Surprise! I Took Her Ring Shopping

Bird and I had dinner plans last Friday night but before we got to the restaurant, I surprised her with a trip to the jewelry store.  That’s right, we went ring shopping —> together.

She was very surprised and really happy!

For about a month or so, I have been browsing and researching online and beginning to ask a few of my married friends about their ring shopping experiences.  Based on their feedback and all of your input on this blog, I decided to take Bird with me to a well-respected family-owned jewelry store here in Minneapolis. To be honest, I also brought her with me because I have never been in a jewelery store in my life and I was intimidated.  I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about pushy salesmen and Bird is just a lot better at dealing with people than I am. That’s one of the reasons I love her.

I went into this first experience basically expecting to have a educational experience followed by a sales pitch.  That’s not exactly what we got.

Upon arrival, we were basically told to browse through the display cases. Even after we mentioned that this was our first time and that we were looking for a little guidance, we didn’t get much help. The salesman came around and offered to take a few things out of the cases for us, but other than that, didn’t really offer much help.  We spent about 30 minutes browsing and it became pretty clear that we were not going to be helped any further.  So we left.

At dinner, we talked about our experience and it made me very happy that I decided not to go it alone. Going in, I really didn’t have much of a clue as to what she would want. I assumed that she had thought about this many times and had a good idea of what she wanted. I was wrong! She had no idea what she wanted.

So this little trip was helpful for two reasons:

1. It gave us an overview of what’s out there, allowing us to begin the process of narrowing it down.
2. It let Bird know that I’ve been thinking about this and that it was okay for her to think about it. I told her to keep her eyes open and that she should let me know if she sees anything that she really likes.

Even though our first experience ring shopping was kind of a dud, it was still a worthwhile. In a very admittedly cheesy way, it brought us closer together.

Regarding the actual rings, here’s what I thought going in:

Based on what I know about Bird and her lack of jewelry, I assumed she would probably prefer something more traditional. Perhaps a classic solitaire. I knew yellow gold was out, but I thought she would prefer a plain-ish setting. I also didn’t know exactly what shape of diamond she would like. Two of my female coworkers (who didn’t have a hand in the shopping) ended up with round rocks when they both would have preferred princess cuts. So I wanted to make sure I got it right.

Here’s what I learned:

First and foremost, I learned that I will most likely not be making my purchase at this particular store. Just not impressed. It wasn’t only the service, but we also didn’t see anything that we really loved. The selection was smaller than I expected.
I learned that Bird didn’t really have any idea of what she wanted and that really surprised me. I guess it was good to learn that she didn’t have her heart set on a $25,000 Tiffany ring like another friend of mine does.  After browsing through the stores selection, we determined that Bird preferred round diamonds. I was also surprised to learn that she didn’t really like plain settings.  She preferred the settings with a little bit of sparkle, but not too much. She liked the pave-settings better than the channel-settings.

At dinner, we also talked about diamonds in general and she told me a story about one of her friends. After seeing Blood Diamond, this friend vowed that she would not get a diamond. When she got engaged, she got a sapphire engagement ring. I know many of you commented about the fact that this is becoming more and more popular. Unfortunately for Bird’s friend, it is still not quite popular enough to keep her from having to explain herself EVERY time someone asks to look at the ring. Bird thinks she now kind of regrets her decision. All that to say, we did confirm that we will be going with a diamond.

I guess I forgot to note that we also talked about whether or not she would like a say in the final decision (does she want to pick her ring?) and we decided together that we would shop around for ideas, but the final decision is up to me!

So now that I’ve received some direction from her, I think the next step will be going out again and doing some shopping on my own.  Wish me luck!