and since he only had a few weeks, that was cutting it too close. Finally Nelson Coleman jewelers in Maryland had the setting in size 7 (I'm a 6), so he ordered that one. He then took it to Stevens Jewelers in Richmond.

I met Mr. Stevens on the train the day before Thanksgiving. We talked for about two hours -- about politics, family, good business practices, me being a teacher -- before he told me that he was a jeweler. At that point I already liked and trusted him as a good person, so I was so excited to meet a local jeweler. It sounds like he was very kind to my boyfriend (er, fiance), but a woman who works with him (maybe his wife?) was kind of snotty like all those B&M stories that are so common here. When my fiance called to ask if he would mind setting a stone and resizing a ring, Mr. Stevens said, "Why would I mind?" which my fiance thought was weird, but I think he was actually trying to be nice and reassuring, since not everyone wants to do that kind of work when nothing has been purchased from them.

Like I said above, when my boyfriend told them to be careful because it was expensive and the warranty didn't cover damage if it wasn't set by Vatche, the woman berated him for paying too much for a "simple trellis" setting. Then she said that she didn't think that the diamond would fit in the one carat setting (it's 6.71mm across). But then she showed it to Mr. Stevens, who spent a long time looking at it, and never said that it wouldn't work. He just said that they could do it, but worst case scenario they would have to modify the head, which they must not have done since they told my fiance they'd call in that case.

They also did their best not to get rid of the engraving in resizing it, but they did chop the "e" off, so now it says "D. Vatch." My fiance joked that that's just because it's a designer knock-off, like "Prado" instead of "Prada." That doesn't really bother me at all -- gives it a little charm -- and I know that it's not easy to resize a ring and leave the exact bottom of it untouched.

So anyway, it sounds like Mr. Stevens was very nice to work with like I thought he would be, but maybe his employees are not as nice.

And it fits perfectly! It could even be a tad loose (but because of the weight and thickness, it doesn't spin or slide up), but that's good because wearing rings that are too tight bothers me. It slides on and off easily even in the morning or during more bloated times. And it really feels so light.

OK, I really must leave the house and go show my ring off in public.

 

[ClownFishFunk]

What a lovely story and a beautiful ring! Congratulations!!!

 

[hoorray]

Phoenixgirl, Congratulations on your new/old ring -- I love the heirloom part of it, and best wishes on your engagement and the next steps in your life together! Paris is a wonderful city, and now it will have that extra memory for you both.

 

[innerkitten]

By the way I like look of the older stone in the simple modern yellow gold setting. There was one very similar from Neil Lane in the February 2004 issue if InStyle magazine.

 

[wallace]

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Paris, too! Paris is even more superb in the rain somehow... especially since you got a proposal! Everytime I was about to write - I saw a new post from you and the story just got better and better. I got teary-eyed, too. That's just so amazing, that confidence in love, that made your FI write those words all those years ago... two weeks into dating!!! Superb.

 

[luckyhonu]

Awww...how romantic! *Sigh*

Thanks for sharing your pictures and story! I love Paris, and the proposal sounded perfect!

 

[Nicrez]

YAY! And you were all nervous about having to wait!!! See, it's totally worth the wait!!! And even though you knew it was coming, you aren't ever ready for that moment when he asks and your mind goes reeling!

What a good boy! He proposed in a lovely lovely area of France, I love Musee D'Orsay! and he didn't do it on the Eyesore Tower! YAY him! That ring is SO lovely and the stone looks so large on you! Wow! I really wish you could get some close up shots of that...yes I know a vatche x-prong, but I want to see YOUR Vatch. It's so much cooler without the e...

CONGRATS to you BOTH!!! and wear your grandmother's rock and YOUR ring in good health!!!! What a lovely lovely story!!! I swear I was crying over the little note he showed you...I am mentally on this soggy wet stone bench in the green gardens of Frnace and sitting right next to you both crying my eyes out...

YAY FOR YOU!!!!

 

[phoenixgirl]

Thanks so much for the congratulations! I've never gotten so much kudos in my life!

Yes, I'll have to find someone with a macro zoom. I'd only ever seen the x-prong online, and the lines looked thicker to me somehow. The ring is so lithe and light. Plus I've never seen anyone else post a yellow gold x prong here before. So I'll give it another shot (I do have like a zillion shots of my ring where I tried different lighting, no flash, digital zoom, etc., but that shot was sadly one of the best! Usually the diamond is just a blob).

Today was my first day back at work, which was fun (except for when a boy was using his cell phone in class! That got my adrenalin going, and then I wasn't very relaxed for the rest of the day). Anyway, thank you all for the lovely words!

One more thing: He is a musician and avid music lover, so he made an engagement mix. The first song: April in Paris. The last: Chapel of Love ("Going to the chapel . . ."). And then there's this great song called "Question" by the Old 97s (sorry, lyrics reprinted without permission!):

She woke from a dream
Her head was on fire
Why was he so nervous?
He took her to the park
She crossed her arms
And lowered her honor

Someday, somebody's gonna ask you
A question that you should say "yes" to
Once in your life
Baby, tonight I've got a question for you

She'd had no idea
And started to cry
She said "in a good way"
He took her by the hand
Walked her back home
And they took the long way

Someday, somebody's gonna ask you
The question that you should say "yes" to
Once in your life
Maybe tonight I've got a question for you

I've got a question for you...

 

[phoenixgirl]

OK, I''ve got a pic, let''s see if it''s blurry or not . . .

 

[gingerBcookie]

i''m sitting at work all teary eyed and sniffly and ppl are starting to look at me weird.

that was a beautiful story. thanks for sharing.