This here is a reason to get married all by itself!

The ring.

It has become the symbol of love, devotion, and promise of fidelity forever.  And the styles of rings vary as much as the people who buy them and wear them!  You've got your simple, small wedding band folks, and you've got your 17 carat diamond rings that come with their own time zone folks.  

I'll tell you, when we first started entertaining the idea of maybe getting hitched, I never thought I'd be emotional about a ring.  I honestly didn't really even care that much.  Only that it shouldn't make my sausage fingers look even more sausagey than they already do.  That's not a lot of criteria when it comes to wedding rings.  I know.  I've been educated.

The day we went to look for a ring also happened to be the day after one of my dearest friend's wedding.  Which was just coincidence, really.  We just both happened to be in the same place at the same time.  Superman works swing shift/nights, and I work in the day.  We also live about 70 miles from civilization.  So being in the same place at the same time in the city during business hours takes nothing short of an act of Congress.  

It started as an innocent trip to the Verizon store to check out new phones.  SM is due for an upgrade and we figured we'd poke around before heading back home to the boonies.  We spent a few minutes there ogling the new iPhones, until I felt a strong urge to release my inner Veruca Salt (..."but I want an new iPhone, NOW!").  It's this sort of behavior that makes SM pretend he doesn't know me and hightail it out of establishments such as these.  I don't understand him sometimes.  

Anyway.

In the same strip mall complex thing was a jewelry store.  SM hesitated by the car for a moment, and then nodded his head in the direction of the store and said, "let's go in there for a minute." 

Are you ready for it?

HE WENT TO JARED!

(snicker...) 

Hahahaha...tee hee hee...hehehehehe...

Hoo.

Okay, I'm done.  Sorry, I can't help myself.  

Anyway, the jewelry store happened to be a Jared jewelry store.  So we went in (TO JARED!).  And were promptly, and thoroughly, molested by the staff.  Would we like a cappuccino?  Could they escort us around the each display case in the store?  Was there something specific we were looking for?  Would we be interested in providing our names, addresses, phone numbers and social security numbers?  WOULD WE LIKE TO COME HOME WITH THEM AND BE BEST FRIENDS FOREVER?!?!?!

We left about thirty seconds later.  

After going out to lunch and discussing this a little more, we decided to go to another store in town that seemed like it might be slightly less pretentious than going TO JARED!

We headed over the west corner of highway 217 and Scholls Ferry Rd to a place that is open Monday through Friday till 8, Saturday and Sunday till 5.  

(Did you catch that?  I'm so clever.)

As soon as we walked into the Shane Company we knew we were in the right place.  These were our kind of people here.  The salesman who approached us (after giving us about 5 or 6 minutes to acclimate ourselves) was extremely laid back and acted like he could really care less if we bought something from him or not.  In other words, he was our new best friend forever.  

He asked us if we had anything in mind, and I pointed out a few rings that I fancied.  He said he'd give us a few minutes to poke around and he'd go gather a few rings he thought we might like based on what I pointed out.  I distinctly remember walking around those glass cases and thinking that several of the rings were very pretty, and if we were really LOOKING, looking, I might like to have a closer look-see.  

Then the sales guy came back with three rings.  AND YOU GUYS.  Sitting on that little velvet tray was one of the most exquisite diamond rings I've ever seen.  SM immediately picked it up and said, "this is the one."  Just like that.  Like it was a no-brainer.  

I mean, don't get me wrong, it was breathtaking.  But we're talking about something I'm supposed to wear forever.  Something like that deserves a bit more thought, right?  I mean, that's like walking into a tattoo parlor in New Orleans one night in the middle of Mardi Gras, drunk out of your mind, and saying I want a tattoo of Tony the Tiger to cover my entire torso.  Because that's something you'll definitely still want when you're 80 and wrinkly.

Sales Guy asked if there were other rings I had seen that I wanted to look at.  I knew there were.  I remember seeing them.  But as I walked around the cases, I could't find any that were even remotely as pretty as the one I'd just seen.  I couldn't find any of the ones I remember liking before.  

So Sales Guy took us back to the tray with the pretty ring in it, and put a diamond in the middle of it.  I saw what Superman already was seeing.  And he was right.  This was the one.  THE ONE.  I got a little emotional about it too!  I was shocked at myself!  It's just a ring! But it's The Ring.

The One Ring to Rule Them All.  

Sales Guy went to go find Sales Girl who was apparently going to show us various diamonds we could purchase.  That was an interesting experience as well.  Who knew there could be such variation in little, tiny rocks that were exactly the same size?

Kind of like people, I suppose.  

(That was your Touchy-Feely Moment of the Day.  Brought to you by the Sales Girl at the Shane Company.  And Tony the Tiger.)

After looking through a few different diamonds, SM picked one (the man has exceptional taste!) and I agreed it was lovely.  But alas, given the nature of my aforementioned sausage fingers, the ring had to be special ordered.  So we won't get it for 6-8 weeks.  We're currently in week 2, and my inner Veruca is threatening a jailbreak.  

I'll post photos when it arrives.  

Until then...

Princess Kisses,

AB

Wherein I have an anxiety attack

I'm not one who has ever been accused of being good at planning.  I'm much more of a fly by the seat of someone else's pants kind of girl.  Once someone points me in the general direction of what needs to happen, I'm good.  But getting to that point is often difficult and painful for me.

Case in point: choosing a wedding date.  The more I get into this whole wedding planning bit, the more I realize we probably should have thought this whole thing through a little more.  Like, wait.  You mean we have to DO things?  PLAN things?  Uhh...right.

It's thinking like that which took us 7 years to get here.  Which made us realize we needed to rip off the Band-Aid and do it.  My mom came out (three cheers for Mom!) and made us sit down.  We needed it.

Sitting down at the table looking into two deer in the headlights, she broke it down for us.

"Let's pick a month," she said.

Okay.  Sure.  There are only 12 to choose from.  How hard can that be?

January?  No, too close to Christmas.

February?  Absolutely not!  No Valentine's Day wedding for this Anti-Bride.  I'm all for putting up with the Princess wedding but I've got to put my foot down somewhere.  (I should mention that Superman agreed February was too barfy, even by his standards.)

March?  Eh.  Too cold.  Plus it's March.  Beware the Ides of March and such.

April?  Super rainy, and SM wants photos.  Outside.  In the sunshine.

May?  Maybe, except that May was the month we were making all these decisions, and a year seemed like way too much time for us to wait and probably back out of this whole little operation.  We're ripping off the Band-Aid, remember?

June?  July?  August?  Also possibilities, but again, then we're looking at over a year.  See above comment on AB and SM bailing out.

September?  We have family with kids who would be starting school then.  That would make it a little hectic for them.  I think there was another reason here too, but I forgot.

October is six months away.  That seems like a splendid time!  SM even suggested we carve pumpkins as part of the unity ceremony.  That was really funny until I started retching in his direction.  There will be no pumpkin carving at this event.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.

October it is!

Wait.

OCTOBER IT IS!!!  (Insert panic attack in three...two...one...)

That's six months away and my ring isn't due to arrive for another six weeks and that means we're going to have to tell everyone and that means people will be asking questions about when and where andIhavetofindadressandwehavetofindaplacetogoand...

...you can see how the rest of the afternoon went.

I think we might need to crack open those cases of wine a little earlier than anticipated.

Please send limes.  And tequila.

Love, AB

OMG We're Getting Married!

After nearly 7 years of dating, this was a sentence I never thought I'd be saying.  In fact, for approximately 7 years I vehemently rejected the entire concept of marriage!

Nope.  Not getting married.

Thank you for playing.

And in the event that I accidentally did agree to get married, it was most definitely going to be the result of a long night of drinking, and would involve Elvis and a Drive-Thru Chapel somewhere in Vegas.

Alas, through a series of unfortunate events (which will not be detailed here in order to protect the innocent), Vegas was not to be.

(Sniff.)

Instead, we're going to have a wedding!!  There will be feathers and rhinestones and pearls (oh, my!).  And you, the fabulous folks of the Internets, get to come along for the ride!

Seriously though.  So far, the Internets have been a plethora of fantastic ideas and inspirations.  And since I am shamelessly stealing ideas from other people, it's only fair that I put my own ideas out there to be pillaged for others' use.  Unless my idea is especially brilliant.  In which case I will copyright said idea and pursue offenders to the fullest extent of the law.

That's all for now.

See you at the altar!

Love, The Anti-Bride