Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Patience was never my strong suit

Feeling a little disappointed right now. I called our jeweler today and he said that while I should check back with him tomorrow to make sure, our rings probably won't be ready until after we get back from our trip to Ottawa. I knew that it was a bit of a stretch to hope we would get them before we left, as they're being made from scratch, but I was still hoping to be able to wear them in Ottawa and show them to my aunt and family! Oh well. He says they should definitely be ready by the time we get back, and so I guess that this way we will be able to pick them up together rather than going alone.

Still wish I could find a picture of them, as the style is unique and I haven't really seen anything else like them. Soon I guess....just not too good at all the sitting on my hands and waiting!

Oh, by the way...Mom...we'd like Strawberry cheesecake and Mocha layer cake instead of store-bought, traditional, tiered wedding cake, okay? Taste trumps inedible "decoration" any day! :)

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Finally!

We found my rings this weekend! I'm so excited about it. On a tip from a friend who just got married, we took a trip down to Miami to the Seybold Jewelry Building. We've lived here for four years, but are so unfamilar with Miami that we didn't know this whole "jewelry district" even existed...besides this building there are tons of other jewelry stores and centres in this area. After a couple hours of browsing the different stores, trying on various styles and sets, we ended up in Richard's Gems and Jewelry, where we finally found something right.

It's a little hard to explain exactly what it looks like...we got a set with an engagement ring and a matching band. We chose the centre stone separately--Princess cut, .59 carats, graded H for colour and VS1 for clarity. On the sides of the engagement ring, and across the band, tiny round diamonds alternate with baguettes set lengthwise. Total carat weight is just over 1c. It kind of looks like the band in the picture below, except on my rings the stones are channelset with a thin milgrain edge:

The set we looked at was in platinum, but we chose to get it made in 14k white gold instead (what can I say...too much Thomas Covenant at too young an age set me on having white gold a long time ago). The ultimate effect is a little bit antique, a little bit modern--not too flashy or fussy but with more detail to discover after the first casual glance. We should have them in time for our trip to Ottawa, so I can start showing the engagement ring off to my family members then. When we get them, we'll take a picture so that we can post it here and you can see what they really look like.

Needless to say I am very glad we finally found the right rings. Between not having a ring, not having made a formal announcement of our engagement to many of our friends yet (we decided to wait until after our friends' wedding to spread the news openly), and not being able to make any concrete wedding plans before finding out the status of our UAE applications, I was really starting to feel stuck in limbo. Hopefully, with the Al-Ain interviews coming up soon too, we will finally be able to get things in motion!

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Here is the photo of the dress Michael mentioned in his last post.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Blustery Update

This is our first posting with the wedding countdown banner! Thanks to Darcy for posting the last few blogs. I have had no excuse for not posting other than I haven't made time for it. I'm at work on my day off (see my personal blog if you're interested) and should really be at home. Hurricane Charley is looming west about 170 miles so it is quite windy here. Anyway I'm glad that Darcy compiled a webliography of wedding books she's checked out. Bear in mind she's read most of them! However, I think my favorite one is The Budget Wedding Sourcebook by Barilla. I especially like the Budget Blueprint chapter and its ten categories. One column lists the product/service, another column has the estimated price and the last column has the actual price. I need to photocopy the checklist.

I guess there really isn't much of an update for our wedding plans. We've been engaged two and a half months but haven't been able to make many concrete decisions. Darcy is right that we could start on creating our wedding vows. Neither of us want biblical references but I would like to have some Pagan comments. One book we looked at discussed Pagan ceremonies that incorporated elements from other religions. Darcy and I have discussed a bit about what we may wear. I've only seen one magazine ad for wedding dress that I really liked. It was not your traditional fluffy, poofy thing. I'd have to have the picture in front of me to describe it. Apparently it was the same advertisement that Darcy's Mom had seen!

My Dad sent me links to three tent sites in Edmonton. There is Special Event Rentals, Big Top Rentals, Superior Show Services, and Event Ready Rentals and Services. I think my Dad rented supplies from Special Events Rentals for his wedding to Heather in 1997. It was a nice big tent they had in their backyard. This should be something that I can plan with my Dad's help.

We've also looked in more stores for rings but have not had much luck. Darcy bugs me that I should have picked one out for her beforehand. But I'm glad I didn't because I would have likely chosen something she wouldn't have liked. She could have returned it but it would have felt strange doing it. There have been a few that I've liked but I forget the metal that is used with the gold. It's gun metal grey and very light weight. A few have a gold strip inlaid and others have had a wavey design. The traditional plain bands are nice too but I think I want something a bit different. Darcy mentioned the option of just buying her ring without a rock and buying one online. Stores online have money back guarantees (assuming we feel comfortable with the website). There have been testamonials about people getting good deals online. If we don't suddenly buy a diamond ring here we can shop at Birks in Ottawa in a couple of weeks.

We wish we could have a date settled and begin planning but that is contingent on our fate with securing jobs at the UAE library. If we're not hired then we'll have the ceremony on August 6, 2005. If we are hired then we would likely move the ceremony back to perhaps Christmas. So the waiting continues...

Sunday, August 01, 2004

This Just In!

After some deliberation, we have changed our wedding date from Sunday August 7th to Saturday the 6th. We hope that this will make things easier for the out-of-town people to relax and enjoy the party without having to worry about the drive home! We had just started to get attached to the idea of an outdoor evening wedding when I talked to my mom and she said one word: Mosquitos. So we are back to figuring that the festivities will start in the late morning, and continue into the afternoon.

Also, Michael suggested we create a bibliography of all the wedding planning books we've read so far. I know, I know, librarians are geeks :)