The Royal Rings-piration

I've read a lot about the "royal ring" recently. I'm not keen myself but I do like the sentiment. It was Princess Diana's engagement ring, I like that. A hand-me-down always holds its own value within the family. I like to think jewellery has a memory. I, myself have a hand-me-down of sorts. I inherited my Grandmothers solitaire (around 0.60ct if you care to know) and had it for years before finding it a wonderful purpose. I like to think I gave it a new life.

When Lee and I decided to get engaged I knew what I wanted to do but wasn't sure everyone would understand. My Mum had made comment in the past about changing the ring, I worried I might upset her. Lee bought a stand in ring to propose... (tiffany dontcha know ;)) I'll do a whole other post on the proposal if you're interested.

Later I took the diamond from my Grandmothers ring and attended a design day at Ernest Jones (hence me bigging them up all the time)

I loved it! The designer basically took my childlike sketch and recreated it exactly as I pictured it in my mind!

I loved her input.. we got to calculate the costs with different metals and surrounding stones. I settled on two pear shaped amethysts (my birthstone) either side of the diamond and lots of tiny diamonds in the ring mount.

It has a very vintage feel.

I love that the diamond in my ring is so old. It was second hand when my Grandmother got it so it's at least 100 years old and that's lovely to me. I wasn't previously in the family to my knowledge so I have no idea where it came from or what it's seen.. It could have been to fabulous parties or been part of a bigger piece... who knows? It just makes it a little more interesting. Reusing old jewellery in engagement rings has apparenltly become quite popular with the recession and all... This was in part why I did it... although with the ring design costs and the stand in rock it cost as much as new :p

So this is my ring now...

Have any of you reused a family heirloom as an engagement/wedding/eternity ring?

I love the stories so please share :)

And anyone who's had a ring made... you too!!!

xoxo

miss bb



Ring!!!!!

Wow! I was set on the amanda wakely ring but look whats just been added to the ernest jones website at just £135!!!
So cheap and white gold not silver like the aw ring so better!
I can't believe what a great match its is!



Just a reminder...


What do you think????

xoxo

Miss BB

Good News!

I got papers from the court yesterday!!
My decree will be heard on the 6th september, we don't need to attend and unless someone objects we will be divorced 6 weeks later! Yay!
One down, One to go! Lee's is nowhere near that stage unfortunately but I am trying to remain hopeful!!!
:D

xoxo

Miss BB

May/June wedding?

Frustrated isn't the word!
I found out this week that I won't be divorced until January or February at the latest and Lees divorce could be 2 or 3 months later still... ugghhh!! Why does it have to be this difficult?
His ex has caused trouble but mine hasn't so I don't know why it takes so long... whatever, we're trying to remain positive.. just means that the chances of me being pregnant on our wedding day are now a lot higher.. especially as Lee has now had his varicocele emobolisation.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about go and have a look at my babymaking blog..
http://missbbsbabybump.blogspot.com/
So anyway... IF I got pregnant over Christmas it would mean I can't fly after June/July as I would be in my third trimester and Doctors don't advise it.. so if we are going to get married in thr US as we sooo want to then it has to be done by like June but I could have a bump and we MIGHT not be divorced!
I had a dream last night that everything slotted in to place and I couldn't believe my luck. I'd secretly arranged for us to be in New York all of a sudden and filled in all the necassary paperwork etc, big surprise.. then I realise we're not divorced yet and I wake up.
I hate being out of control! It's been made so much worse by the threat of infertility.
It means we really aren't in charge of ANYTHING!
I guess as one of my readers said, doing it all in February would have sucked a little because then all of the special occasions you would celebrate every year would be around the same time... but it was special to us because we got engaged in New York this year on my birthday (4th feb) it would have been really magical to go back and get married.
But hey ho, that's life, I guess it's asking a lot to find the man you actually want to spend your life with and be able to marry him when he wants to marry you...
Rant over.. for now!
I get little bursts of frustration now and then and this is the best forum to vent..
Talking of forums... I wonder when that hater group will pick up on all this... baring in mind what they say about other people they would have a field day with Lee and I getting divorced from out ex's to be together... I will no doubt at some point be branded a "homewrecker" whether is be of my home or his but let it be known now.. That's the one thing they can talk shit about and it won't get a rise..it'll piss me off but I won't argue... how can I? it's an unbelievable story but one day I'll tell it to you.. every detail
For now, thanks for listening and keep your fingers crossed for us :)

xoxo

miss bb

Amanda Wakely @ Ernest Jones

Have you guys seen these goregous Amanda Wakely rings at Ernest Jones?
So gorgeous and an absolute bargain... definitely in the running for a wedding ring... yes I know I know I take forever to make a decision! No decision is final until the deed has been done!

Check these out and let me know what you think
(click the pictures for a closer look)

£75 - Black Diamonds

£99 - Brown Diamonds

£125 - White Diamonds

Each are Silver which is what brings the price down but would you rather pay more for gold and CZs or less for silver and diamonds? The argument is obviously in which is the hearder wearing against your engagement ring but all metals contain such high quantities of alloy now that I doubt it makes that much difference anymore!

There are a couple of other cute pieces in the collection too... oh go on then I'll throw in some pics of those too, however unrelated :p...

£99 - Silver/Leather/Black Diamonds

£350 - Silver and half carat of white diamonds

£399 - silver with half carat of white diamonds

How cute is this stuff???

For those of you that want diamonds without the crazy inflated gold prices this is for you, the link to where you can buy is below

http://www.ernestjones.co.uk/webstore/l/search/?No=0&Ntk=PRIMARY&Ntt=amanda+wakely

xoxo

miss bb

How are we not DIVORCED yet???... and a sidebar rant

I am sooo frustrated right now!!
I can't remember if I told you this but over a month ago my divorce went to a judge who denied it because my ex didn't tick a box that stated I was intolerable to live with... arrghh!!
So.. he went back to the court and filled in yet another form... making sure to tick ALL the boxes this time... but it's been over a month and we've heard nothing! I will be calling the court in the morning for an update but I can't believe I thought I would be divorced by August... October at the latest.. Now I'm thinking my plans for a February wedding are a little far fetched.
As soon as a judge sees our paperwork and signs off on it we have a 6 week wait and then we will be divorced, it's that simple... once it's actually done!
On the other side I have Lees divorce that's nowhere near that stage yet! I put up for my court fees, as agreed with my ex, we agreed also to pay Lees court fees but discovered his ex could get them at a lower rate because of her earnings.. so she ended up applying and getting half off..
We paid the remaining fee and thought all we were waiting for was some paperwork.. weeks went by and nothing. Last week he got a text saying that she was not willing to use her "discount" and that she thought he should have to pay the full fees. WHYYY??? She was basically blackmailing him, I think she knows we plan to get married and is just trying to make things difficult..
In the end I said if we had to wait we'd have to wait but i wasn't going to be blackmailed. At the end of the day she is divorcing him and officially she would pay the fees, we have agreed to pay them because he left her and she's pretty angry about it.. but it's not like it was a couple of months ago it was like 2 years..
So it came down to us saying we would claim the money we'd paid back and wait till she really wanted a divorce then she'd have to pay for it.. at this point she backed off and said she would deal with it.
Turns out she's had the papers a while and just hadn't sent them back to the solicitors.. nightmare!

Sometime it's tough to be angry at her because in he position I know alot of people would do the same thing but you would think you would know that your marriage wasn't working!
I didn't have an affair with he husband (although I'm sure she believes otherwise) He left her and started seeing me. My ex dealt with it and is perfectly civil, we still parent Ella as a team and when I compare him with Lees ex I just can't feel sorry for her. She really is horrible... but then I would say that wouldn't I , I'm the "other woman"... I hate that BTW.
Not quite what I wanted from my life but if you meet the love of your life and you're married to other people... are you supposed to just continue as you are? We didn't do anything wrong, nobody cheated on anyone, we just weren't in love anymore and when that happens someone always gets hurt.

I didn't intend this post to run so deep... it was only really supposed to be a rant about divorce but I have a lot of stuff bubbling under the surface that gets away from me sometimes.

I think I've been pretty honest about the situatuion on the whole but have no doubt it will lose me "fans", "followers" and "subscribers" by being open... not everyone agrees with what we did but I'm past caring. You're supposed to live your life for you, nobody else, whatever you do you should at least try to be happy where you can and no matter what frustrations I have... I am the happiest in a relationship I've ever been.
I like being able to share stuff with you guys and would love to hear your stories!

xoxo

miss BB

TOPSHOP to the rescue?

I accidentally posted this on my beauty blog (oohps)

So I'm reposting here, where it's a little more relevent..

You guys know I have been on the look out for a warmer dress to wear incase we can get married in NYC in February (cold weather there dontcha know!) I had a really pretty dress picked out from next (budget!) and so I didn't want to spend a fortune but I wanted a similar style and I think I've found it. This is kind of a sheath/shift dress from good old topshop, retails around £50 if I rememer correctly and it's short with long sleeves (as the next one) but it's a much thicket material and it has some nice bridal bling..

Check out the cuff bling... can't go wrong!!

I plan to go back soon and try it on... will of course twitpic

(follow me on twitter @msbudgetbeauty)

and subsequently post on this blog...

Any suggestions welcome

xoxo

miss bb